poor bichir...

[bobVillanueva]

i have tried to grow a bichir before but it seemed to grow very S...L...O...W.... haha... i was in 5th or 6th year in middle school then when i had em... it was with a silver arowana, 2 Oscars a tiger and a red. A Clown Knife. 2 Pacus, a Snakehead, a Hi-fin hammer head a TSN and a RTC.

yeap thats a lot and i was able to grow em together. the only fishes i had to transfer was my RTC and TSN cuz i was afraid they'd gulp up the others. for they were growing much faster. the only casualty i had was when my snake head severed half of my hi fin shark... poor dude... anyway. i was able to grow em all out back then. and i eventually transfered everyone to my pond... (just beofre i got my pima) and the rest was history.

anyway. back to my question. just how fast do they grow? Bichirs i mean.coz mine seemed to never grew an inch as my other fishes turned in to real MONSTERS!

the way i fed it was the way i fed my RTC and my TSN while they were juves. I got a feeder fish (a silver mollie like fish. locally called "kataba") *brutal disclaimer* and stabbed it with a long slender stick. (like a Barbecue) then i place it near my Bichir's mouth. he ate it the same way the TSN and RTC eats... but he just wouldn't grow.

i can't even classify my bichir back then. it was like a ornate but it was plain flesh/light brown.... we call it "Dragon fin" back here in the philippines. but i dont know anything else about it.... sad@_@

anyway, so after 5? 6? yearS? haha. i'm getting a bichir again! and help me on what type to get? i'd probably end up with the ornate.... just please! tell me how fast they grow.... i love establishing "Compatible" aquariums with compatible fishes. dont want my bichir to be food!

btw, my bichir never got eaten excpt by the pima. imagine a 3 inch bichir surviving 2 years with a 2 arowana and the gigantic oscars/pacus/Snakehead.

 

[beblondie]

plain flesh/light brown it was most likley a Polypterus senegalus.Growth rate varies widely soem grow an inch to almost 2 inches a month I have had a bichir that has grown 5 inches in a year.To help obtain maximum growth keep the water warm lower 80-82 degrees F keep the water as clean as possible,feed several small meals a day instead
of 1 or 2 bigger meals-Anne

 

[bobVillanueva]

many thanks! though i dont know what else to feed it. it eats only feeder fishes and cows heart...@_@ never seen one live on sinking pellets here tho@_@

 

[beblondie]

FEEDING & NUTRITION
Now that you have a bichir what does it eat? In their natural habitat bichirs normally eat small fish,various insect larvae and invertabrates.Bichirs are generaly non agressive ambush predators but also oppurtunistic scavengers.Objects to big to be consumed whole are often "deathrolled" till
small parts are twisted and ripped off the carcass.The key here is to balance the diet thru a variety
of foods with an eye on total nutrition.A varied diet is a good diet for your fish and yourself.
Now then what can we feed them? You actually have several options and They will be listed below
The freezer at your local fish store is a smorgasboard of foods which should include
silversides or lancefish
mysis shrimp
brine shrimp
krill
bloodworms
tubifex worms
squid
beefheart
Simply thaw and feed


Your local market can be a great source of foods check the seafood section of the freezer
You can use just about any foods you find there including
mussels
shrimp
most fish filets (avoid salmon i think its to oily)

Available at the butcher counter or they should be able to order it for you
beefheart
and yes chicken gizzards
to prepare the above cut it into strips and remove any fat you can find
fish do not digest mammialian fat well

Live foods include
some frog species(some frogs release a nasty chemical when bitten)
tadpoles
African dwarf frogs are safe and part of the natural diet
ghost shrimp
earthworms
mealworms feed only the recently shed(white) ones the chiton in the exoskeleton
can be hard to digest and in some can result in intestinal blockages.
There is really no reason to feeders except as the ocassional treat.
Various live fish and fry can be used for foods.Caution here unless you raise them
any commercialy bought feeders usually rosie reds/tuffies (the albino form of fat head minnows),
guppies,bait minnows etc.need to be quarantined before feeding them to your fish for several reasons.
reason 1 They are kept in horrible conditions
reason 2 They are often diseased
reason 3 They often are carriers of parasites
During quarantine dispose of the obviously sick or diseased.The remaining ones feed quality
foods a healthy feeder is of course better for your fish.
Goldfish just generaly are poor feeders and should be avoided. they are oily not very nutritious and constant feed of them causes faty deposits on the liver leading to premature deaths.They also contain very high levels of Thiaminase a destroying hormone.While many fish used as feeders contain this goldfish seem to have an abundance of it.Another issue is a spine at the front of the dorsal fin which can lead to problems if the goldfish is swollowed the wrong way (tailfirst).Yet another reason not to use goldfish,goldfish farms utilize copper meds in suspension form to combat diseases in the feeders associated with overcrowding.These copper meds are retained by the feeders for long periods after they leave the farms.Most lfs invariably retain all or part of the feeders shipping water when the feeders are loaded into their bins/tanks. And copper does not dissapate from a closed system.
The key is to balance the diet with a variety of foods listed above not just 1 or 2 items and skipping a meal once you notice a decline in growth rate is good for fish.The sad truth is we as hobbyists tend to overfeed our charges

Pellitized foods
Can be found in various diameters and forms include sinking and floating pellets and sticks
shrimp pellets
worm pellets
even pellets for cichlids will work
spirulina sticks
brine shrimp sticks
Algae wafers(some eat them some just look at them)

When feeding pellets how much to feed?
Under 7''I let them eat as much as they want several small feedings when young are better then 1 or 2 large feedings.I let juvies eat till theres a slight bulge to there bellies
This really applies to bichirs 7''+ I feed mine twice a day skipping at least one day a week
Approx. 80% of their diet is a quality pellet food the rest frozen with the ocassional live feeders after quarantine of course.
How manyPellets?
I start off with total 2 pellets per inch of fish eg. a 7'' fish gets 7 pellets in the A.M. and 7 in the evening feeding is then adjusted up or down so all pellets are consumed.Remember a nice round bichir is a happy bichir

 

[Infblue]

generally when you compare the growth of bichirs to the growth of RTC or TSN or silver aro, then yeah bichirs have a slow growth.

since yours were probably a senegalus, that'd be especially true. like anne said, growth rate varies depending on the individuals and environment. for a senegalus under normal growth, its growth spurt will usually stop after it hits 7"-8" or so, after which it typically slowly gets to its 10"-12" max size common in captivity.

for an ornate, you can expect some good growth as a juvy, like with most juvy bichirs, and then steady growth until say around 14" for the first year to year and a half or so. after that, growth will be slow as it inches toward the common 20"-24" max size in captivity. so don't be expecting it to reach 2 ft in its first year like with those catfish or aros...

 

[adobongrabbit]

tama sila ^_^

 

[bobVillanueva]

much thanks guys