One Bichir eating another

[Youngmom2013]

I have a tank with one opal gourami, a Bichir that is about two and a half or three inches (I can't think of what specific type it is... It's the one that looks silver with some black markings), and another smaller Bichir that looks almost completely black, which from what I understand means he's at least part ornate and probably blind.

So everyone was getting along fine until this morning I find the larger Bichir with the smaller Bichir in his mouth by his middle. He ended up being okay, but I want to know what my options are. Could I put the smaller Bichir in a quarantine type box inside the tank and try to power feed him to get him to grow bigger and catch up in size to the other one?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you guys.

 

[tlindsey]

I have a tank with one opal gourami, a Bichir that is about two and a half or three inches (I can't think of what specific type it is... It's the one that looks silver with some black markings), and another smaller Bichir that looks almost completely black, which from what I understand means he's at least part ornate and probably blind.

So everyone was getting along fine until this morning I find the larger Bichir with the smaller Bichir in his mouth by his middle. He ended up being okay, but I want to know what my options are. Could I put the smaller Bichir in a quarantine type box inside the tank and try to power feed him to get him to grow bigger and catch up in size to the other one?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you guys.

What are the species of the 2 Bichir?
I would separate in the quarantine tank or breeder box until the smaller one got bigger.
I grew little albino Senegal up in a breeder box until it was large enough not to fit in the other Bichir's mouth.

 

[Deadeye]

Sounds like the larger guy is a delhezi or endli. Endli is large and aggressive, del gets smaller than an ornate. Only thing safe to do is separate. Being blind it may be best to always keep separate to avoid risk of further issues.

 

[clm08k]

If it can fit in its mouth, definitely separate for a while, or else the problem will most likely continue. If you do not have an additional tank set up, you can always use a tank divider temporarily. In the past, I have used a $10 egg crate/light diffuser -purchased from Lowe's- to separate my moke from my del. Ultimately, I had to put the moke in a smaller tank for a bit, but the divider helped until I could get things set- up.

Here are some pics as to what it looks like:
tank divider: random one I found on amazon. They also sell them at Lowe's and other hardware stores as an " egg crate light diffuser." If you search for it in google here are some pics that come up.

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Potato Patatto]

This is about your only option other than separating, you can get a fry net.

 

[Caveden]

Sounds like the larger guy is a delhezi or endli. Endli is large and aggressive, del gets smaller than an ornate. Only thing safe to do is separate. Being blind it may be best to always keep separate to avoid risk of further issues.

He had another thread before, the bigger bichir was an ornate / hybrid. The smaller bichir probably is a delhezi or senegal

 

[Deadeye]

He had another thread before, the bigger bichir was an ornate / hybrid. The smaller bichir probably is a delhezi or senegal

I think he was saying the smaller guy was the black one.