Senegal Bichir

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WRAragon

Rene
Jan 29, 2009
104
0
16
Mississippi
www.myspace.com
I recently purchased a senegal bichir, its about 3-4 inches. I love this fish! lol Its actually more active than I though it would be. Does anyone know the growth rate on these guys? I also wanted to know what their proper diet should be. Petsmart info tab said flake, pellet, freeze dried. I want to give it the best diet possible to insure good health and proper growth. Is there anything else I should be feeding it? I read beef heart and live feeder fish. It is still pretty small but im sure it can handle a small feeder guppy. Feeding time (flakes) is just before the aquarium light is turned off so I haven't actually seen it eat. An info would be greatly appreciated Thanks guys!
 

Nolapete

Monster Tank Builder
May 29, 2007
5,274
1
0
New Orleans, LA
Don't feed it live feeders. There's no need to and you'd be going in the opposite direction that you'd want to be which is to have them off live food. Any of the frozen foods like bloodworms, mysis shrimp, tubifex worms, etc. Market shrimp, earthworms, etc. cut in pieces. Freeze-dried foods like krill, tubifex worms, blood worms.
 

F1shkeeper

smells like... victory
Apr 24, 2006
107
0
0
38
NJ
I have kept Bichirs for years and i like to feed them live fish, I find it fun to watch and makes them more aggresive eaters in general, which of course helps them grow faster. They are very hardy fish and i have never seen one get sick. As far as growth rate they are slower growers then most large fish.
 

IceH2O

Bazinga
Nov 26, 2005
1,681
60
51
Rock Hill,South Carolina
Real Name
Ice
Mine eat everything even flake.

I do the live minnows once in a while as a treat but not often enough that they will only eat live.

Earthworms from a bait shop they love,I just cut them into 3 inch pieces so they don't choke.

Frozen silversides are a fish they love also.

Mine grew to about 6 inches real quick then slowed down to about an inch a year.
 

enthusiast

AC Members
Sep 29, 2009
68
0
6
Sidney, OH
I disagree with Nolapete. If you want the best possible diet for your fish i first would like to commend you for thinking for the best interest of the fish

You will get the best diet for him by feeding him a good variety of fish foods- most certainly including the live foods. I had one of these fish myself- careful they jump from the tank as i'm sure you already know though.

I fed mine earthworms, wax worms (gas station down the street sold them), feeder guppies, tubifex worm cubes, & blood worms. The earthworms i tried cutting in smaller pieces and making sure he seen because they will crawl down in the rocks and die and stink up the place- though i've actually WATCHED my bichir dig in the substrate to get to the worm, really neat to watch how he'd act in the wild. The wax worms float which was great and even at his small size he'd eat 4-6 at a time!!

I had bought feeder guppies also from the pet shop but housed them separately because many will die off in the initial 2 days. I keep them for about a week before i feed any to him because with these feeder fish theres a high risk of parasites and whatnot and by keeping them for about a week the sickly ones die off quickly (day or 2) and with the other 5 days you can feed them plenty of flake foods (here you can get 100 feeders for about $10- 50 will die off almost immediately) and by doing so will help them pass any parasites they may have in their system.

the live foods is an amazing source of protein and i found that when i bought mine at about the same size as u did yours, 3-4 inches, he quickly blew-up! He got so plump and round while growing in length too. Watch out if you have him housed with other smaller fish species because as he grows he will pick off your fish one by one.... they like to do their dirty work at night- u will wake up every morning to fish dissappeared.
 
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