Driftwood and Senegal Bichir Questions

[Sa777]

What is this slimy coating on my driftwood? The driftwood has only been in my tank about a week, just noticed the slime a couple days ago. Kinda hard to see with the glare, but its white, and on multiple pieces of driftwood in the tank. I just need to know if it will harm my fish. It is in a 55g with a Senegal (3.5in) and some Zebra minnows. My second question is how big will my Senegal bichir need to be to eat the zebra minnows? They are about 1.5 inches and he is 3.5. Is he big enough to eat ghost shrimp? I attached a picture of him just for reference. I currently feed him bloodworms, I just wanted to vary his diet with some live food.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Your "slime" is just bacteria growing on the log. It's harmless to the tank but is quite a pest to the tank. It is quite a common occurrence on driftwood and is nothing to worry about as it will eventually go away in max about 6 months. That sounds like a ton of time and a mess right? Well, boiling and cleaning the wood off with tank water often help greatly speed up this process. I scrubbed mine every day in a bucket of tank water and eventually it stopped growing back.

Hope this helps!


Caleb

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[ImACoolguy]

As for the Senegal, I have one myself and more than likely he will eventually get to the point where he "could" eat them. It's also possible he won't by keeping him well fed and not feeding him live foods he has to hunt as this could teach him hunting skills that could lead to hunting down your fish.


Caleb

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[Sa777]

Thanks for all your help!
I do not plan on keeping any fish in the tank that my bichir could eat; I do not think live foods will be a problem. The zebra minnows currently in the tank are just from cycling, so I do not really want them in the tank anyways. I was just wondering if he was physically capable of eating ghost shrimp. It is so fun to watch him eat, I just wanted to watch him hunt something alive! The 1st day I had him I stuck some ham on a stick and put it right in front of him, and he devoured it. I now know that ham is high in fat and not something to feed fish, so I won't make that mistake again.