Should I feed Senegal Bichirs bloodworms?

[Slayer2533]

Hi All,

I am fairly new to the forum. Recently I purchased a pair of Senegal Bichirs from my LFS. The guy working there also keeps Senegal Bichirs and kept telling me don't feed them blood worms. He said it multiple times. Now I have had a look around the forum here and have't seen any suggestions or reasons why I cannot feed them blood worms. Can anyone clarify if feeding them blood worms would have any negative impact on their health? Currently I have fed them on Hikari Gold sinking pellets and frozen shrimp. (frozen in cubes). They are in a grow out tank at the moment once they are a couple inches longer will be going into my 5ft. Any advice on this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Zilch]

No real issue with frozen bloodworms for small juvenile senegals. Not a fan of freeze dried, but I use the cubes several times a week on any small growouts. Once they can handle the sinking pellets or tilapia chunks I pretty much discontinue the blood worms

 

[Slayer2533]

I was going to post a video but the file was too large. They are around 5 inches maybe. They can eat the small Hikari Gold pellets at this stage. Other than the pellets or tilapia chunks what else do you feed them? My thoughts behind not feeding blood worms was the filter would eat more of them than they would as they are nearly blind I have noticed with the shrimp cubes that they are pushed around the tank a bit by the filter and until they settled at the bottom the bicher's don't seem too quick to grab them.

 

[thefredpit]

the only real reason not to feed bloodworms is pellets and tilapia is so much better for them

 

[thefredpit]

I was going to post a video but the file was too large. They are around 5 inches maybe. They can eat the small Hikari Gold pellets at this stage. Other than the pellets or tilapia chunks what else do you feed them? My thoughts behind not feeding blood worms was the filter would eat more of them than they would as they are nearly blind I have noticed with the shrimp cubes that they are pushed around the tank a bit by the filter and until they settled at the bottom the bicher's don't seem too quick to grab them.

post it on youtube then you can post the link with the video button and it will embed the video

 

[Zilch]

Honestly as adults the staple for all of my guys is cut fish, so tilapia is kind of core to their diet. Once they get big enough to handle it (and at 5" they could probably handle small pieces) I drop the other stuff. Cost just becomes unsustainable due to the sheer quantity they'd require to get full.

2 inch senegal can eat a cube, 4 inch senegal can eat 2 cubes and some pellets, beyond that you may as well pop every blister of cubes in the pack

 

[Slayer2533]

Thanks for the info guys. I am still trying to work out how many pellets they need to get full don't want to over feed. I have kept american cichlid's and crayfish for a few years but these are my first bichirs and here in Australia these guys are not cheap! Where is the best place to get tilapia chunks I have never fed it to any of my fish before or really seen it at petshops. Do I need to get it at a fish market or something?

 

[Zilch]

At least in the states, tilapia is pretty prolific, you can find it in any grocery store or fish market since they're farm raised. If you aren't able to find it locally most market fish will work, but you want to shoot for a white, not super fatty fish. They'll take down appropriately sized or cut up earthworms too usually, so that's also an option. The dried foods and pellets are good as well, Hikari makes sinking carnivore pellets which smell awful but the polys love them (they're just smaller versions of massivore if you've heard of that).

 

[Slayer2533]

Thanks Zilch I will keep a look out next time I am at a grocery store or fish market. For now these guys seem happy munching away on the Hikari Gold pellets. I will also look into the carnivore pellets. Can I ask what bichirs do you keep? Have you ever successfully bred them in an aquarium?

 

[Zilch]

I've got a whole pile of polys haha, this is the list-
Big tank:
2x CB ornate
1x CB Delhezi
2x Palmas Polli
1x CB albino Sen
1x Weeksii
2x Ansorgii one CB one WC
1x WC Congicus
3x Lap 1 CB "Koliba" and 2 WC of unknown origin
1x CB Endli

Growing/UJ tank staging:
1x WC Moke
1x CB PBB
4x Ropes

and thread full of pics here:
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/zilchs-fish-kids.686318/

No luck on breeding, I've never actually tried, but we do have some members that have successfully spawned some upper jaw species (Ornates and senegals specifically)