The Puffer Forum

More plants, happier fish

Nice planted tank! Makes me want a freshwater system.

Thank you
I see you live in Charleston, I live in Greenville

Cool fish. I've seem em before a wanted one, do you know where to find got info on them.

If you have a petsmart near you, they have them labeled as "Dinosaur bichir", or you can have an lfs order one. I recommend this one, senegal or cuvier, because they're considerably smaller than some other bichirs at max 12" for a female. Mortimer is 8.5" right now. 8.5" of adorable.

I'm in love with my new Ornate birchir! He's very personable--I'm surprised, he seems happy to see me.

What size tank you suggest?

The ornates are beautiful!
For the senegal, I'd say 75, lots of plants, real or fake. He swims around quite a bit, and he gently rests on his little flappy pectoral (I guess that's what they are) fins on the leaves of the plants.
I think the ornates get about 2', but I'm not sure.

He's gonna be gorgeous by the time he's that size! I'm hoping to be able to move him into my 125g before he eats the tetras he's living with now. Do you think he'll be aggressive towards them or just predatory?

Very passive fish. If it doesn't fit in his mouth, he won't even defend himself if a fish bullies him. The female blue acara he lives with used to bite his tail, he'd just swim away and hide in a cave. She was moved to another tank, and she got depressed. I put her back in with him and now she is almost always near him, and helps him find his food sometimes.
If the tetras can't fit in his mouth, he will just ignore them.

That's good to know, because there was a piece missing from one of my Columbian tetra's tail & I was worried.

I was surprised to see he was eating flakes.

It's amazing what they can fit in their mouths. I guess don't be surprised if the whole fish is missing :/

Maybe I should move him earlier than planned.

Any more nom nom nom?