Tankmates for planted bichir tank?

[Rensille]

Hello, I'm a newbie in fish keeping i only started about 2 months ago when i saw a pair of bichirs at a pet shop i fell in love with them. I purchased and currently setting up a new 70 gallon for them as an upgrade from a tiny 30 gallon long tank . As of now both my albino Senegal bichirs have grown from 3 inch to 4.5, I also have a 6-7 inch bgkf that always hides until feeding time (probably because of the small tank and no plants to hide behind) and a 5.5 Endlicheri bichir and got lucky with a skittish pleco that doesn't bother them. I have not seen aggression between them besides the bgkf pushing anyone out from its cave by giving them a little headbutt. I would like to know if i can add more tank mates with them preferably fish that don't mess up a planted tank.

 

[Rensille]

I have seen in my LFS freshwater barracudas and pink tailed chalceus but i can't find much information about both of them online so im not sure about them.

I have come across a raphael cat and clown loaches aswell but unfortunately sold as juveniles.

I also would like to add more color variation in my tank if that is possible. I have seen some dwarf gourami but they don't grow very large to avoid being eaten or picked on.

 

[kno4te]

Would wait on tankmates as the bgk and endli will get big.

Wouldn’t add the fish u mentioned. They need a bit more space than a 70g puls the endli may eat them eventually.

 

[Rensille]

Would wait on tankmates as the bgk and endli will get big.

Wouldn’t add the fish u mentioned. They need a bit more space than a 70g puls the endli may eat them eventually.

Thanks for the reply.

I'll buy a larger tank for them eventually. the 70g is just a growout tank for now. My Endli has been the most peaceful one so far always hiding in the corner not showing any signs of aggression (besides that time he did a death roll on his plastic bag when acclimating) not even aggressive when competing for food like the pair of senegals but i'll definitely watch him closely since they are known grow quite large.

 

[WaMoose]

I have My senegal with 3 african leopard bush fish and they seem to not mind each other to much. No plants in the tank yet but I have read that they do pretty well with plants and I have plans to add some in the next couple months or so.

 

[Rob909]

Be careful with that BGK! I got a pretty big one for free one time because someone had it in their tank for some time and it was doing great. One day, it started eating the plants. Before they knew it, all the plants were gone. So I got to be the new home for the bgk. I’d feed it lettuce and it would eat it all the time!

 

[Rensille]

Be careful with that BGK! I got a pretty big one for free one time because someone had it in their tank for some time and it was doing great. One day, it started eating the plants. Before they knew it, all the plants were gone. So I got to be the new home for the bgk. I’d feed it lettuce and it would eat it all the time!

I never heard of something like this before. I thought bgk were good with plants. Would keep an eye on him as well just incase my bgk goes vegetarian.

I have My senegal with 3 african leopard bush fish and they seem to not mind each other to much. No plants in the tank yet but I have read that they do pretty well with plants and I have plans to add some in the next couple months or so.

Beatiful fish! I wanted one for a long time unfortunately i have not seen or heard any lfs that stock then. I'll never stop trying to find one.

 

[Rob909]

I never heard of something like this before. I thought bgk were good with plants. Would keep an eye on him as well just incase my bgk goes vegetarian.

Neither had I, we were both pretty surprised!

 

[magpie]

What's your end game tank size, and how soon? That will affect our recommendations. The endli will outgrow the 70 and it won't take all that much time. In clean water they can grow 1-2" a month until about 12-16" or so.

You will always have to be careful with the endli and the albino in particular as your sens growth will slow down much more quickly at 6" or so, and albinos tend to stay smaller than regular sens. They are close in size right now but that will quickly change. Not to say that it's a guaranteed disaster, but it's not an unlikely disaster, either. If you keep the endli long term it will also mean your "other" fish will have to be larger than if you just stick to upper jaws like Sens.

Would love to see your planted tank - I'm a planted fan. I also found the Ctenopomas to be a good match for plants and upper jaw polys.

 

[Polyaddict86]

+1 with magpie the endli will out grow your albino sen and eventually the albino will become meal. I my experienced UJ poly are best with plants, not saying a LJ cant be plant friendlly but they just get to big and they can start moving your substrate around when they get spooked and make a dash for.

I also had some freshwater redtail cudas and pinktail chalceus,they are really good in planted tank but is a challenged to get a cuda to eat non live food. Good luck