I'm curious asto what you guys all have as substrate. I used t have gravel but saw my del bite on them t hinking it was food so i took it out...i'm starting to get sick of the bare bottom style and I dont want to use sand....question is will they spit out rocks or crap them out? anyone use pea gravel?
Poly substrate
- Thread starter hoosier
- Start date
Large river rock is a bad idea because the food will fall in between the rocks. You'll get a lot of waste food that the bichirs cannot get to.
I use gravel the size of a grain of rice. This way if they swallow they'll poop it out. I have seen a lot of people use sand but I'm not so much into sand.
FishGoneWild;1159968; said:
Where'd you find that? The only substrate LFS here carry are river rock and plit pea sized gravel. I've got my 2 incher on split pea-sized and I don't think he can swallow it yet, but when he grows..
I have RTC's....for those who might be unfamiller with the giant mouths with fins....they eat ANYTHING....up to and including rocks...Dosn't seem to bother them in the least... Fish have a way of working these things out...after all if sand and rock posed any real danger to fish they would never survive in a lake, river, or stream now would they?
Yes they would, except that those who avoid it or are in some other way different and are not harmed by it (a slightly larger digestive tract, a response to regurgitate it, etc.) will not be harmed or killed by it. Remember, in nature VERY FEW of those born make it to become successfully reproducing adults. Things like this are one of the reasons so few make it that far. In captivity we want every one of them to make it to adulthood.
Why don't you want to use sand?
Why don't you want to use sand?
hoosier;1159945; said:
in one of my tanks i use small river rock..
and my second tank i have pool filter sand..
I just got some silica sand earlier in my bichir(3 palmas & 1 ornate) tank(36"x16"x16)..
You could find silica sand in hardware stores..
with sand you don't have to worry about food getting stuck between stones.. and since they are bottom dwellers you don't even have to bother with air pockets..
I also have an ornate with 1/3" pebbles as substrate.. fish seems to be fine with any.. just look for something that suits you..
You could find silica sand in hardware stores..
with sand you don't have to worry about food getting stuck between stones.. and since they are bottom dwellers you don't even have to bother with air pockets..
I also have an ornate with 1/3" pebbles as substrate.. fish seems to be fine with any.. just look for something that suits you..