First bichir! Few questions

[xDestro]

I finally got my first bichir! ( sorry he's hard to get a pic of ) he's only maybe 3 and a half inches and I got him yesterday, he's in a 75 with 5 pictus cats. I feed the cats tubefix worms and they go crazy for them but I never saw my bichir eat so what do they normally eat? I saw him eat a shrimp sinking pellet but there a bit big for him to manage.I threw 1 krill in there last night and woke up and nothing had touched it. Also how social are they? Can they get to a point where they come out when ur close to the tank? Or even hand feed them?

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[wfex4]

They will eat when they're hungry. Just make sure there is food for them to eat, which could be a problem with the catfish. Mine mostly eat at night so I will throw some pellets in the tank after lights out.

Edit: I feed them a variety of pellets mostly. I haven't seen them eat blood/tubifex worms, but that is mostly because they are gone by the time the bichirs realize they are there.

 

[xDestro]

Ok cool I'll try that, the catfish seem almost scared of him tho, iv seen the cats swim right by him and he does absolutely nothing but they all seem to mostly avoid him and even stay away from the food that he's near, i guess i can't complain tho lol

 

[tlindsey]

Ok cool I'll try that, the catfish seem almost scared of him tho, iv seen the cats swim right by him and he does absolutely nothing but they all seem to mostly avoid him and even stay away from the food that he's near, i guess i can't complain tho lol

Like wfex4 stated make sure the poly gets food.

 

[ShanerBock888]

Congrats on your first poly! Be prepared to get some more, they're the most addictive fish I've ever kept. I got my first one about 5 months ago and now have 5. I house them in a poly-only tank so I don't know about keeping them with pictus, but you may have to do some targeted feeding to make sure he gets fed. Maybe distract the pictus with something they like at one end of the tank and then dropping the poly's food right next to it. Also, if it takes a couple days for him to eat it's nothing to worry about, a couple of mine went on a hunger strike from the stress of the move. I feed mine beef heart, tilapia, hikari massivore pellets broken into smaller pieces, and once in a while some shrimp. They're not too picky really.

As for how social they are, it will vary between individuals. 2 of my guys will swim to the glass every time i'm in the room, and one of those will swim circles around my hand if I put it in the water. Only one of mine is at all scared of me. All in all they're awesome fish, and each one has a distinct personality. Enjoy!