What would you do?

[Illbuyourcatfish]

Hey guys, I could use some opinions!

I'm well into my bichir collection now, I'm up to 14 fish. Eveything seems to be okay but I have a feeling things are getting cramped in the 180g tank they live in. Mainly due to the amount of driftwood in the tank. I'd say it takes up about 65-70% of the floor space. The obvious remedy is to remove the wood and this is where I need help.

Several of the fish love hiding places, especially the laps and ornates, endlies palmas and others could care less. And a few of my fish are fairly skittish and will occasionally go into rather violnet fits. So do I need to keep some wood to keep my fish calm? Will they stress hard with no hiding places? Would it be best to remove the wood one piece at a time?

The benefits of no wood are obvious.
- Easier to clean the tank, which makes for a cleaner tank.
- More space for the fish.
- Ill get to see more of the fish i love.
- Food will be distributes more evenly as it won't get caught in tight spaces leaving some fish hungry.
- And lastly the tank will technicaly have more water in it, a great deal more which I'm sure will effect the fishes bioload on the system, if ever so slightly.

So what do you do? Take all the wood out and destroy what I've done to best re-create their natural enviroment, take away from the overall look of the tank as it will appear sterile and stress the fish (potentialy to death as any stress case could) and leave them without cover.

Or

Would you take out most of the wood but leave a few pieces in thus potentially creating territory battles but keeping some of the natural look. The stress advantage gained by keeping hiding places may be lost in the battles fighting for them.

Let's hear it!

 

[haynchinook334]

I would stack all the wood to one side.

 

[spwd]

I tend to move my set up around and it doesnt seem to bother my bichirs at all,they just cuddle at the back or front or wherever they can lol.



steve

 

[King-eL]

You can try looking at some tank setup in the bichir lounge to give you some ideas of what to do. I usually just use few driftwoods and leave some open space.

 

[JayJ]

I'd use some sort of piping if you really want hiding places for the bichirs, just some rubber/plastic tubing 3" across or so. Will take up much less space than wood.

 

[flipstylex]

imo have one driftwood in the middle and have lots of open space. like this guy >

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgT4...&p=2BEFDC07606060D1&playnext_from=PL&index=29

 

[Hao]

i dont have driftwood for my tanks,just keep the corners dark for my bichirs,like my tank is 6 ft long and my light is 5 feet long,so the corners have dim light,so my bichirs just hide and chill in the corner or lay on top of my powerhead

 

[SpJc11]

well to me heres the obvious thing to do keep both.
obviously you wouldnt get rid of your prized bichirs and the love the driftwood so heres what i would do, a little diY
-get mabey an old piece of driftwood(one you dont like , dont use, ect)
-take the wood and cut it into a few long pieces
- now sand them down into rods
- drill holes in the wood you want to keep.
- now heres the trickey part, either using silicon or not put the rods in the holes enough so that your driftwood wont fall and so your bichirs can get under it
well there you go you get to maximize floorspace and keed your driftwood

 

[AmaroSwe]

I had the same prob a long time ago, not only with bichirs but with other fish aswell who want/need/are custom 2 having hidingplaces.

Check my setup: http://www.mfksweden.forum24.se/mfksweden-about516.html

I found that bichirs love high places in the tank were they can chill out, i places my biggest driftwood on top of another one, my bichirs chill more on the wood then on the substrate and when they fight (if they do) the weaker one just swims up 2 the top of the wood and its all good from there on.

 

[Madding]

Great tank ^