Ornate bichir don't seem to he growing at all.

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Ca5566

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2021
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So i got 3 bichir some time back over the course of3 months. First it was a lap, then it was the ornate and lastly a delhezi. When the delhezi came home all 3 were similar in size.. now its like 2x longer than the ornate and ornate didnt seem to be growing at all..

seeking information on this and im pretty sure the ornate is eating afterall having survived 3 months in this tank..

Their diet involves hikari sinking pellets and sinking carnivor pellets every few days frozen tilapia fillet cubes and once in awhile live ghost shrimps when i feed my fire eel

The lap and the del are both growing healthily with no issues except the ornate.. the ornate is really anti social too always out on the open in a corner and not chilling with the lap or del its always the other 2 that comes to chill with him20220529_013916.jpg
 
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tlindsey said:
Definitely looks healthy. Some species of bichir have different growth patterns. Also genetics may have something to do with it.
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I hope its really genetics and not some health issue or stunting, because i have friends telling me their ornate grew really fast and here i am watching mine getting outgrown 2x and counting by my del ?
 
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I have an ornate as well had it 8 months it is about 7 inches now got 8 months ago was about 4 inches I also thought it would have grown faster But I think they grow in spurts so appear not to be growing for a while. I do notice that my ornate will only eat with lights off while my senegals and polly polly eat any time so I feed with lights off so that the ornate gets some food . Knowing the size they can get to I thought it would grow faster.
 
i have a couple of ornates and they grow at different phases. I got them at the same time and one is 2x the size of the others. They eventually catchup on size. I observed this varying growth pattern on endli and senegals as well.

Your fish looks healthy so nothing to be worried on.
 
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I bought a small Ornate (my only bichir ever) many years ago, together with a buddy who purchased the other one in the same tank at the LFS, both fish were about 4 inches in length. Mine was in view constantly, swimming at all levels, all day long. Absolutely terrific display fish; ate like a pig, too. My buddy's identical fish hid almost all the time, ate well but almost exclusively after lights out, rarely swam at any level other than right at the bottom.

At the end of the first year, my fish was about 8 inches in length; his...was close to a foot! Go figure! Sexual dimorphism? Maybe. Genetics? They likely came from the same area if wild caught; if captive-bred (did they even breed these fish in captivity back in the '80's?) they may have been from the same batch of eggs, so...? We used to joke that mine burned a lot of calories swimming around all the time, while his just...grew. :)

My fish was in a very sparsely-stocked tank, with a small number of very small fish. His fish was in a typical community tank setting, but not overcrowded and without any aggressive tankmates. To this day I have no idea how to explain the difference.

I think your fish looks fine. :)
 
There is a youtube video where a guy bought an ornate at 2 inches and followed the growth up 2 16 inches over 4 years at one point it only grew 1 inch in 8 months and took 4 years to get to 16 inches this particular one wasn't a very fast grower. I bought my ornate in january it was about 4.5 inches it is now about 7 inches but has girth .
 
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just measured my ornate it is just under 8 inches when I answered this post on 20th august it slightly over 7 inches so has had a growth spurt in a couple of weeks.
 
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