Upper jawed vs Lower jawed bichirs

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I Just got my first bichir and it happens to be a lower jaw, Endli. IMO lower jaws look better, but nothing beats the ornate when it comes to beauty.
 
bigme213 said:
can some experienced keepers give input on the differences in behavior and feeding between uppers and lower jawed polys pertaining to behavior in the wild as well as in the aquarium??
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Upper Jaws tend to be more active while Lower Jaws tend to just lay around. In the wild, Upper Jaws (most) are smaller so they are more active in the sense they they look for small prey such as crustaceans while Lower Jaws tend to be more ambush predators and just wait for something to swim or crawl by. Both species may also scavenge around for anything edible in the wild as well. Both will take pellets in aquaria. Sinking pellets are best for Lower Jaw species. I've have Upper Jaws that will swim to the surface to get food, so they don't seem to be as picky as to whether their food is on the bottom or top. Lower Jaws will come up to, but they prefer to feed off the bottom.
 
yeah me senegals eat off the top and bottom and will eat anything. so far only 1 of the 2 ornates will eat pellets. ive mainly been feeding the babies blood worms.
 
So I'm expecting my new baby endlicheri to arrive thursday. Ive read a lot of people saying theyve had problems with cannibalism with these and that will try and eat other bichirs close to theyre size when they get bigger. Has anyone had any experiences like that with endli's? like i said ive only kept upper jaws and not really sure what to expect with a big lower jaw. and dont wanna risk my ornates or sens.
 
Endlis cannibalize when they are very small, but once pass 4" they don't really cannibalize anymore. They will eat whatever they can get a hold of if they're hungry enough.
 
bigme213 said:
So I'm expecting my new baby endlicheri to arrive thursday. Ive read a lot of people saying theyve had problems with cannibalism with these and that will try and eat other bichirs close to theyre size when they get bigger. Has anyone had any experiences like that with endli's? like i said ive only kept upper jaws and not really sure what to expect with a big lower jaw. and dont wanna risk my ornates or sens.
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My 1 was 5" when I got him and never had any problems with him attacking bigger fish but he is the only bichir I have so not sure if they would be the same with other bichirs, I would be worried for your Senegals tho, they will get outgrown quite quickly


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when my group was ranging from 11-16 inches i caught the largest with some of the smaller ones heads in her mouth a few times
 
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