I have a bichir in a 10 gallon growout. hes been there since april but has only grown like a quarter of an inch if any. I know these fish grow fast but mine isnt. I'm starting to think maybe the tank is stunting him but he only like 4". I dont want to put him in my 55 until hes ready because my cichlids dont like new tankmates. i want another bichir possibly to breed if i can pick up another tank but i dont want to buy another if the one i have now isnt okay. please help because if there is any special food i should get i cna pick it up today. right now im feeding shrimp pellets because my mom doesnt want worms in teh house(bloodworms).

I think that the 10g may be too small. That is probably the problem. What do you feed it?

shrimp pellets. i was told on another site that 10 gallons would be a good growout tank. I didnt know if it would be able to get air in teh 55 gallon.

My bichirs were in a 55g at 3" in fall, and they are around 6-7" now :)

Try feeding the bichir mealworms.


EDIT:
Wardley shrimp pellets aren't very high in protein (30% i believe), so that could be a problem with your bichir.

ok so mealworms. I w2ill try to pick some up this week but i wont be home until thursday and may not get out until friday. Is there another food i should be feeding instead of shrimp pellets that is high in protien? i have nutrafin bottomfeeder pellets. Do you think those would be better if mealworms arent available? Because i dont htink my mom wants to take me to the LFS a lot. Maybe like every 3 months.

Hey Fishy411 I think you need to buy mom an aquarium for her b/day or mothers day or something, bit of reverse psych (doesn't always work), she might start draggin you down there more often :laugh:

she used to until i got my pictus's. They ate all her neon tetras! She would buy 2 or 3 every time i walked into the LFS and then half would survive. i think i got up to 6 until the pictus's decided they were really hungry. She gets my 10 gallon when the bichir grows out. Only exception is that i get a gudgeon in the 10. everything else she can have.

ahhh yes you need to bring her back from the dark side and then you will prosper, get her her own tank and do not hog it, then and only then you will have inner peace and frequent visits to the lfs, as her needs grow for her fish she will see your needs also (PS get her some easy breeders this gets them everytime), may the force be with you yoda

Ah. Guppies it is!!

ahhh barf, corrupting the minds and actions of our members. you are learning well young jedi, the force is strong with you. yoda

Bichirs are ral predators and a diet of b bloodworm, shrimp, carnivore pellets, protein pellets will encourage them to grow. You will be surprised what a young bichir can do, my baby ornates are holding their own in an 8foot, only problem is that the entire projects on hold while they are in there :(

for shrimp do u mean like cocktail shrimp? i know i can get carnivore pellets and protien pellets and probly bloodworms.

Shrimp as in frozen shrimp/prawn from the supermarket, they disappear like no ones business lol

ok thanks. Those will be easy to get but i dont know if the bichir will even get any. All the other fish eat too much. I could try a feeding stick i guess.

Eventually they can be trained to hand feed, but beware larger species which can latch on and not let go.....my ornate did that and ive got the scars to prove it

ok so im a bichir freak so what? (check out my new 8X2X2 p.endlicheri colonypics around the site)
-hey man nice to hear youve chosen a bichir, in order to properly help i must know what type you have as they all have different water requirements eventual sizes AND diets!!!! (most people dont research this fish enough before buying it, to the expert aquarist its 'another fish' but in actual fact more closely a reptile!) - furhter so at around 12-20cm (not even half its eventual size in most species they dont even have gills!!!! they breath air.... which causes polypterids kept with other fishes in an oxygen rich 'comunity environment' to actually not grow as well. reasons for this is the lack of use of their dual swim bladder or aqua-lung. in an oxygen rich environment (very different from the almost still muddy swamp pools these guys enhibbit in the shalower 'deadwater' regeons of chad, white nile, congo, tanganyika,and onward). instead of embracing the change over to surface air and the dropping of the now not so well working external gills the fish has the lazy option of just breathing through its gills as long as it likesand as long as you provide the air and clear water, thus prolonging its juvinile state and size. another factor is tank size i have 6 12-18cm individuals in 250gals/alot of litres, and to be honest at their growth rate i find this inadequate and am thus upgrading a foot wider to 8X3X2ft total to house my eventual 3 polypterus (3 going to a largermixed oddball tank in our warehouse, ONLY when 45-65cm is reached!).
also you may want to research the breeding of these guys- depending on which species breeding may range from being done 2-3 times in japan, or never at all in captivity EVER. however it is said to be possible in most species extending from the senegalis family such as ornatapinnis or the plain silver senegalis (other members of this particular family are illegal in this country and i connot offer you any personal insite) other polypterus families enclude the decendants of endlicheri, like congicus, or decendants of delhezi, which some believe are the same line as senegalis, but other believe are binded by weeksii and retropinnis). in any case their great pets, weather their small and swimming about or large dinosaurs and walking-only on the substarte! (the finage of polypterids thickens as they grow to eventually be used as four 'turtlefeet' without claws of course!
be sure to keep your polypterus alone or with a datnoide, they will not do well with large cichlids as they are not the gymnasts nor warriors that they are believed to be, but rather semi-blind, forreging,clumsy, loveable oafs. also my friend if you would like it to grow faster (providing its larger than 10cm) feed it live neons every third day and frozen whole fish and mysis inbetween, put it in a tank alone, TOTALLY alone, mimic dry seasons and floods, DETatCH your heater as they kill polypterus everywhere everyday, and leave it hanging in there free,remove as much oxygen as you like but dont leave much at all, clean your water biweekly 40%- these guys actually LIKE nitrates!!!! i know its weird but true, check out the bichir aqualog, or alternatively 'jurrasic fishes' or the endlicheri club of japan and speak to hatori! good luck my friend!
- a brief message to oodball lovers-
PLEASE do not purchase polypterus as comunity fish when young! they really are harder to carefor than you even know about!- this fish requires conductivity readings daily, an excess of biotype flora, EXACT potrassium levels (potassium is a must when dealing with lake chad fishes or especially all reptiles, snakes lizard, and otherwise) calcium must be maintained through whole fishes bones, and for some reaspon iron and nitrate play a role too?!?! if your interested in learnijng about something REALLY different read up on polypterus keeping and then do it right!!!!!

