My tank- need advice on bichir growth!

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Ponera

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2012
341
23
48
Calgary, Alberta
So I have a 29 gallon with gravel substrate and lots of caves. I have a random mix of fish, 2 of which were saved from tanks they were bullied in.

I have:

1 10cm long senegal bichir male
1 Half grown Guianacara
1 N. brichardi
1 Mbuna red zebra cichlid

Strangely, they don't bite each other at all. The brichardi and Guinacara actually share a cave that they excavated. The red zebra often has showdowns with the Guianacara but no chasing or biting. I'm surprised it's working, but it is!

Anyways, I want to know what I can do to get my bichir larger. He eats twice per day, anything from cichlid pellets to live feeders. He drives the food in, but doesn't seem to be growing fast. What could the issue be? I do water changes weekly.
 
Ponera said:
So I have a 29 gallon with gravel substrate and lots of caves. I have a random mix of fish, 2 of which were saved from tanks they were bullied in.

I have:

1 10cm long senegal bichir male
1 Half grown Guianacara
1 N. brichardi
1 Mbuna red zebra cichlid

Strangely, they don't bite each other at all. The brichardi and Guinacara actually share a cave that they excavated. The red zebra often has showdowns with the Guianacara but no chasing or biting. I'm surprised it's working, but it is!

Anyways, I want to know what I can do to get my bichir larger. He eats twice per day, anything from cichlid pellets to live feeders. He drives the food in, but doesn't seem to be growing fast. What could the issue be? I do water changes weekly.
Click to expand...

Senegals only grow to about that size, especially if it is captive bred. Even the wild versions only get to about 12 or 13 inches


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Correction: He is 11 cm (approx) which puts him in at 4 inches. He is SUPER active, swimming around like crazy. He eats constantly, but I can't seem to get him to grow as fast as people suggest he should be growing.
 
Ponera said:
Correction: He is 11 cm (approx) which puts him in at 4 inches. He is SUPER active, swimming around like crazy. He eats constantly, but I can't seem to get him to grow as fast as people suggest he should be growing.
Click to expand...

Oops! My bad haha, they are fairly slow growers at the beginning and then they will hit a growth spurt, just takes time! Feeding silversides can help growth also


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Will feeding larger prey items instead of smaller ones help? I noticed with geckos and other lizards that they get a spurt when you change the size of prey (but not necessarily the volume; so instead of like 10 small guppies I can feed him a medium sized minnow)
 
Ponera said:
Will feeding larger prey items instead of smaller ones help? I noticed with geckos and other lizards that they get a spurt when you change the size of prey (but not necessarily the volume; so instead of like 10 small guppies I can feed him a medium sized minnow)
Click to expand...

Well, for the first part, you should probably stop feeding feeders. Otherwise, I don't think the size matters. They do a thing called stuffing where they will thrash their bodies around so that they can fit as much food in their stomachs as possible. So what you could do is intentionally over feed so that he can eat his full fill and take the extra food out after he is done


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What is wrong with feeder fish? I tend not to get them from a scummy pet store and prefer the best one in town. Never had issues from that store.
 
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