what tankmates can i have with a bichir?

[guppy]

The problem with some plecos they develop a taste for slimecoat and with their rasping teeth they can do serious damage to bichirs, If you want a pleco go with a bristlenose they seem to not bother bichirs.
As for tankmates this can vary with the species of bichir, upper jaws species IE> senegals, retropinnis, aand palmas complex have much smaller mouths then the lower jaw species IE. lapradei,endlicheri, so many tankmates can be different basicaly you want tankmates that are fairly non agressive,and big enouh not to fit into a bichirs mouth

Yoyos and some other loachs do the same, at least they usually have softer mouths, they will drive thier targets nuts though.

 

[guppy]

aros, gars, rays, dats, 'n payara... are some that i've kept w/ past bichirs. Basically, pretty anything that isn't small enough to fit in the bichir's mouth is cool!

Don,t foget to think about the other way round as well. I had a whitespotted pike cichlid that beat a bichir to death.

 

[neoprodigy]

Yoyos and some other loachs do the same, at least they usually have softer mouths, they will drive thier targets nuts though.

yeah.. stress some of my fish out...

 

[David R]

I'm also trying to decide on tankmates for a bichir, I just brought a 4" P. palmas ? (not sure which palmas it is yet) for my 4'x20"x20" tank. He's currently with a 4.5" ctenopoma and 4 clown loaches around a similar size. I'm thinking of getting either a tiger dat or a few uaru's and/or maybe another bichir, altho I've read mixed results about keeping bichirs together.
The tank will be upgraded to something around the 180g mark in the next 12-18 month when we finally buy our own house.

[sorry for the hijack, I thought there was enough bichir-noob threads without starting my own]

 

[pufferking]

i have a convict,geophagus,payara,hujeta gar and a black ghost knife with mine

 

[guppy]

Try young dicus, I hate discus.

 

[David R]

LOL!!! If only I had that sorta money to throw away.......


Been browsing the photo galleries and have definately decided on at least one tiger dat, maybe more. At the moment another birchir is going to be too expensive considering the possibility they wont get on when bigger.

 

[piranha45]

well, I've seen/heard of ALOT more multi-bichir success stories than I have failures.. I can't actually recall a specific instance of someone mentioning it failing. They seem to be very social toward one another...

 

[Kenta]

bichir comms in general work very well, as long as you approach it the right way.

Provide hideouts for all bichirs, or none at all, that way you will minimize territory issues.
Provide them with a large enough tank, hideouts, plants, rocks and you're set.

Although, every now and then you will get a bichir with an attitude, that you just can't change.

 

[David R]

So is keeping two together generally a bad idea [one gets dominant and picks on the other etc] or do they usually only fight if there's lack of territories?? Is it better to mix species or get two of the same?? The lfs has palmas, delhezi and senegalensis at the moment, birchir's are generally pretty hard to come by down here, I've only ever seen them for sale once before the lot they have now.