bichir foods

dino_eel

AC Members
Oct 21, 2005
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could i give my baby bichir, some chopped shrimp, the cooked kind that you get at the store?
 
i think so, as long as it is small enough for it to swallow whole, i dont know if they could tear it up enough if it is too big. what else do you feed it? i feed mine sinking carnivore pellets, frozen beefheart, frzn squid, frzn krill, and frzn plankton. what type is it? what tank size? what tankmates?
 
Bichirs can swallow surprisingly big chuncks of food. However, I always chop shrimp before I feed it. I was surprised to see them eat sinking pellets and flakes. Also, they will eat feeder fish that happens to swim around their mouths.

So, as far as I know, they will eat anything that get near their faces :)
 
Feeding just remember small bichirs smaller sized pieces
Live foods : guppies , rosey red minnows, ghost shrimp, earthworms
frozen: bloodworms, mysis shrimp,brine shrimp , krill, squid and frozen silversides
a good quality pellet, lean meaty foods such as beefheart are good too
but you need to balance their diet for nutrition so vary the diet, not just one
thing.How much to feed them ? Feed them until their belly bows slightly.
and skipping a meal will not hurt them once they are
past 7-8 inches remember in the wild food is not
always available.A nice round bichir is a happy bichir
NUTRITION FOR CARNIVORES
Below are the agreed upon nutritional requirements for predatory fish
below that is a list of necessary vitamins usually supplied and just for informational
purposes.
PROTEIN:: 45% or more (this would be the ideal)
FAT:: 3% Min. to 6% Max.
FIBER 2% Min. to 4% Max
 
i dont use live food if an animal will take prepared, because then you are unnecessarily running the risk of exposing them to parasites and diseases. if you are going to use live you should breed it yourself, but since bichirs will so readily take a wide variety of prepared foods you shouldnt need to ever feed anything live.
 
so far mine has taken the liberty to have eaten some of the zebra danio fry and eggs that were hiding in the gravel, and has eaten some tropical pellets.
 
Soon he'll take the liberty of eating the zebra danios. If you don't want to loose them , move them to another tank.
 
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