A true carnivore

So three days before I moved the Bolivians into their own tank, my dad and I went to the Aviarium to see if they had anything new. We saw a tank of Senegal bichirs, better known as Dinosaur eel, all about three and a half inches long. They looked pretty cool, but I already knew that they get about a foot long, and they eat live food. They can also stretch their mouth, kind of like a snake, to help ingest their meal. The Aviarium store owner bred and raised these bichirs himself.

Of course, my dad bought one for $15, saying it was revenge from when I got a freshwater puffer for his 55 gallon. It was a long time ago, probably 6 or 7 years. The little puffer was about an inch long, and my dad's tank had an 18" pleco, a 12" pleco, a 22" African ropefish, ten 3" tiger barbs, six 3" cory catfish, and six 7" silver dollars. My little puffer fish killed the 12" pleco and ropefish within a week. My dad was horrified. So he wants the bichir to eat all my fish eventually. Before he picked one out, I made him promise to buy me some bigger fish of my choice if my barbs get eaten. I don't know what I'll get, but it has to have personality. The tiger barbs are probably my favorite freshwater fish because of their personality.

So this bichir came home and I acclimated him. He tried grabbing my otos, but he couldn't seem to get his mouth around them. They learned after a few days not to hang out on the heater anymore. Now the one that's left stays on the filter spray bar just below the surface. The bichir loves to hang out in the clay pot cave in my tank.

Senegal bichirs (and I think all bichirs in general) are related to the lungfish. As they get older, their gills begin to disappear, and they grow these little nostril-type things. They go up to the surface to breathe air, kind of like a betta or gourami. Since they can breathe atmospheric air, they can live out of water for 2 or 3 days (crazyyyy). They may try to escape from the tank, mine hasn't yet, and they can crawl around using their pectoral fins as legs; mine grabs onto the substrate with his fins sometimes to stay still as he's stalking a feeder.

The bichir eats live foods. So we have to go out and buy minnows every week. Since he would gorge himself every time I put the minnows in the tank (he'd eat like two or three in one day, and he'd be REALLY chubby afterwards), I started to put them in a different container. Since I have no money for a small tank, I've been putting them in an old gallon-sized pickle jar. When I would put them all straight into the tank, some of them would die, from harassment of the barbs and the temperature being too high for them. In the jar, they're by themselves and they stay at room temp. My bichir also will eat the smaller-sized algae wafers whole, I'm not entirely sure if others do this too.

He also likes to eat frozen foods sometimes. When I run out of feeders, or if I just feel like treating my barbs (which is pretty often), he likes to wait until they've eaten half of the chunk, then he eats the rest of it. At first he flips out a little when he bites into, but I'd imagine it's still cold in the middle.

He's about 5 inches long now, and it's only been a few weeks since we got him. So Senegal bichirs grow pretty fast, especially with a variety of meaty foods. They've got an interesting personality, and I'd say that as long as you have fish that'll get to over 3" long, you should get one of these. Since they get to be 12" they need at least 55 gallons, though I personally think a stumpy tank (the same build as a 40 breeder, but bigger) would actually be better for them, since they're air-breathing bottom-dwellers.