I've been frustrated lately with feeding my polypterus.
The local seafood market hasn't stocked the bags of frozen de-shelled de-veined shrimp in a couple weeks, so I've been feeding mainly massivore, but man my tank gets dirty after a couple days because of the mess the pellets make.
I wanted to flip the ratio I have been feeding of mainly pellets and frozen foods here and there.
Anne pointed me to written on the predatory habits of senegalus and endlicheri which are found in the same lake. It turns out that those specific populations fed on the same foods but were not in direct competition because they inhabited different parts of the lake (sens near teh shore, endlicheri in deeper water).
The bulk of their stomach contents were tilapia! I didn't know that was a natural part of the diet for some bichirs, but I had heard of others using it.
So I tried it last night and both the bichirs and myself loooove this stuff!
I love the fact that it's easy to cut into small pieces which the bichirs prefer, and it doesn't smell terrible, and it's not super sticky like shrimp when defrosted.
The bichirs loved the softness of the fish meat and they ate more last night in one meal than they have of shrimp or massivore.
Has anyone else noticed that their bichirs prefer tilapia over anything else?
I was surprised because the tilapia doesn't smell very much, but as soon as I dumped it into the tank the bichirs were all over it.
The local seafood market hasn't stocked the bags of frozen de-shelled de-veined shrimp in a couple weeks, so I've been feeding mainly massivore, but man my tank gets dirty after a couple days because of the mess the pellets make.
I wanted to flip the ratio I have been feeding of mainly pellets and frozen foods here and there.
Anne pointed me to written on the predatory habits of senegalus and endlicheri which are found in the same lake. It turns out that those specific populations fed on the same foods but were not in direct competition because they inhabited different parts of the lake (sens near teh shore, endlicheri in deeper water).
The bulk of their stomach contents were tilapia! I didn't know that was a natural part of the diet for some bichirs, but I had heard of others using it.
So I tried it last night and both the bichirs and myself loooove this stuff!
I love the fact that it's easy to cut into small pieces which the bichirs prefer, and it doesn't smell terrible, and it's not super sticky like shrimp when defrosted.
The bichirs loved the softness of the fish meat and they ate more last night in one meal than they have of shrimp or massivore.
Has anyone else noticed that their bichirs prefer tilapia over anything else?
I was surprised because the tilapia doesn't smell very much, but as soon as I dumped it into the tank the bichirs were all over it.
