# Senegal Bichir Advice needed



## redshark (Oct 4, 2010)

Hey All,

So my friend recently moved away and left me his tank, he had to move because of work and prior to him moving away he purchased 3 senegal bichirs!! 

Now since he gave me the tank at a throw away price and I found these fish super interesting, I've decided to keep them (he sold them to me at about $12 each at 5") tank was free a 46G four foot tank, now I've added one of them to my 195G tank, he's been OK since I added him in, now my questions are these:-

1)What do you(anyone with any experience of keeping them) think about these fish?

2)Diet? - They are primarily carnivorous and from what I've read they can get nasty when larger..

3) How long do you think I can keep them for until I find a replacement tank large enough to house them or a good home for them!

4) Are these guys blind? the food I've been feeding my cichlids passes right by them without a glance?

I know I could do a google search but I'd prefer answers from some people with a little more experience with these guys, I thought my clown knife would eat him, but they're getting along quite well, most of the other fish totally ignore him (for now!) Oh and also any special info I need to know about these guys would be real handy and much appreciated! 

Thanks


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## ChicagoFishLife (Feb 5, 2012)

Hey there, new to the forum but saw your post about birchirs and thought I'd share my k1nowledge about them.

1 - I personally find them very cool and interesting. They have a very heavy duty scale structure which makes it hard for fish to nip and pirce the skin. They also have primitive lungs which I found the most interesting so they will need to have some air surface because they come up periodically to take a breath.

2 - Yes they are carnivorous, however my birchir enjoys the veggie waffers that I usually throw in my tank for my bottom feeders or plecos. When he was younger I'd feed him small freeze dried plankton and as he got bigger I fed him live ghost shrimp which he loved to stalk and be a ninja with. Now I feed him a mixed diet of Hikari Krill and Veggie wafers.

3 - It all depends really. They grow only to about 12", live a pretty long time, and depending on what you feed them (high protein diet or not) it'll take a good while for them to grow to full length. So if you have three, they should all be fine in a 50gal tank or maybe a 40 breeder. If you have all three in the 180 gal, I would just continually check up on them and your other fish and watch for any nips. You should be fine as long as the fish are bigger than your birchirs.

4 - They aren't completely blind haha. Their eye sight is just not as keen as other fish. To make up for this they have a great sense of smell (hence those small things coming off their nose). I enjoy watching mine explore the ground smelling around for the veggie waffer.

Hope you found this all helpful, let me know how it goes with them!
cheers ~


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## plecosrawesome (Mar 1, 2011)

They are awesome!

they will eat almost everything from bloodworms,earthworms,beefheart,feeders,pellets.Just about anything that can fit in its mouth.

they breath air so leave some space at the top for them to breath.They grow to about twelve inches and need 55 gallons per bichir.They hunt food mainly by scent as there eyesight isnt all that good.


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## marcusrose123 (Jun 13, 2012)

a cheap easy meal for them is the left over of your sunday dinner! 
just make sure you dont have any fish that will fit in there mouth whole because they wont be there for much longer!!!


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## meBNme (Oct 7, 2011)

I love em!

You might want to look at the other, more colorful kinds of polypterus.

I personally prefer the lower jaw types.

polypterus endlicheri








polypterus ornatipinnis








https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/i...V3jskXM9wXa_Bn8MW4TxZoV2YSpIZo3qi4huLaTqHsTSj









They are "ambush predators" and are known for sitting motionless until prey swims near then lunging in to snatch it up.

Literally, it if will fit in it's mouth, it will eat it. With very few exceptions.

They actually sense motion, or electric impulses from the energy exerted from the muscles of living prey. Thats what folks mean when they say "smell" in this case.

They will eat chopped fish, market shrimp, raw chunks of chicken, beef, other fish, etc.

For entertainment, get some night crawlers, rinse in off, and dangle the living squirming night crawler near the Polys mouth. 

Watching them snatch it up faster than you can blink is quite fun.


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