mixing Bichirs, can you or not?????

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Sarmo

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2011
269
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31
SouthWest MT
hey all, i started my tank with 4 bichirs. they were all with in an inch of the same length. i had an ornate, ender X2 and an albino senegal. now i have one, the ornate. he/it ate the others. i actually saw him swimming around with one of the others hanging about an inch out of his mouth. :cry: should have gotten a picture....

i have seen lots of pics with tanks that had multiple polys and mixed species. so what is the secret? or was it luck on the others part and Polys are mostly a one fish per tank fish???

thanks for any help you can give
 
I mixed a large ornate with a smaller senegal for a couple of years without issues. that was my experience mixing And would do same if sizes are equal
 
Most of the time it should be okay. I have my 7" Senigal in with a 10" Ornate. Never had any problems. I also have a 5" Delhezi in with a 3" Endli in my grow out tank. I have never had any problems there either. I plan to put all four bichirs in my show tank when the little guys hit 7"-8". Tough luck man, that sucks.
 
Mine were all within 4" of each other in length. What concerned me was the difference in girth. My ornate and lapradei (both females) were easily 3x the diameter of the male senegal and male delhezi. The lapradei could easily have taken either as lunch, but it never seemed to be an issue, despite warnings that they can be an aggressive species.

My group was kept in relative peace for ~ 5 years. Not sure how this compares with others experience.

O
 
wow! i must have the meanest bugger ever!!!! i have several clown loaches and they were thin when i got them so i have been feeding a lot. cut up worms, blood worms, shrimp pellets, sinking massavore pellets. i saw all the polys eating so i know they were getting fed well. i have a drip going 24/7 and does probable 50+ gallons per day, water change, so i don't worry about over feeding.
on the up side it looks like the ornate had tripled in size :) but that almost makes it worse as now i don't know if i should even try to add others? the LFS i got him from still has an ornate that came in with the one i got. i checked him out today and he is probably 1" smaller and half a thick as mine. if it matter mine is 5-6" now.
based on the size difference of mine and the one at the LFS i think it is getting enough to eat......
maybe i need to add larger Polys? where can i find them that will ship?

thanks
 
It depends. My big ornate ate two senegals that were half his size...on the other hand he shows no interest in the ornate female and the 2 endlicheri so far.
 
i need to update this. turns out my bichir is not an ornate but it is an endlicheri. does that make any difference in the other bichirs i can keep with it? here is a bad pic.
IMG_2090 - Copy.JPG

thanks

IMG_2090 - Copy.JPG
 
i have in my grow out tank a earthworm sized ornate with a pretty fat del that could prolly take him any time if he felt the need but i keep him fat and happy. In my other tank i have a moke with a hybrid ansorgii about the same size but the hybrid is way fatter, been thinkin about addin my del but the ansorgii could easily make a snack outta him.
 
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