What do ornate bichir eat

New posts. Search forums. Ornate Bichir Diet. Thread starter lizardfishman Start date Feb 21, JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. MFK Member. Aug 15, 1, 2 38 Oregon. Feb 17, 1, 37 Bay Area CA. Larger ones, like rhetorical trials, require gallons of water. The ornaments are about 30 inches long. An id is required though. According to Fishbase, the smallest species is known as Polypermase Ansorji, which is only 20 cm long.

If you are eating directly such as brine shrimp , adjust how often you eat once a day and once every few days , depending on the size of the meal. A good rule is to follow a small, small-sized meal every inch tall. If you think you feed your bichir fish too much, you should change their diets. Eating Characteristics: Eat meaty foods such as fish fillets such as meat, meatballs, shrimp, bloodworms, oysters, and silverside. Feed once a day. Bichirs recognized the snail as food and were pushing one of the glass.

A good diet for Ornate Bichir will consist of a variety of meaty foods: a variety of feeder fish such as shrimp, shrimp, oysters, raw shrimp and silk sides, and lance fish. Some bichirs are known to take commercial meat pellets and wafers, but generally, they work best with either straight or frozen foods. Plants can be very useful, as they provide cover from light. You should leave some air space above the water at the top of the tank to allow your fish to breathe.

However just like any other tank they still need a good filtration system to get rid of the toxic chemicals produced from leftover food. Make sure to double check the water parameters for the exact species you decide to keep as different species have different water requirements.

They usually do well with larger fish, so think Oscars , Blood Parrots, Flowerhorns , large Barbs, Knifefish, medium and large Catfish, and large peaceful African Cichlids. Bichirs are quite slow-moving, so can have some problems with fast active tank mates stealing their food. As bottom-dwelling fish, they might starve as other fish can steal their food before reaching the bottom of the tank. Remember though, they are predatory fish.

So smaller fish and other non-fish inhabitants are discouraged as they will be eaten. They tend to hunt at night and by morning you might notice some of your smaller fish are missing.

You can keep multiple Birchirs together. Bichirs are quite hardy fish and will not present many troubles. Try to provide the best environment possible and you will have happy and healthy fish. Skin and gills flukes are quite common, for example, Macrogyrodactylus polyptery which resembles fine threads on their skin. The fish might start rubbing and rolling around and can be treated using some medication. Tapeworms are also quite common in wild-caught specimens as well as parasitic crustaceans, fungus, and bacterial infections.

Here the parasite lays eggs in the intestine of the host and they are eventually pushed out into the water. The eggs are usually eaten by another crustaceans in turn and the process continues. As most fish, you find in the aquarium trade are wild-caught always quarantine your fish for at least 4 weeks before you add them to the main tank.

Bichirs are nocturnal predators. They are carnivorous fish and enjoy eating small vertebrates, crustaceans, insects, and other small fishes. Feeding them live food will bring out their natural predatory behaviors.

They are slow eaters and you can feed them bloodworms , frozen shrimps, small fishes, and small pieces of meat such as ox heart, or earthworms. They are nocturnal animals and prefer to be fed at night or when the lights are off.

Let the baitfish sink to the bottom of the tank on the tank substrate. If you decide to use sinking pellets or flakes, make sure there are high quality to reduce the risk of introducing potential sources of infection in the tank. Not much is known about breeding these fish in captivity. Generally, breeding Bichir is very difficult as different species require different water conditions, and these conditions are mostly unknown. Some species Polypterus delhezi and Polypterus senegalus have been bred successfully, however not much is known about the conditions needed to induce spawning.

It is also very difficult to distinguish between males and females and almost impossible to distinguish with juveniles. Feeding them with the aquarium lights off gives them an advantage over tank mates who use eyesight as a primary method of detecting food. Click or tap the images below to view full size images, then click or tap off the image to shrink again. Join the Conversation.

Help Support AquariumDomain! Aquarium Care How to successfully keep Ornate Bichir in the home aquarium. Click or Tap Photos below for Full Size Photos Click or tap the images below to view full size images, then click or tap off the image to shrink again.