senagal birchir and gibbiceps<plecs>

[south coast nelly]

iam currently growing up a birchir to go in my cichlid tank is he ok to go with these fishes...see link
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81000

somebody said hes heard you cant keep senagals with gibbiceps?

 

[JESToner]

its a hit or miss with the pleco/bichir combination, ive kept bichirs and plecos together for over a year in the past, my friend currently has a bunch of L numbers with his baby bichirs and no problems so far... but other people have posted threads with pictures of bichirs who've had thier slime coat sucked off by plecos

 

[davo]

Its more plecos and bichirs. Plecos suck on the slime coat of still/large bodied/bottom dwelling/flat fish, and bichirs are one of many, and probably the next biggest problem to keeping plecos with rays/soles/flounders. Some people do it with success, but probably more don't. IMO P. gibbiceps is a species that is more likely to do it than not.

 

[jconley]

Its more plecos and bichirs. Plecos suck on the slime coat of still/large bodied/bottom dwelling/flat fish, and bichirs are one of many, and probably the next biggest problem to keeping plecos with rays/soles/flounders. Some people do it with success, but probably more don't. IMO P. gibbiceps is a species that is more likely to do it than not.

with davo on this one. My Gibby is the only pleco in my tank (out of many!) that shows any inclination to suck the slime off my bichirs, even so, he only does it if they stop right in front of him.

 

[south coast nelly]

ok thanks for replys guys.....anyhow its going to be a while yet before he goes in there about 5 inches at mo.....got to grow...then i suppose trail and error

 

[beblondie]

SLIMECOAT
Is a mucous created by the continal replacement of glandular cells know in the fishes skin that produce a glycoprotein which is called mucin. This when mixed with water forms the mucus that makes up the slime coat of fish.Fish with poorly developed scales tend to produce more of this slime coat.. The slime coat does threee basci things- it reduces turbulence for the fish when swimming by smoothing over the areas between the fishes scales-it helps regulate the internal/external ionic balance and the efficiency of gases exchanged through the skins surface-ie-osmoregullation and it provides a slipery surface that in it's sloughing off prevents bacteria from attching themselves to the skin. Bacteria is simply washed away from the skin with this process. It also aids in acting as a wound bandage.Stressed fish have a change in their slime coat-either too much or too little.One sign of a stressed bichir is usually overproduction of its slimecoat.
One has to remember that in the areas of the amazon where a number of plecos exist there is little in the line of protein based foods. Aquatic insects and small inverts do not do well in the heavy current. Plecs are very adaptable to feeding on availiable food sources and one is the mucus coating of other fish. There is good anacdotal evidence of these fish doing this in the wild and plenty of evidence of these fish doing this in captivity. The closest taxonomic relitives of Loricariidae are the Trichomycteridae. There are several mucus feeding only trichomycterid catfishes. It really would not be a suprise to find that mucus feeding is a common feeding method in many Loricariidae catfishes. These fish are really not obligate herbivores.
The real problem is the rasping teeth delaminating the bichirs scales leaving it open to some serious infections that can be hard and costly to cure.
Theres no guarantee yours will develop a tase for slime however sometimes its better to err on the side of caution-Anne