The Bichir Bar - Prehistoric Polypters Planted Tank

[rhytemaker]

This is my oldest tank. I have had it for about 8 years and its held all kinds of different things. Its a little scratched from 8 years of rescaping with lots of lava rock so excuse the pictures. I recently upgraded the lights and filter from 2 standard eclipse hoods, to a 4x36W PC with a fluval 404. I also added driftwood and lots of windolev java fern and java moss. I plan on add some additional anubis as well and maybe a big sword. I want to keep an anchient/prehistoric theme with this tank.
The inhabitants are 4 polypterus (P.senegalus, P.ornatipinnis, P.weeksii, P.palmas polli), a lare marble goby, a common plego and a silver catfish. I have had the catfish so long I dont even remember what kind of catfish it is anymore.
Here is a pic of the tank. I need to do something with the background soon, but I cant decide what to do.


Here is my senegalus bichir. This is my first bichir and I have had him for nearly 5 years. After getting this guy, I was hooked. He has a great personality and was the reason I ended up getting all the other ones. He is very social and curious as to goings on outside the tank. We call him Big Bichir and he rules the tank peacefully. I never have fights among all the livestock.

resting in the rocks, you can see he looks curious as to what I am doing.


The next bichir I got was the ornate bichir. I have had this one about 4 years now. We call him Tom because hes always peeping out at you from the rocks. Tom is actually female and my only bichir chick. Tom is a masterful hunter and goldfish stand no chance against him. He likes to swim around with big bichir.




The next two bichirs I got about 2 years ago. The first is the palmas poli. This one is by far the most active of all my bichirs and prefers open water to hiding in the rocks. Poli is also a voracious hunter and gets along well with all the others in the tank. The green eyes are awesome.






The last bichir, and smallest of my bunch is the reclusive weeksii. This guy hides constantly and I rarely see him. He always comes out last for food. He has a really cool pattern but he is very sketchy and hard to photograph.




Here is TANK! An awesome marble goby. This guy hides out in caves all day and really only comes out to get floating staple food. At night, if there are goldfish he absolutly destroys them. If he was inclined I think he could eat any bichir in the tank, but he never takes notice of them at all.



And good old catfish in Catfish cave. This cave seems to stay through every evolution of rescaping and this guy is always at home. He gets 100% of anythingthat falls to the bottom.


I havent seen many planted tanks with bichirs so I wanted to see how this would work out. Obviously I couldnt use delicate plants but the anubis, windolev and moss are easy to keep. I use minimal ferts on this one and no co2. I am really happy with how it looks right now so hopefully you do as well. I will post more pics when I get more plants. Thanks for looking!

[CL]

Awesome ferns and that one bichir is beautiful. Super cool fish

[CAM6467]

Very awesome. They look like something like a pike cichlid, but are obviously much different. I may have to look into these guys one of these days... Thanks for the post.

Charlie

[Tex Gal]

What a cool tank! Love the inhabitants. They look pretty big. It would be hard for me to feed them goldfish though... I know it's the way of nature...

You know what I think might be cool in the background - Echino Vesuvius. It's pretty tough and grows about a foot high. Is that high enough? You could make a soil hill for them. I think all the curls would really match with the overall tank look.

[chonhzilla]

Whoa, what do you feed that goby?

[cah925]

I love this tank. I'm thinking of getting some eels soon and have been tossing around ideas on how to scape it. I'll be looking back at this one for some inspiration.

[rhytemaker]

Wow, Thank you for the compliments everyone! MFK.com has a great section on poly's if anyone wants to see more/better pics and info.

Originally Posted by chonhzilla

Whoa, what do you feed that goby?

Cichlid Staple Pellets with occasional bloodworms and feeder goldfish every other week or so. The LFS near me has these guys 3x the size, but not nearly as healthy.

[quote=Tex Gal;893865]What a cool tank! Love the inhabitants. They look pretty big. It would be hard for me to feed them goldfish though... I know it's the way of nature...

quote]

My wife was the same way at first. Now she asks me every other day when we are getting more feeder fish. This tank also doubles as my community tank dead fish disposal unit.

[yikesjason]

I like it a lot. We see so many tanks with dutch or Amano influence, that a tank like this is a real treat.
Great job.

[bsmith]

Those are awesome. I would love to keep a few with my Blood Parrots in my 55g. But I wont get rid of my cory schools them, im sure they would get eaten by the Birchirs.

[Wilder]

That tank is very appealing to look at, and the fish are awesome. Good job!

[FSM]

This is an awesome tank. A leopard ctenopoma would fit in great, they're from the same region, and you could also add a delhezi, the patterns on them are nice.

How big is the ornate? Seems kind of small to be 4 years old.

[rhytemaker]

wow, lots of action on this thread today.

Originally Posted by yikesjason

I like it a lot. We see so many tanks with dutch or Amano influence, that a tank like this is a real treat.
Great job.

Thanks man! I really wanted something different with this one. Kind of bummed my anubis flowered and my plego ate it!

Originally Posted by bsmith

Those are awesome. I would love to keep a few with my Blood Parrots in my 55g. But I wont get rid of my cory schools them, im sure they would get eaten by the Birchirs.

Yes, they would be eaten very quickly. My bichirs even eat ramshorns!

Originally Posted by Wilder

That tank is very appealing to look at, and the fish are awesome. Good job!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by FSM

This is an awesome tank. A leopard ctenopoma would fit in great, they're from the same region, and you could also add a delhezi, the patterns on them are nice.

How big is the ornate? Seems kind of small to be 4 years old.

You know, I kind of feel all my bichers are a bit small for their age. The Ornate is about 9-10 inches. They get fed regularly and seem quite healthy so Im not all that concerned. The ornate was only about 4 inches when I got her, so she has more than doubled in size.
I like the delhezi also, but finding one the right size for the tank is tough. The only ones I have come across are either monsters or dinks. I have no idea what the lepord thing is, Ill have to check it out!

Thanks again for stopping to look and for the feedback!

[rhytemaker]

[quote=FSM;905199]This is an awesome tank. A leopard ctenopoma would fit in great, they're from the same region, and you could also add a delhezi, the patterns on them are nice.
quote]

Dang, I do believe you are right. Thats a cool lookin fish and it would definately fit the tank theme!

[dantra]

There aren't too many tanks that make go wow but this is definitely one of them

[Ashok]

Great tank and super cool fish. Never seen a planted tank with those fish before.