wow. I wasnt aware of any of this. I thought it would be fine in my 55 because it is a senegal. the cichlids i have arent aggressive at all. i have a rainbow cichlid, severum, and festivum. Not that i dont trust you agez but can someone else verify this information. its just a surprise because ive never heard of bichirs being that hard of a fish to keep.

i moved my senegal to the 55 today and hopefully he'll be ok and be able to get some food

12:43 EST- the bichir is now dead. Murdered by the RTBS. Funeral ceremony scheduled for 12:45 after 2 minute period of mourning. RTBS is being charged with first degree murder and will be sentenced to slave labor in someone elses tank because im selling him. recent uncovered files have also brougth up a case involving a betta. evidence points to teh RTBS again

damn, sorry to hear that Fishy411.:(

do you think its worth it to buy another bichir. i mean try to find a bigger one or let it grow in the 10 gallon longer so it gets bigger. i really like these fish.

growing it in a 10 gal isnt really an option, a bigger specemin of a smaller variety would be better, say a polypterus delhezi

ill try. bichirs dont come in that much around here so ill keep looking for one.

unfortunately (not to undermine you oddball, im sure oyu know what your doing) a delhezi grows to a minimum of 45cm if you are lucky enough to get a male, all this aside even if it grew 20 cm a 10 gal tank isnt suitable 411, so i recomend a bigger biotype, or at leasst species only tank (while its under 20cm). also you will find alot of these oddball fish quite decieving in relation to their appearance versus their actual habbits and or braun. taking this into account even reading forums and gaining thousands of perspectives will not help your fish from being murdered/starved/asphixiated/infected- but proper litriature and scientific fact will! research your next purchase intensly MONTH before even gazing at live specimens!-(well not that far, but you know) these fish (most oddballs in mind) ARE rare, and not just in the hobby, so if you are lucky enough to have the chance to care for one of these paliolithic marvels give the little fella a chance! mimicing the wild will never do you wrong! good luck liite dude!

o im sorry for the misunderstanding. the 10 gallon was a growout tank. the real tank is a 55 gallon. i located a 7 inch senegal but i will research much better this time and fix my tank accordingly before buying another one. i guess its just my luck. bichirs almost never come in but now they do right when im ready to buy one. i feel lucky today and the earliest ill buy it is sunday. ill be feeding live fish that are bred in my own home this time to try to give it a better diet and will switch it over to frozen and live bloodworms and mealworms. would live plants benefit a bichir? i saw some at my LFs today and thought they would make a good hiding spot for a bichir. i'll also be looking at some large caves. in my tank i have

1-2 inch thick gravel
a few pieces of rock. both flat and round
2 pieces of bogwood
2 fake plants. 1 silk 1 plastic
1 hanging plant thats plastic
and 1 piece of feller stone.
is any of this stuff (besides gravel) potentially dangerous to a bichir any more than it is for a normal fish? my levels are perfect since i last checked them (last sunday). In your previous post you mentioned detaching teh heater. what exactly does this do? any and all help would be appreciated.

agez- what websites do you recommend for helping me make my tank more suitable for a bichir

ok man, as for the gravel- try for as fine as possible or even better sand! as for the optimal conditions check out any info you can dig up on lake chad and the white nile- then copy these ph, gh,kh, nitrates are not so much of an issue with them- infact they require them at one or more points in a life time to breed! plants are VERY impotant to bichirs of most varieties and are usually sourced FIRST on most expiditions in an eddy filled with an overgrowth of tiger lotus! (commonly available in aquariums). also just put the little guy straight into the 55, as the 10 is pretty much only gonna allow him to chillon the bottom until his spine deforms from lack of room..... even try for a 20/30wide for now if you can? just do your best and im sure it will be fine! keep your heaters DETATCHED as they may get spooked lodge themselves behind it and as a result die there ever night (i lost an ornata this way, and a saratoga!) as for sites- why? THIS one is best! lol - try aquatic terrors, they are good for bichirs- stay cool little dude!

You werent undermining, i was working on the perspective of a 55, and delhezi is one of the easier bichirs ive kept. Go with sand for all bichirs, as they tend to be clumsy eaters and they do scoop up a lot of substrate, my lfs lost 5 rope fish to choking on gravel shards, and i have had to remove a chunk from my ornates mouth before i switched substrate. Most bichirs tend to love plants, but they can be rather rough so if your intent on a pretty tank go silk, if you dont mind it smashing the odd stem or uprooting a plant now and then go real.

The natural diet, of live fish, dosent always seem to work, my weeksii eats like a pig and there are loads of cichlid fry he could easilly waffle but he dosent, whereas my ornates are funny the female thinks anything is game and the male just scavenges.

in case any one cares i did buy him today. the 3 LFS's around me dont have any feeders and dont restock until tuesday but hes been eating brine shrimp. i detached y heater and i am thinking of a modification to make it farther out from the glass. thanks for everyones advice. hes settling in well.

Have you considererd a heater gaurd fishy? one that fully encompases the heater unti they are pretty cheap and pretty tough!

What sort did you get?

ive considered a heater guard and ill look for one when i go to get feeders tomorrow or wednesday. i got another senegal. hes not getting picked on and is very active