Okay I have two Dinosaur Eels (marbled bichir). I have researched them and other bichirs and came up with the same thing. They are non-aggressive but will eat smaller fish that can fit in there mouths. Am I right on this? Okay now I am going to get to the point. My two bichirs are so mean and so hostile I have them in a seperate tank. They schooled with my ID shark for almost a week then it happened. They attacked my shark at night and took out his eye. I had to remove my shark and he died with in an hour. My shark was more then double the bichirs size. One bichir is more aggressive then the other. I removed my bichirs after my shark died. They are so aggressive that I had to put a warning sign on their tank. It started off more as a joke but there is a lot of truth to it. I don't want my friends 3 and under kids getting their fingures bit or getting scared by a fish that attacks the glass if anyone gets too close. I have had one bite me on the nose bacause I was looking at them about the tank. (I didn't have my nose that close to the water line). I was close to a foot above the tank and the one jumped out and bit me. He coils up like a snake and hurls himself at people. He also latches on to fingures if you put your hand on the tank to reach to get the food. Do they have teeth? I don't think they do but it sure feels like it. The store will only take dead fish back so taking them back is out of the question, and they were to spendy to give away. Does anyone else have this problem? Or do I just have the oddball killers? :devil:
Bichir Help
- Thread starter fishlore101
- Start date
patoloco
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fishlore101 said:
Well, this made me laugh!
Getting seriously,, you have a pair of naughty boys. I have two small bichirs (5" and 4"), and I've seen how the smaller one is affraid of the bigger, since it's becoming a little more agressive, but not as much as you posted. I assume your are fully grown specimens. For some reson they are more feroucious than normal, and being a big fish that can be scary. But those are marvelous fish.
About people getting a bite, I wouldn't even allow another person but myself to put hand in my tanks, specially where I keep my venoumoues stingrays
I just don't want the kids to come near the tank if they are not being watch (if my friends come up). They are not even full grown yet. They are the size of a nail file which is like 5 inches maybe. To eachother they are nice but they are just hostile sometimes. I feed them freeze dried bloodworms and sun dried baby shrimp. When I feed the shrimp I like to watch them play tug of war with one. It seemed like when I started to feed the blood worms they got more aggressive and that is when they killed my shark. I try to give them the tropical fish flakes but they really don't eat them. They won't even eat the truifix worm cubes either. Hmm I just have some naughty fish. :shark:
patoloco
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Lore, I'd really love to have a very agressive bichir like that to have fun while feeding him.
consider yourself as a lucky bichir owner, and keep your tanks tighly closed to avoid any accident.
consider yourself as a lucky bichir owner, and keep your tanks tighly closed to avoid any accident.
I am trying to make a screen cover to put over it. They haven't jumped out just up in to the air at me or anybody else that looks at them. They do a lot of trashing. I went back to the LFS and seen some more Dinosaur eels there. They were so tiny. I thought if I bought those they would become dinner. I've read that you can tell the males and females apart by their anal fin. So how much wider is the males to the females? My more aggressive bichir has a wider anal fin compared to the other but not that much wider.
Brody said:
I had them in a 20 gallon, and please don't yell at me but for now they are in a 10 gallon. Once I have my 80 gallon up and going they will move back into the 20 until I can find something better.
My 3 have never fought, they always lay around, sometimes all together in the same corner. They start to swim around dinner time and all night. However my friend had a mean little bichir. It was in a 20L with an oscar, pike chiclid and puffer. It killed the oscar and puffer, then became the pike chiclid's meal.... Sad but he was keeping the wrong fish in to small of a tank. Now he listens to me. Good luck. Try maybe a bigger tank? Mine are in a 55 now.
Extremely aggressive bichirs are uncommon. You probably just have mean bichirs, some are like that. I don't think you have anything to worry about, especially at the 5" mark. While the do have teeth, when they bite its nothing more than a pinch.