Yes,bichirs have teeth

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I've seen my juvie senegal take a wafer that he couldn't swallow on a "death roll" like an alligator(and laughed so hard I nearly peed myself), this isn't normal for bichirs?
 
Yes for objects to big to ingest they can death roll to attempt to break the object
similar fish have been clocked at 14 revolutions per second on a ''death roll''
 
beblondie;3042199; said:
this will get ya started on your journey
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache...+polypterus&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&ie=UTF-8

now thats a link lol
Click to expand...


Great link thank you Anne! That paper seems to confirm my preference to keep my bichirs well fed, but not 'fat' which seems to be the goal of many keepers.

I like them to have a slender natural shape, instead of swimming sausages lol

That paper did not cover prey manipulation as I was hoping it would. I would assume that the endlicheri must be feeding on larger specimens of tilapia since they inhabit the offshore area of the lake, whereas senegalus must be feeding on fry by the shore.

I still don't have the evidence I was hoping for that has found that polypterus do not regularly use their head shaking behavior to manipulate prey items that are too large to swallow.

I know that captivity can change the behavior and feeding habits of some fish (I have archers that will actually swim down to get at pieces of massivore and shrimp that the bichirs kick up during their feeding), but I just don't believe that to be the case with the head shaking behavior.
 
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