Polypteris
- Thread starter dnn3
- Start date
It depends how big your other fish are and the size and species of bichir. They will have a go at eating pretty much anything, so beware of the size difference.
Try not to feed it feeders. They can carry all sorts of nasties that you don't want in your tank. They also contain thiaminase, which breaks down vitamin B1. They will accept most meaty foods like prawns, bloodworms, krill, and mysis shrimp.
Ryan
Try not to feed it feeders. They can carry all sorts of nasties that you don't want in your tank. They also contain thiaminase, which breaks down vitamin B1. They will accept most meaty foods like prawns, bloodworms, krill, and mysis shrimp.
Ryan
interesting enough when we feed him krill he doesn't "make fish dissapear"since we've never seen him do it.we also feed him live worms because we have a black ghostknife in the same tank that requires it for his diet.one thing we know is that we are pretty fond of him and we want to do whatever it takes to make sure he's healthy.any more advice is welcome.
FEEDING & NUTRITION
Now that you have a bichir what does it eat? In their natural habitat bichirs normally eat small fish,various insect larvae and invertabrates.Bichirs are generaly non agressive ambush predators but also oppurtunistic scavengers.Objects to big to be consumed whole are often "deathrolled" till
small parts are twisted and ripped off the carcass.The key here is to balance the diet thru a variety
of foods with an eye on total nutrition.A varied diet is a good diet for your fish and yourself.
Now then what can we feed them? You actually have several options and They will be listed below
The freezer at your local fish store is a smorgasboard of foods which should include
silversides or lancefish
mysis shrimp
brine shrimp
krill
bloodworms
tubifex worms
squid
beefheart
Simply thaw and feed
Your local market can be a great source of foods check the seafood section of the freezer
You can use just about any foods you find there including
mussels
shrimp
most fish filets (avoid salmon i think its to oily)
Available at the butcher counter or they should be able to order it for you
beefheart
and yes chicken gizzards
to prepare the above cut it into strips and remove any fat you can find
fish do not digest mammialian fat well
Live foods include
some frog species(some frogs release a nasty chemical when bitten)
tadpoles
African dwarf frogs are safe and part of the natural diet
ghost shrimp
earthworms
mealworms feed only the recently shed(white) ones the chiton in the exoskeleton
can be hard to digest and in some can result in intestinal blockages.
There is really no reason to feeders except as the ocassional treat.
Various live fish and fry can be used for foods.Caution here unless you raise them
any commercialy bought feeders usually rosie reds/tuffies (the albino form of fat head minnows),
guppies,bait minnows etc.need to be quarantined before feeding them to your fish for several reasons.
reason 1 They are kept in horrible conditions
reason 2 They are often diseased
reason 3 They often are carriers of parasites
During quarantine dispose of the obviously sick or diseased.The remaining ones feed quality
foods a healthy feeder is of course better for your fish.
Goldfish just generaly are poor feeders and should be avoided. they are oily not very nutritious and constant feed of them causes faty deposits on the liver leading to premature deaths.They also contain very high levels of Thiaminase a destroying hormone.While many fish used as feeders contain this goldfish seem to have an abundance of it.Another issue is a spine at the front of the dorsal fin which can lead to problems if the goldfish is swollowed the wrong way (tailfirst).Yet another reason not to use goldfish,goldfish farms utilize copper meds in suspension form to combat diseases in the feeders associated with overcrowding.These copper meds are retained by the feeders for long periods after they leave the farms.Most lfs invariably retain all or part of the feeders shipping water when the feeders are loaded into their bins/tanks. And copper does not dissapate from a closed system.
The key is to balance the diet with a variety of foods listed above not just 1 or 2 items and skipping a meal once you notice a decline in growth rate is good for fish.The sad truth is we as hobbyists tend to overfeed our charges
Pellitized foods
Can be found in various diameters and forms include sinking and floating pellets and sticks
shrimp pellets
worm pellets
even pellets for cichlids will work
spirulina sticks
brine shrimp sticks
Algae wafers(some eat them some just look at them)
When feeding pellets how much to feed?
