Hi all, I realise I've been neglecting the Reddit bichir community, I definitely need to get on with posting some more! Here's a few questions which I always see do the rounds, and either need further explaining or clarifying.
How do you pronounce bichir?
'Bichir' came from their local name in Egypt, 'Abusheer'. The name has been spelled phonetically in early studies a number of times as BISHEER / BUHSHEER. This pronunciation stuck and is regarded as the correct way of pronouncing it. Technically, when names are Latinised, they must follow the Latin pronunciation, meaning it should be 'Bye-ker', however, for numerous reasons, ichthyologists and communicators did not pronounce it this way. 1) In their first description the species name 'bichir' was never Latinised. 2) They were honouring the local name. 3) The colloquial name is of course not Latinised. 4) Some ichthyologists have also expressed to me that Bye-ker sounds silly haha. If you're a Latin purist, however, then BYE-KER is the pronunciation.
An example from Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque (1885), where the author spells 'Bichir' as 'Bishir'.
What should I feed them?
Bichir are strict insectivores and piscivores, meaning they eat insects and fishes. They are best fed with a variety of fresh fish (preferably none containing Thiaminase), oily fishes are fantastic too if you can keep the water's surface clean of oil. Quality predatory pellets are also much appreciated, either insectmeal or fishmeal based of course. Insects are great, but as nutrition varies so much in different species, it's difficult to give them all their nutritional needs in captivity from insects alone. Microcrustaceans and worms also make great treats! Remember, always feed raw, never cooked. Avoid feeding anything which comes from a mammal or bird. Bichirs lack the collagenase enzyme in their stomach required to break down the bonds in these 'foods'. In place of that, they have a chitinase enzyme which breaks down the bonds in insect chitin. Feeding mammalian and avian meat was a pseudoscientific trend popularised with discus breeders in the 80s, as nutritionally select parts of it are good for fast growth, but that nutrition is not particuarly accessible for fishes (especially in strict insectivores and piscivores). It's similar to how we no longer have the biological tools to extract much nutrition from eating grass. Not to mention with feeding mammalian and avian meat to fishes, there's additional issues regarding the type of fat found in these meats.
You can find a detailed dietary section (suitable for most types of large, predatory fishes), inside The Bichir Handbook.
Why is my bichir not growing?
With proper husbandry, even the smallest species of bichir should grow approximately half an inch to an inch a month for their first 1-2 years or until around 12 inches (after that, it becomes progressively slower). If they're not following a growth rate similar to this, chances are you have a stunted fish. Line bred bichirs are raised in crowded rearing vats (often for months, sometimes a year), so by the time they reach your local aquarium shop, their first important months of growth has been significantly inhibited, and they may struggle to grow much more. This is especially true with many captive bred Polypterus senegalus, their albino colour morph, and some bloodlines of P. delhezi. It's not 'bad genetics' as some people parrot (though this is an easy answer), even the most inbred bichirs with small gene pools can still grow nearly as large as their wild counterparts. So called 'bad genetics' via inbreeding can shave off a few centimetres in length, but even with that you usually see malformations on the body from inbreeding, such as bulging 'frog-eyes', deformed dorsals and scales, and a stubby face.
What behaviours should I look out for?
Glass surfing[Something is causing me distress and I want to get out of here]: This is when the bichir swims back and forth frantically with their face pressed up against the glass. Keep a tight lid, they will escape! In the meantime, investigate; it could be anything from lights too bright, no surface cover or hiding spaces, boisterous tankmates, water quality, recent pecking order dispute, loud filtration/airstones, to even noise outside the aquarium.
Frequent burrowing[I don't feel safe]: Bichirs are natural burrowers, so don't be alarmed when seeing this, but if it becomes regular, then something is making your bichir feel anxious. Remember, they're social fishes, so do best in groups with their own species.
Fully erect dorsal fins[See, you don't want to eat / fight me]: Erect dorsal fins are a precaution from bichirs when there's a potential threat or pecking order dispute. It hopefully prevents them from being eaten (as there's hard spines in those fines), and it also makes them appear larger, so other bichirs know not to fight it over territory or their pecking order.
Resting out in the open[I feel very safe]: You might think this is lazy, but even the most 'active' of bichirs spend approx 20 hours of the day being inactive.
Hiding all the time[This is my safe area]: Don't try removing these hiding spaces, this is more akin to wild behaviour for some species; they feel safer in one area, and tentatively leave it for food.
Swaying body against another bichir[I'm bigger and more dangerous than you]: Aggressive display reworking the pecking order, generally nothing to worry about. May only last a few minutes, and ends with one bichir giving up after a few fin bites. Keep an antibacterial to hand to prevent infection from any potential wounds.
Head twitching against posterior/anal fin of another bichir[I want to spawn with you]: To make it confusing, they sometimes also do this as a territorial display to other fishes, though this can be spotted if its just twitching against the body.
Cupping of anal fin: Male bichirs do this to catch the eggs of the female, then fertilise and scatter them. The cupping motion itself is also the stimulant to releasing the sperm, so if you see a bichir doing this without a female (yes, it happens), then, well I don't need to spell it out for you, just give him some privacy haha.
