New to Bichirs, need opinions on tank mates

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
i would ditch the tetras. Most of you guys will disagree but the bichirs will definately eat them once they get older. i've had a 3 inch albino bichir gobble up a 1.5 inch minnow! Bichirs are faster than you think they are anbush predators in the dark.

A good stock list is

1 albino
2 del or palmas or one of each
1 poly mokebelambe rare!
1 ctentopama
1 elephant nose or knife.
 
JustinDavis said:
Not with my experience but then again all fish are different. I would agree with you though that he should stick to small Bichirs since he's adding Tetras.
:headbang2
Senegals are awesome anyway!
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Any upper jaw bichir species at 9" are able to take down fish that are 4-4.5". My palmas polli before at 11" took down a 9" BGK. 12" delhezi took down a 7.5" armatus. 12" senegal took down a 4.5" midas cichlid. If you been keeping bichirs for 10 years and experimented with many tank mates you'll find out. Bichirs are harmless during lights on but during long hours of darkness is where they show how capable of taking fish that are bigger than their mouth.

One of the private african fish exporter here use 2-3" congo tetras as feeders for his 8-9" bichirs.
 
I would go with the delhezi, senegals, elephant nose, and probably the ctentompa. the sens alone with be active most of the time and then you can making "hiding" spots so that the elephant nose and ctentompa will be in plain sight, or at least that is what I did with my leopard ctentompa and bgk
 
lix.ma14 said:
i would ditch the tetras. Most of you guys will disagree but the bichirs will definately eat them once they get older. i've had a 3 inch albino bichir gobble up a 1.5 inch minnow! Bichirs are faster than you think they are anbush predators in the dark.

A good stock list is

1 albino
2 del or palmas or one of each
1 poly mokebelambe rare!
1 ctentopama
1 elephant nose or knife.
Click to expand...

The Ctentopama would get to big and would bully the Elephant nose, but as of now I have a Ctentopama and a Knife together and they're best buds.
 
King-eL said:
Any upper jaw bichir species at 9" are able to take down fish that are 4-4.5". My palmas polli before at 11" took down a 9" BGK. 12" delhezi took down a 7.5" armatus. 12" senegal took down a 4.5" midas cichlid. If you been keeping bichirs for 10 years and experimented with many tank mates you'll find out. Bichirs are harmless during lights on but during long hours of darkness is where they show how capable of taking fish that are bigger than their mouth.

One of the private african fish exporter here use 2-3" congo tetras as feeders for his 8-9" bichirs.
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I didn't mean to say you were wrong and it would never happen I'm just saying it's a risk I would take. Congo Tetras can really make a tank look nice and that every fish has a different attitude towards others. I had one Bichir that took down every Tetra I put in there and others that wouldn't even look at them. But to sum up I would agree with you that there's a potential they will become food.
 
JamesF said:
Everyone seems stuck on the idea that there is only one species of Ctenopoma. There are many species of many different sizes. Look around at some of the other options.
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Yes there are many species and my favorite is Ctenopoma ansorgii but they do not grow big. Ctenopoma acutirostre (Leopard bushfish) and ctenopoma kingsleyae (Tail-spot bushfish) are the two that grows bigger at 8.5" for leopard bushfish and 10" for tail-spot bushfish. I had 3 leopard bush fish before at 8"+. They usually slow down at 6". I know that there are two more that grows to the same size as the leopard bushfish but forgot the names. The rest of the ctenopoma maxes out 6" or smaller.

Just be careful, as they have that very pointy spines that if you're bichir plans to swallow it both fish could die. However when I first had my leopard bushfish introduced at 6"+, they were never harmed by my fish even my snakeheads and catfish that could easily swallow them. They later grew to 8"+ but due to the slow movement, they always get out compete for food. If they do grabbed some prawn or any food, the other fish would took the food out of the bushfish's mouth. I had to gave them away to a friend who set up an african theme tank. They are very cool fish to own if you plan to get them.

They should be safe in your tank. Keep a single bushfish and it will become aggressive toward the tankmates. Keep more than 2 and they become mellow. Best to get 3-5 or more as they hang out together and will sometimes fallow my oscars to join the group. So that would replace your congo tetra. Mine used to pretend as part of the fake bamboo plants by resting with their head down toward the fake plants and tail up outward.
 
Alright guys, after looking at some of these comments i've changed my stock once again.

3 x Polypterus Delhezi / Senegalus (Depending on which ones I can get, most likely Senegals. or maybe even a combination of both if it's possible)
1 x Peters Elephant nose
1 x Synodontis / Pictus Castfish
Also was thinking of getting some silver dollars. I'm not too fond of spotted climbing perches so those are out of the question. I'm still open for all suggestions, but I'm definitely getting the bichirs, elephant nose, and syno/pictus.
 
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, sans-serif]Alright I think that this is the stock i'll be going with.
1 x Peters elephant nose[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, sans-serif]2 or 3 x Polypterus Senegalus[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, sans-serif]2 x Pictus/4 line Pimelodella Catfish[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, sans-serif]5 x African Butterfly[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS, sans-serif]2 x Ropefish

I think that this is about as big as I can go before overstocking. I'm just curious, won't the senegals get big enough to eat the butterflies? I've never had them before but from what I've seen they don't get too big. Also taking more suggestions on what I should do to the stock.[/FONT]
 
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