What kind of bichir is this?

[Kuli_Loach]

He has the spines and all that stick up. Can you identify what it is so I can learn a few more things about it?

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[Drumachine09]

The only birchir ive ever seen is a senegal birchir. It looks vaugly like one, but dont take my word for it.

[tropfish]

i saw one called a ghost bicher at my lfs and that looks alot like it, but i know nothing about these fish so i'm basing it on looks

[Kuli_Loach]

Ok, I still don't know but he loves pieces of silver sides!!!

[NorthernBoy]

I think it may be a West African bichir. Polypterus retropinnis

[YaYgoldFish]

I had one, its an albino polypterus Senegal .

Snegal bichir, dinosaur bichirl...lots of names

[Drumachine09]

I had one, its an albino polypterus Senegal .

Snegal bichir, dinosaur eel...lots of names


Is that the same fish as the dragon eel?

[Fishguy2727]

Polypterus senegalus (gray bichir, brown bichir, Cuvier's bichir, common bichir, bichir, dinosaur eel, senegal bichir, etc.). They hit 12"+, are carnivorous, and need access to the surface for air, are very good escape artists, should not be with anything that could fit in their mouth. The best food for them is New Life Spectrum. Avoid live foods. What size tank is it in? What else is in there?

[Kuli_Loach]

In a 55 gallon tank and everything in there gets 6"+ so I saw that as fine. I feed him pieces of silver sides and carnivore pellets. I guess he may eat other things as well that I feed my other fish that make it to the bottom like very little blood worms and brine shrimp and mysis and beef heart. How often do I feed him a piece of a silver side? A whole one every 2 or 3 days or what? He is roughly 6-7" I believe.

[YaYgoldFish]

I had one about 5 inches and i would just feed a piece of shrimp from the super market. Maybe try sinking pellets? You could feed him 1-2 times a day....

[Kuli_Loach]

He will nibble on the sinking pellets but he don't eat them enough I don't think. He likes beef heart a little.

[chris hop]

i know that im a noob but i have done tones of resharch on these and for when they are young blodworms should be good but they should have varite lol i dont know hopw to spell that word

[Oscar_freak12321]

Hmm...either a retropinnis or a senegalus. I would put my money on senegalus, as that is way more common and sold a lot more.

[Northernguy]

lol Its been two years since he posted that thread. He may have figured it out before he got rid of the tank!

[Fishguy2727]

Another old thread, but anyways. Get them on prepared foods asap. Bloodworms, blackworms, and other single item foods are not complete or balanced.

[Oscar_freak12321]

WHOA! Thank you NG you just snapped me back to life there. I completely forgot to check the dates. I'd still say it's a senegalus though... :hmm3grin2orange: