My Senegal Bichir wont eat

[Luxauterna]

Hey all, I have about a 3 in. Senegal Bichir, that started out eating great. I was feeding him small night crawlers cut in half by tongs and he was aggressive and assertive with them. For the last few days, he will not touch them. So I tried switching to bloodworms. I got the frozen squares that come apart in water, but the other fish pick at them. By the time the worms hit the bottom, he still doesnt show much interest, or has a hard time finding them.

Any advice?

 

[Madding]

Try a sinking pellet. Most bichirs will take to them happily.

 

[Luxauterna]

Yea, I've tried the massivore sinking pellets, but he hasnt been eating those either. Plus , my pleco gets those and pushes everyone else out of the way.

 

[A. gigas]

size tank? mates?

 

[scriving]

sometimes they will go on hunger strikes

 

[McFall]

market shrimp work good for me!

 

[Luxauterna]

tank is 75 gal, he shares his tank with 3 gouramis, 4 roseys, african butterfly, small tinfoil barb, and a 9in common plec

 

[oakley1984]

i signed up to this site just to respond to this!!

take your bichir out of the tank, put in a quarentine/hospital tank, starve him for a week and get some guppy fry, feed it live food for a week or 2 until it regains its appatite then start supplementing his diet with carnivore pellets/bloodworms/earthworms/freezedried brine shrimp, slowly wean off live food until it will accept any of these on a daily basis, then reintroduce live food to its diet, live food is ESSENTIAL for a bichir to grow up happy!

 

[GarNiac]

I wouldn't worry much about that, bichirs can go long without food, but what you should be worrying is the pleco and other tankmates harassing your bichirs,
plecos have bad reputations, its best to remove them,
sen usually will accept anything, so just give him sometimes.

 

[oakley1984]

I wouldn't worry much about that, bichirs can go long without food, but what you should be worrying is the pleco and other tankmates harassing your bichirs,
plecos have bad reputations, its best to remove them,
sen usually will accept anything, so just give him sometimes.

very much so ditch any sort of pleco, catfish etc, they Love to suck on the slime coat of bichirs, makes for unhappy/unhealthy fish