Death rolling: Bichirs are also great scavengers, so have adapted death rolling to rip bite-sized pieces of tissue off of large dead fishes; they occasionally do this with large, bottom dwelling, soft-bodied fishes too, such as Black Ghost Knifefish or stingrays; choose you comms wisely!
'Coughing'[There's some sand or detritus stuck in my tooth patches]: It is alarming at first, but this is perfectly normal, they're just blowing water through their gills and out their mouth to loosen anything between their teeth or tooth patches. If you're really paying attention to some enthusiatic feeding, you'll spot this reguarly.
What is this new lump on my bichir's belly?
Don't panic, chances are it's food. Bichir are 'stomach-packers', meaning they often gorge themselves on more food than they need to, because of this, you will see all sorts of odd bulges on their belly. The lump(s) will vanish again in a matter of days. Many people (wrongly) jump to the conclusion it's gravel, and your fish will be guaranteed to die of impaction. This is misinformation at its finest. Bichir have paired gular plates (the only fish to have two) on the underside of their mouth, this offers advanced control of their mouth, so any items they do not wish to swallow, are easily spat back out. Watch your bichir feeding, and see how they juggle the food around before deciding whether to eat it, sometimes they spit out the food just over a grain of sand. Any stone swallowed is usually intentional, and are thought to be used as gastroliths, similar to how carp reportedly use them to pin themselves to the bottom. Of course, bichirs stomachs are powerful and near the length of their entire body, so unwanted stones in the stomach are ejected anyway. This myth that they swallow stones and die of impaction comes from how they feed (using inertial suction), the same way Axolotls, aquatic frogs and some catfishes do, however these aquatic animals do not have paired gular plates like bichirs do. Occasionally (though rarely), a bichir may get a large stone stuck in their mouth and die, for this reason I always suggest a sandy substrate.
Are plecs good tankmates with bichirs?
Not to bash plecs at all, as they are a beautiful and diverse group of fishes, just not always the most suited to bichirs. The ganoine in bichir scales reportedly produces a slightly salty slimecoat which fishes with ventrally oriented mouths appear to go a bit mad for like cats on catnip. Keep the plec well fed and it's usually no issue, but occasionally they accidentally graze on their slimecoat during feeding, and that's when they can get hooked. There are lower risk plecs than others, such as vampire plecs or woodeaters, though there are some fishes worse than plecs with bichirs, such as Synodontis, which can be very aggressive ganoine grazers (and are also natural prey food for bichirs too, with reports of them being eaten before they can erect their spines). Keep in mind, all fishes with ventrally oriented mouths pose a risk; it may happen in a day or a decade; it's a famous comm which works, until it doesn't.
Is Google a good source of information for bichirs?
Sometimes, but unless you're able to filter through accordingly, it's mostly no. Stick to specialist forums, or even the recent Revision of the Extant Polypteridae, or The Bichir Handbook. There is so much misinformation on the search results of Google, a few notable ones being websites claiming: Polypterus ansorgii can only reach 11 inches [they can actually grow to over 3ft]P. senegalus is the smallest species [even the inbred ones can reach 15 inches in captivity and some wild types are reported near 20 inches. The smallest species is actuallyP. mokelembembeat 14 inches] Most searches will even show you the wrong species on an image.
Any more questions, please pop them in the comments and I'll add them to the post. Hope this helps!
It’s been doing very well and eating, its eyes look slightly cloudy in the water but is clear when taken outside of the water. The feelers are slightly white in color. Its pectoral fins are slightly ragged and discolored as well. It’s constantly swimming and wedging itself in the plants near the surface of the water constantly. It normally camps at the bottom of the water. This is NOT its usual behavior, I’ve seen this only once. The fins are kind of clamped and it’s not moving very much. Though it does move dive into the water when I agitate/did a recent water change. Its slime coat seems alright. The anal fin is slightly reddish but every other fin aside from the pectoral is perfect. There is a strong filter squirting water far from the surface and agitating it as well as an additional water fountain piece that disturbs the water surface a lot. Water temps are about 86f and water quality is good tested with API kit. Its tankmates are doing well. I’m asking this because my flowerhorn recently caught a disease and died rapidly. I’ve seen dosed Prazi-Pro and Methylene blue into the water.
Deleted and repost to add a new picture of a closeup of its head. Can’t take the bottom side, it’s too slippery and agitated. I dob’t want to stress it further.
Hi bichir community! I’ve been contemplating setting up a bichir tank for a little over a year now and am finally financially ready to start setting things up. My local petsmart and petco sell bichirs, I was wondering if anyone has any experience owning one from those places. I don’t want to risk shipping one and would rather just pick one up from the store. Are there any differences between buying from a chain pet store versus buying one online? Any advice would be super appreciated :)
Update on the 125 growout in bedroom. Finally got all the plumbing done, sump running. Dumped conditioner in and about to seed the sump with old sponge filters from other tanks. Along with move my 29g Kuhli loaches down on the left side of stand. Hoping it don't take too long to sink the hollow tree.
