My favorite weirdos (bichir tank video)

[magpie]

Love these descriptors so much! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Binge]

Im hoping my current female matches your sammy some day she is currently 10 -11" and about 3-4 years old and also very very thick. Thanks for sharing a lot of keepers do not love sens the way I do glad to see someone that does !

 

[Chi-Chi]

Im hoping my current female matches your sammy some day she is currently 10 -11" and about 3-4 years old and also very very thick. Thanks for sharing a lot of keepers do not love sens the way I do glad to see someone that does !

She looks great! She and Sammy both have that "power hump" behind the head; I love how it makes them look like beluga whales or something.

Sounds like you've got a special fish.

 

[Binge]

Yeah her head always sets a bit low like that she swims very well for her bulk also. Have had smaller sens that were way more clumsy.

By the way the albino will likely stay short it is very common for them mine capped around 7 inches.

 

[Chi-Chi]

By the way the albino will likely stay short it is very common for them mine capped around 7 inches.

Good to know! I'm surprised I've never heard this.

 

[clm08k]

Thanks, everyone!



Here's a rundown of the fish in that setup at the moment:

• P. senegalus ("Sammy")
• P. senegalus (albino; "Han Solo")
• P. delhezi x2 ("Gately" and "Lenore")
• P. palmas palmas ("Maurice")
• P. lapradei ("Dmitri")
• P. lapradei sp. koloton (the one missing a left pectoral fin; "Nikolai")
• E. calabaricus ("Rufus")

So Sammy (the huge senegal) deserves a whole post of her own; I'll separate that as a response to the next question. Other than that, some notes on this motley group:

We've had Han Solo (albino senegal) for about a year and a half; he's extremely inquisitive and has a really sweet temperament, but hasn't grown very much. He eats very healthily, and he's got a great sense of smell, so I'm thinking he might just be genetically a bit of a shortie. Doesn't seem to matter to him, though; he parades around with Sammy for at least 15 hours of the day. They're like a couple of dogs or something.

The delhezis came at the same time. Lenore (the lighter one with very few bands) is beautiful but sort of reclusive; her "brother" Gately is a bruiser. He's the best krill-snatcher I've probably ever had. He stays pretty low in the tank until the moment the krill hit the water—then he launches like a freakin' Tomahawk.

Maurice, the palmas, is an incredibly elegant animal. He's actually really peaceful. He behaves a little more like a lower-jaw bichir than some of the other upper-jaws I've had through the years; he likes to stake out a territory and kind of lumber around until it's time to either reposition himself or swim. Luckily, that territory is often on top of plants and decor, so he's very visible. He has lots of green on his back, which is pretty gorgeous.

The lapradeis are really special to me. Nikolai was mislabeled as a senegal; I told the LFS that they could probably get a lot more for him than what they were charging me, but they gave him to me for a song anyways. He's very regal. The koloton is the newest member of the posse (got him about six months ago; he has more than doubled in TL since then). I have no idea what happened to his pectoral fin, but I do know that that "defect" convinced the LFS to sell him to me for $70. Which—considering he's one of the rarest variants in the whole bichir scene—was pretty hard to pass up. He's a very social fish, especially for a lap. And he swims ridiculously because of the missing fin, so he's adorable. He actually eats quite well, and retains some mobility.

The ropefish, Rufus, is freakin' cute. He rounds out the tank really well.



Yeah, that's Sammy—she's a born star. We've been together for about 11 years; she's actually the whole reason I got really into fish-keeping in the first place. She's probably about 13" TL or so, but what's most impressive is her girth. I think she must have something strange going on genetically; she eats more than twice what any other bichir I've had eats, but she's almost in constant motion (except when she's sleeping). She just metabolizes like a little dinosaur or something.

She's also noticeably smarter than pretty much any fish I've had (including cichlids). She recognizes different members of the family, watches television when it's on, responds to music being played in the room, goes to different strata of the tank depending on which bag of food she sees (floating vs. sinking), etc. She's a really special animal.

thank you for sharing all this with us. Sammy definitely is a born star and definitely special. 13 years is a long time, I hope to get my polys to that age!

Can't wait to get to know the gang more and see their personalities in action. It is so neat being able to have fish with such individuality!

 

[clm08k]

Yeah her head always sets a bit low like that she swims very well for her bulk also. Have had smaller sens that were way more clumsy.

By the way the albino will likely stay short it is very common for them mine capped around 7 inches.

oh wow! I thought they were supposed to be a foot long. Although, haven't seen maybe big ones. I know there's a variation called "shortbodied." Not sure if that is the same thing or not?

 

[Binge]

If you look around the internet dang near every post you find about albino sens is about how short they all are.

 

[Chi-Chi]

thank you for sharing all this with us. Sammy definitely is a born star and definitely special. 13 years is a long time, I hope to get my polys to that age!

Can't wait to get to know the gang more and see their personalities in action. It is so neat being able to have fish with such individuality!

Thanks! I'll post more videos once they're in their new setup (with a better camera, too).

 

[Chi-Chi]

If you look around the internet dang near every post you find about albino sens is about how short they all are.

Yeah, I'm definitely starting to notice this now. I'm sure there's a genetic reason for this. A co-morbidity with the albinism or something. I bet there's a great doctoral dissertation sitting in there somewhere, if anyone's looking for a topic.