About Senegal Bichirs

[Egemen]

First of all, I am new to this forum so hello and nice to meet you. English is not my main language and I am rather young (18) so If I make any mistakes in pronunciations please forgive me.
Senegal Bichirs were my dream fish, decided to get a custom made tank for them that is 40 gallons 2 years ago but due to people aggressively telling me to not put any in the tank on Reddit I kind of gave up. Made a nice community tank instead. Recently (about a week or two ago) I heard from certain people both online and real life that I in fact could keep 1 or 2 Senegals in this tank for life. I was excited and did some research on their care again and rehomed my smaller fish (I had about 6 Corys, 4 Kuhli Loaches and few other fish) to get them. I finally went to the LFS and got myself 2 Albino Senegal babies. Now I love them to death but I heard from people AGAIN that I couldnt keep them. I keep hearing conflicting information and I will be honest I am so lost... I want to give the best life to my little fellas and would love to hear some experienced keepers share their stories here in this thread. I am a student and cant afford a 3rd tank that is over 90 gallons (also have a small Apisto tank). Do I need to give them away ? Are they good in this tank ? What do I do ?
Thanks in advance ! I am sorry If I am taking bad care of these animals, like I said I love them to death and knowing that I am an animal abuser would probably devastate me at this point...

 

[FahakaPapa]

I've kept some in a 55 gallon planted tank. They were fine. I'm sure they'll be ok in your 40 gallon for a while (i'd probably move them to a 75 gal as they get bigger). Don't get more than 2. Make sure you have a lid on that tank too! They like to get out.

 

[Egemen]

well thing is like I said I don't have the budget or space to get a bigger tank... My Tank is also heavily planted (they love hanging around the frogbit) and I do have a lid. I feed them high protein flakes and meaty foods such as Frozen Blood Worms but the only problem is the size. They also dont have any tankmates except 2 fish.

 

[Deadeye]

I don’t have any personal experience with these fish, so take this with a grain of salt (though most of the people on Reddit probably don’t either, and are getting info off a google search).
A wild sen in a 40, no way, that’s a 10-12 inch fish.
Captive bred is in the 8 inch range, so a bit of a squeeze.
Albino captive bred senegal bichirs rarely exceed 6-8 inches. For a relatively inactive, rope like fish, 40 would probably be fine. It’s going to be more about you maintaining proper water quality (bichirs are messy) than the fish not having enough room at this size.

 

[Egemen]

I don’t have any personal experience with these fish, so take this with a grain of salt (though most of the people on Reddit probably don’t either, and are getting info off a google search).
A wild sen in a 40, no way, that’s a 10-12 inch fish.
Captive bred is in the 8 inch range, so a bit of a squeeze.
Albino captive bred senegal bichirs rarely exceed 6-8 inches. For a relatively inactive, rope like fish, 40 would probably be fine. It’s going to be more about you maintaining proper water quality (bichirs are messy) than the fish not having enough room at this size.

thats such a relief to hear, I do big water changes every week, even before Senegals were here. They are captive bred Albinos I specifically chose because of the reasons you stated, them not getting big and all. People often think of the max size of a wild specimen and tell me stuff based on it, so I get confused...

 

[fishhead0103666]

First off reddit tends to be an absolute dumpster fire when it comes to advice as a lot of people have their heads up their butt and give wrong advice then when you correct them you get yelled at and banned, so stay away from there. Second off you mentioned a custom 40? Can you give dimensions?

 

[Egemen]

First off reddit tends to be an absolute dumpster fire when it comes to advice as a lot of people have their heads up their butt and give wrong advice then when you correct them you get yelled at and banned, so stay away from there. Second off you mentioned a custom 40? Can you give dimensions?

sure thing, its a 80 x 45 x 45 cm

 

[Deadeye]

That’s pretty close to the common “40 breeder” tank, essentially a wider tank. Perfect for medium sized, inactive fish. In other words, much better for the bichir.

 

[Egemen]

That’s pretty close to the common “40 breeder” tank, essentially a wider tank. Perfect for medium sized, inactive fish. In other words, much better for the bichir.

so Im good ? Damn Reddit said I needed a 90 Gallon Minimum... Glad to know that I can stay in this forum and call myself a "monster fish keeper" XD. Then again, I dont know it would be fitting.

 

[Krismo962]

Damn Reddit said I needed a 90 Gallon Minimum

Most people on reddit believe those absurd max sizes of bichirs on google so that isn't surprising