Under 7''I let them eat as much as they want several small feedings when young are better then 1 or 2 large feedings.I let juvies eat till theres a slight bulge to there bellies
This really applies to bichirs 7''+ I feed mine twice a day skipping at least one day a week
Approx. 80% of their diet is a quality pellet food the rest frozen with the ocassional live feeders after quarantine of course.
How manyPellets?
I start off with total 2 pellets per inch of fish eg. a 7'' fish gets 7 pellets in the A.M. and 7 in the evening feeding is then adjusted up or down so all pellets are consumed.Remember a nice round bichir is a happy bichir-Anne
Now that you have a bichir what does it eat? In their natural habitat bichirs normally eat small fish,various insect larvae and invertabrates.Bichirs are generaly non agressive ambush predators but also oppurtunistic scavengers.Objects to big to be consumed whole are often "deathrolled" till
small parts are twisted and ripped off the carcass.The key here is to balance the diet thru a variety
of foods with an eye on total nutrition.A varied diet is a good diet for your fish and yourself.
Now then what can we feed them? You actually have several options and They will be listed below
The freezer at your local fish store is a smorgasboard of foods which should include
silversides or lancefish
mysis shrimp
brine shrimp
krill
bloodworms
tubifex worms
squid
beefheart
Simply thaw and feed
Your local market can be a great source of foods check the seafood section of the freezer
You can use just about any foods you find there including
mussels
shrimp
most fish filets (avoid salmon i think its to oily)
Available at the butcher counter or they should be able to order it for you
beefheart
and yes chicken gizzards
to prepare the above cut it into strips and remove any fat you can find
fish do not digest mammialian fat well
Live foods include
some frog species(some frogs release a nasty chemical when bitten)
tadpoles
African dwarf frogs are safe and part of the natural diet
ghost shrimp
earthworms
mealworms feed only the recently shed(white) ones the chiton in the exoskeleton
can be hard to digest and in some can result in intestinal blockages.
There is really no reason to feeders except as the ocassional treat.
Various live fish and fry can be used for foods.Caution here unless you raise them
any commercialy bought feeders usually rosie reds/tuffies (the albino form of fat head minnows),
guppies,bait minnows etc.need to be quarantined before feeding them to your fish for several reasons.
reason 1 They are kept in horrible conditions
reason 2 They are often diseased
reason 3 They often are carriers of parasites
During quarantine dispose of the obviously sick or diseased.The remaining ones feed quality
foods a healthy feeder is of course better for your fish.
Goldfish just generaly are poor feeders and should be avoided. they are oily not very nutritious and constant feed of them causes faty deposits on the liver leading to premature deaths.They also contain very high levels of Thiaminase a destroying hormone.While many fish used as feeders contain this goldfish seem to have an abundance of it.Another issue is a spine at the front of the dorsal fin which can lead to problems if the goldfish is swollowed the wrong way (tailfirst).Yet another reason not to use goldfish,goldfish farms utilize copper meds in suspension form to combat diseases in the feeders associated with overcrowding.These copper meds are retained by the feeders for long periods after they leave the farms.Most lfs invariably retain all or part of the feeders shipping water when the feeders are loaded into their bins/tanks. And copper does not dissapate from a closed system.
The key is to balance the diet with a variety of foods listed above not just 1 or 2 items and skipping a meal once you notice a decline in growth rate is good for fish.The sad truth is we as hobbyists tend to overfeed our charges
Pellitized foods
Can be found in various diameters and forms include sinking and floating pellets and sticks
shrimp pellets
worm pellets
even pellets for cichlids will work
spirulina sticks
brine shrimp sticks
Algae wafers(some eat them some just look at them)
When feeding pellets how much to feed?
Under 7''I let them eat as much as they want several small feedings when young are better then 1 or 2 large feedings.I let juvies eat till theres a slight bulge to there bellies
This really applies to bichirs 7''+ I feed mine twice a day skipping at least one day a week
Approx. 80% of their diet is a quality pellet food the rest frozen with the ocassional live feeders after quarantine of course.
How manyPellets?
