Senegal bichir tank mates

[Robert K]

I think this might be of interest to some people, especially those who are thinking about getting a senegal bichir. 

I have this senegal bichir living in my 100g community tank and some of the fish are as small as serpae tetras. So far it's been working out. I have 4-5 of the (what I think are) serpae tetras left over from a bigger school. The bichir hasn't gone after a single one of them. It hasn't bothered any of the other fish either. The tetras were already in the tank when I got the bichir (which was quite small at the time) which may partly explain why it's been working out. I've had the bichir for over a year and a half now i think.

I feed it Hikari sinking cichlid pellets. It usually goes for the mini size ones. It really struggles to gulp down the medium size ones. 😅 I'm not really sure how much bigger it's gonna get but I have to say I'm not worried about the tetras.

Anyone else has any experience of keeping a senegal in a community type tank?

[Tlindsey]

On 12/28/2023 at 3:18 AM, Robert K said:

I think this might be of interest to some people, especially those who are thinking about getting a senegal bichir. 

I have this senegal bichir living in my 100g community tank and some of the fish are as small as serpae tetras. So far it's been working out. I have 4-5 of the (what I think are) serpae tetras left over from a bigger school. The bichir hasn't gone after a single one of them. It hasn't bothered any of the other fish either. The tetras were already in the tank when I got the bichir (which was quite small at the time) which may partly explain why it's been working out. I've had the bichir for over a year and a half now i think.

I feed it Hikari sinking cichlid pellets. It usually goes for the mini size ones. It really struggles to gulp down the medium size ones. 😅 I'm not really sure how much bigger it's gonna get but I have to say I'm not worried about the tetras.

Anyone else has any experience of keeping a senegal in a community type tank?

@Robert K I've personally attempted to keep one lone male cichlid with a group of Senegal on 3 separate times.

After cichlids matured they eventually became territorial and started to push bichirs around. 

I agree with what you stated about the tetras and the senegal growing up together. I personally wouldn't try a community like what you have with larger bichir species. 

[Robert K]

@Tlindsey I agree, any other bichir species would be too large to do anything like this. And to be honest, I'm a little surprised this has been working out like this. I knew it was a bit of a gamble to try this but like I said, there's no aggression from any of the fish. Personally, I think I may have been a bit lucky but I also think that senegals are more compatible with other fish than is commonly accepted or assumed on the internet. I mean, I read up before I got mine and pretty much everyone's advice was not to house them with anything smaller than a grown male Congo tetra or blue gourami. But, one important caveat is also that I have one single bichir that I introduced in a fairly established community. If it were 2 or 3 bichirs the outcome might very well have been different. 

[Biotope Biologist]

He still has quite a bit more growing to do, but in my experience bichirs are one of the most docile large fish you can have.
 

Even if you have a group as long as there are enough territories they will squabble amongst eachother but never maim or injure. 
 

When yours gets older and bigger it may attempt at some of the smaller tetra. But I doubt it they are rather lazy predators.

 

An ornate bichir or two is still on my dream tank list at some point.

[Robert K]

@Biotope Biologist yeah, I expect it to grow a bit more, even though the actual growth rate seems to have slowed way down.

Docile and lazy/slow is exactly my experience. 😅 the other fish actually outcompete it for food often when I feed with the lights on.

[Tlindsey]

On 12/28/2023 at 1:06 PM, Robert K said:

@Biotope Biologist yeah, I expect it to grow a bit more, even though the actual growth rate seems to have slowed way down.

Docile and lazy/slow is exactly my experience. 😅 the other fish actually outcompete it for food often when I feed with the lights on.

@Robert K you may have a captive bred Senegal they don't grow large like the wild caught Senegal from lake Turkana Africa. They grow over a foot. I personally have cb Senegal bichirs.