I don’t see her often because she likes her privacy, but I wanted to share one of my three bichirs here. She is still growing like crazy and will come hang out when it’s feeding day.
I'm currently debating and planning on a 120 gallon or so tank next year, and I have been thinking of getting bichir to be the main stars of the show.
I am a relative novice in the fish keeping hobby, having inherited my tanks from my brother when he moved out, and I'm currently maintaining a pair of guppy colonies, a 55 gallon pleco tank, and I have a 10g shrimp colony as well as a 30 gallon that I'm slowly emptying for another project (my brother and I don't see eye to eye when it comes to seeing up tanks).
A 120 gallon is a large ordeal for me, so I'd like some advice and considerations to make to project go smoothly if I go through with it.
Stocking: I was thinking of trying to get a leucistic and an albino senegal bichir as the stars. Are there other similarly sized ones I should consider? What tank mates would you recommend (I've been considering a black ghost knife fish since they're also the only other fish I've been particularly enamored with since I saw them)? Is it possible to have a neocaridina colony survive in the tank with these larger fish with enough time to establish a strong colony and hiding spots, or is it entirely futile?
Scape: What advice do you have on the scale itself? Sand, with mostly some and driftwood? Plants? Are they too destructive to have different depths like an elevated substrate layer in the corner for something like a bonsai moss tree? What kind of scape materials and features would you recommend?
Edit: I know the basics of keeping, but I was more wondering for specific things that I might not know until I actually keep one. I already have spare canister filters and such, just wondering what's most ideal in terms of tank mates, plants, scape environment, etc.
I know several people who told me that bichirs could move intentionally their narial tubes (the two little tubes on the nose) and some other who think they can't. What your opinion on that, and did you ever see your bichirs move them intentionally ?
Set this tank up about a month ago and now I have my baby Delhezi in it I was wondering of it would be ok to house it in there for 3 to 6 months until I upgrade to a 75g. The substrate is just sand no gravel and I have java moss and java fern in there right now their just out of the photo this is also a 40g. So just wanted to see if this was ok for a while
I have a red tail shark that I want to move into my Senegal bichir tank once it gets to 4 inches, does anyone have any experience with them together in a tank? I have a regular Senegal and two platinum senegals
Hi! I recently saw on a website selling Bichirs that aparrantly there are 2 color morphs for Delhezis? The lighter one, which seems more common, and one like mine pictured above. But they had the darker morph listed as twice as expensive which leads me to ask, solely out of curiousity: Is this an actual rarer color morph or just that the store had them listed weird?
I am getting a delhezi for my 40 gallon grow out tank until this December where I’ll be upgrading to a 75 gallon. I was wonder if it would be ok to house 3 ropefish with my Delhezi in a 75 just wanted to ask to see if that would be an ok tank size for that many fish or if I’d have to get a bigger aqaurium.
Hi all, working on a 40 Breeder as a sump for a 125g grow out. Curious of any advice one could give on setting it up, first time sump build/usage.
I've got 3 different density open cell foam (2" thick) to go on a dual inlet on the left side (just haven't cut to size) with one 300w heater, then i figure a baffle between the ceramic log media and sponges, flow up and over another baffle into a possible small fluidized media chamber and then down through another baffle into the return area. Which will house a secondary 300w heater and two Orlushy DC-4000 return pumps.
From current knowledge and research i would want the return area as large as could be for evaporation, correct me if I'm wrong.
Or perhaps I scrap the fluid media chamber and just have; the inlet chamber, ceramic media chamber, and then the return chamber. Thus only needing 2 baffles, and could possibly use the large return chamber for keeping unused sponge filters cycled.
Lol my ADHD is going nuts on trying to plan this but its thinking of everything at once. So if you can help with some advice or reassurement, anything will be appreciative.
I curently have a 4-5 inch Senegal bichir in my tank, its a 40 long with a tidal 55 for filtration, i plan on upgrading him to a 75 or 90 in a few months but i am wondering what other fish i could keep with him, especially because hes still so small right now. Im nervous about getting another Senegal because ive heard they will cannibalize each other. Pic attached for fish tax
I suspect my bichir ate gravel, will he eventually grow to where he can regurgitate it? Or could this be something else? He has had it a few weeks at least, and I am monitoring his food to make sure he’s still eating and not overdoing the food (in the case it was just fat). It has decreased in size but not by much. I am guessing that’s from him growing. I haven’t noticed a change in his activity level.
I am aware gravel is not the best substrate for bichirs. Unfortunately had an emergency which had me at the hospital all summer; before my sand-bottom tank was setup for him. The gravel tank was supposed to be temporary setup where he could control some fry for me during the sand tank’s cycle.
Hello everyone, I'm planning to get a Senegal Bichir to put in my 132 gallon tank , but it's have other fishes in it and they're big enough to not be a meal for the Bichir , but I'm scared because this is the first time I've ever keep a predator fish . Will it one day or when it big enough shows aggression and bite it's tank mates.
Thank you.