I start off with total 2 pellets per inch of fish eg. a 7'' fish gets 7 pellets in the A.M. and 7 in the evening feeding is then adjusted up or down so all pellets are consumed.Remember a nice round bichir is a happy bichir-Anne
he is a dinosaur bichir and he is about 4 inches.he is in a 60 gallon tank.his tankmates are 1 black ghostknife, 1 krebensis,1 botia loach,1 11inch plecostomis,4 gouramis,and 1 swordtail.we feed him live worms,krill,tubifex worms,blood worms,and he's eaten 3 baby mollies,and 9 feeder fish.when we got the tank set up the baby mollies were our test fish.we have a dalmation molly in our 30 gallon tank that gives birth on a regular basis and we were planning on giving him some of the babies.good or bad idea?
The feeding doesn't sound bad. Throw in some prawns and mysis shrimp into his diet, then thats basically exactly what mine gets. Your tank's stocking could use some help though. The bgk will outgrow the tank, the krib will likely get too aggressive for the bgk to handle (and may get eaten by the polypterus), and depending on the species of gourami, it could get eaten too. The sword tail might disappear when the bichir gets bigger. Not sure on the botia loach, I'll let someone else answer that one.
Ryan
Ryan
the good news is,i can put my krib back in my 30 gallan tank with my other krib she doesn't get along with,the bad news is eveyone keeps telling me my tank is to small for my bkg.i really like him and i hope he can be happy until i can get him a 90 gallon tank.i've had the 30 gallon tank for over 2 years and when i got the 60 i wanted bigger more interesting fish and might have gone a little over board.i'll be honest,fish tanks are addictive.
They are addicting! You really get attached to the fish too. When we moved from California to Colorado, I could only bring my 80g and 30g due to the cost and complications of moving all of them. I had to rehome many fish including a frogfish, weeksii and delhezi bichir, my discus, my moray, and much more. I was bummed to see them go. At least many went to my uncle, so I get to see them whenever I go back to California.
Ryan
Ryan
Dr. Bogger
Fish Fanatic
I figured sence this topic was almost right on the mark with what i am wondering about, i figured i'd post here.
I just noticed one of my male guppies that were in my tank with my bichir (senegalus) have been eated by him... i also noticed that his belly is a little plump... so thats how i know he has eaten it. (I figured he would eat them, and it dont bother me... thats why their in there.)
Im just wondering about something... Ever sence he eat him, he has been hiding out behind a plant in the corner of my tank... is this because he is trying to digest the guppy?
How long does it take for them to digest a live fish, such as a guppy?
I just noticed one of my male guppies that were in my tank with my bichir (senegalus) have been eated by him... i also noticed that his belly is a little plump... so thats how i know he has eaten it. (I figured he would eat them, and it dont bother me... thats why their in there.)
Im just wondering about something... Ever sence he eat him, he has been hiding out behind a plant in the corner of my tank... is this because he is trying to digest the guppy?
How long does it take for them to digest a live fish, such as a guppy?
Dr. Bogger
Fish Fanatic
He is about 4 inches long.
Is hidng out in a corner of the tank, behind a plant normal for them to do after they just eat a live fish?
now that you mention it,saturday night was the last time ours' ate a feeder fish and we didn't see him most of sunday.but that was the first time he had ever done that. i will have to keep an eye on him when he eats the last one.i'm taking the advice i recieved earlier and not giving him anymore feeders. hopefully he will get back to normal.
now that you mention it,saturday night was the last time ours' ate a feeder fish and we didn't see him most of sunday.but that was the first time he had ever done that. i will have to keep an eye on him when he eats the last one.i'm taking the advice i recieved earlier and not giving him anymore feeders. hopefully he will get back to normal.sorry didn't mean it like that,i meant yours.
now that you mention it,saturday night was the last time ours' ate a feeder fish and we didn't see him most of sunday.but that was the first time he had ever done that. i will have to keep an eye on him when he eats the last one.i'm taking the advice i recieved earlier and not giving him anymore feeders. hopefully he will get back to normal.sorry didn't mean it like that,i meant yours.
Dr. Bogger
Fish Fanatic
Im actualy thinking its probabley normal... Althought im not possitive, i know with snakes, after they eat food, they usualy do that... i think its because with the food inside them, they cant defend thereselfs very well, so im thinking its probabley the same with the bichir, but like i said, dont count me on it.
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