Bichir

[josh7]

I have figured out my bottom feeder for my new 75 gallon Oscar tank I'm going to get a Senegal bichir.

I was wanting to know if anyone has experience with these and was wondering are they active, what to feed them, do they need many hiding places.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

I had one but had to rehome it , they are really cool fish and I enjoyed mine but I had trouble feeding it. They were not the fastest eaters and my other fish would eat the food before he could get it. I was having to overfeed just so he could eat. Luckily I was easily able to rehome it. If you get one just watch out that the oscar does not eat all its food.

 

[josh7]

Alright I was thinking of feeding it about an hour after the tank lights go out and I'm going to get it first so it learns where I will put food so it can get to it first but do they require many hiding places.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

They are really active at night so that might work, since they love to hide if you got a piece of pvc pipe or one of those hollow plastic logs that a oscar could not fit in you could maybe put food in there for it to eat, they can smell really good and should find the food easy in there.

 

[josh7]

Alright the tank I just got came with a 3 foot hollow log I will have to soak it and stuff ( does it matter if it was used for a lizard if I wash it off really good)

 

[darkmatter_3500]

Just wash it good and that hollow log would work perfect, is it plastic or wood?

 

[josh7]

It's wood so how long should I just soak it for after I pressure spray it.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

Put it in a ice chest and pour boiling water in it , let it soak for a day . That will kill anything on it and get most tannins out.

 

[josh7]

Alright then will do thanks and I have one more question is it bad to cycle a tank with feeder fish like rosy minnows.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

They might carry disease, well I guess the cycle time would be like a quarentine period. It is easier when you dont have to worry about keeping a fish alive during the cycle period. You can just toss a "shrimp the raw kind that you eat"in the water and let it produce ammonia if you want.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

Also your oscar and bichir will produce alot more waste than a rosey red so you want to build up a good amount of bacteria before you put those fish in or it might take a few days for the bacteria to build up enough to handle the amount of ammonia that those 2 fish are going to produce. Fishless cycle might be a little better in your situation.

 

[josh7]

Okay so the raw shrimp is there anything else you can put in like frozen bloodworms or fish food right.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

Yeah but the raw shrimp will not dissolve as fast and will keep putting out ammonia, pure ammonia works best but it is hard to find and you have to make sure it does not contain any other chemicals. It is better because you can actually measure how much ammonia goes in but the shrimp works great and alot of people use it.

 

[josh7]

Okay and if I put old decorations and squish like a bio bag in the new tank and add gravel won't that cut down on the cycling time to.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

It would help , the best thing to do is put old filter material in the new filter that is the best way to speed up cycling

 

[josh7]

Alright will do thanks for the help.

 

[darkmatter_3500]

No problem and good luck with your fish!

 

[Aski247]

I have a Senegal, it's a awesome fish. With bichirs you have to keep room at the top of the tank for them to gulp air. I generally keep mine about a half inch low.

Senegal's IMO are the most active out of the bichirs.

As said before their smell is very good, luckily mine eats pellets/frozen/feeders. A very hardy fish also very tough.

I'm about to do water changes I'll try and snap a few pics of mine.

 

[josh7]

Alright thanks do you know what the growth rate of the senegals are because the largest I can find are 3 inches and I don't want to get a Oscar until it reaches 6 inches.

 

[Aski247]

Alright thanks do you know what the growth rate of the senegals are because the largest I can find are 3 inches.

that's about the size I got mine last June and it's about 7-8" now.