# The Bichir Bar - Prehistoric Polypters Planted Tank



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

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 (Mar 13, 2008)

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


----------



## CAM6467 (Feb 11, 2009)

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 (Mar 28, 2008)

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 (Apr 22, 2008)

Whoa, what do you feed that goby?


----------



## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

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 (May 29, 2008)

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. 



chonhzilla said:


> 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. 



Tex Gal said:


> 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]
> 
> :icon_smil 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 (Jul 2, 2008)

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 (Jan 8, 2007)

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 (Jan 21, 2006)

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


----------



## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

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 (May 29, 2008)

wow, lots of action on this thread today. 



yikesjason said:


> 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! 



bsmith said:


> 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!



Wilder said:


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


Thank you!



FSM said:


> 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 (May 29, 2008)

FSM said:


> 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 (May 25, 2007)

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


----------



## Ashok (Dec 11, 2006)

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


----------



## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

That is a unique tank. I like the moss. Those are awesome fish.


----------



## Ariel301 (Sep 7, 2009)

I really like the rockwork in this tank, it's different than what you usually see in a planted tank. I agree that the E. vesuvius might be nice in there.


----------



## ron521 (May 12, 2008)

My hat is off to you...I have just one Bichir, and some plants, but nothing like you have...excellent design and execution. 
For a background, I have some dark blue material with no particular design, somewhat gives the appearance of deep water behind the tank.
Just purchased a 55 gallon tank to move the bichir into this last weekend, but don't have it set up yet.


----------



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

Thanks evryone for the comments. I have some bad news unfortunatly. I came home today to the center brace having broken off, and the brace and glass lid sitting at the bottom of the tank. Luckily there appears to be no injuries. I drained it 50% and used a vice lock to brace the top for now. This is the second time the brace has come off and this tank is very old. I guess its a sign its time to replace it...I mean who likes water and bichirs all over the floor right?

The good news...Off to the LFS shop to price a new 75g tall with glass lid. I will try to keep the journal up to date with what I find and the process of switching out the tanks. I plan on painting the background black with the new one. I imagine a whole new scape as well...too bad on that part. I really liked this one. Glad I built the journal when I did. Ill be back soon with an update.


----------



## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Wow I love those fish! Great tank too! Hope the transfer to the new tank go's smoothly!


----------



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

The shopping for a new tenk results were not what I expected. Turns out this tank is an oddball. Its long and narrow. Looking at other tanks in compariaion, it appears much bigger than 75 because of this. Its 51 in long and 14.5 in deep. That means a standard size tank hangs over the back of my stand by 1 inch (stand has a lip on front and sides). 
i am not real happy with the idea of using 3/4 inch plywood to extend the base, and not real happy with trying to fix this tank again. Now I am thinking it might be better to just upgrade and go bigger.

LFS guy offerd me a new 80g tank and stand, or a used display 110g tank and stand for $300. I am leaning toward the 110g but it would require a pretty good cleaning. I need to hit up a couple other places today and see if I can find a better deal.


----------



## hydrophyte (Mar 1, 2009)

Those sound like good deals that you found. I look forward to seeing what you will do with a new tank.

This was such a cool idea to combine unusual fish with a planted tank--you don't see this kind of thing very often.


----------



## Lnb (Apr 15, 2008)

rhytemaker said:


> Thanks evryone for the comments. I have some bad news unfortunatly. I came home today to the center brace having broken off, and the brace and glass lid sitting at the bottom of the tank. Luckily there appears to be no injuries. I drained it 50% and used a vice lock to brace the top for now. This is the second time the brace has come off and this tank is very old. I guess its a sign its time to replace it...I mean who likes water and bichirs all over the floor right?
> 
> The good news...Off to the LFS shop to price a new 75g tall with glass lid. I will try to keep the journal up to date with what I find and the process of switching out the tanks. I plan on painting the background black with the new one. I imagine a whole new scape as well...too bad on that part. I really liked this one. Glad I built the journal when I did. Ill be back soon with an update.


To bad .......... it was a great tank.


----------



## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

I would start watching craigslist and see if you can get a 125 for a good price.


----------



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

FSM said:


> I would start watching craigslist and see if you can get a 125 for a good price.


I have been surfing cglist pretty hard. I got a line on a 110g black stand for $220. I dont have the lights of filtration for the 125...just cant make a decision if I want go go new or save $....got th next 4 days off so its a good time to make a decision tho.


----------



## Dempsey (Oct 27, 2009)

I like this tank! A few years back I had a 75 with no plants. I had a Bichir, Violet Goby(Dragon Fish), Redtail Catfish, Calico Snakehead(I think it might have been a Gold Snakehead). They were cool fish to watch and they all got along. Reeding time was a blast. I fed the rosey reds. I here they have less parisites. My fish were always healthy. A friend of mine build an 1100gallon pond in his basement and still has my fish. Along with a few other friends he has added. Anyways, I love the tank! And this fish selection!


----------



## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Your tank is awesome. I love Bichirs.. Good job


----------



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the comments guys. This tank was officially taken down on Friday 11/27/09due to broken center brace. Irepaired it twice but it still broke a third time.









I upgraded to a visio 110g on a black stand. Here is a pic of the old and the new. 









Awesome!! I am finally in the 100+ gallon club! 

I had my old 40g which I used to temporarily store the livestock and plants during the switch.








You see the lid on the tank above right? Well I know bichirs are jumpers so I made sure the tank was covered. Especially being on the ground with a curious dog...keep it covered right? There was about 1 inch space on the front lip at one corner (had to be askew so I could use the HOB filter) and my ornate managed to jump out last night. I went to turn off the lights in the backyard at 10pm last night and there he was sitting on the floor. Not knowing how long he had been out of the tank I panicked and grabbed him with my hands. He wiggled so I knew he was alive but he spiked me which made me drop him from about two to three feet onto the tile floor....DOH!!!! I got him back into the tank and he appears no worse for wear. He did draw blood on my hand with his spike tho...little punk. 
The funny part is I was complaining to my wife earlier in the day for leaving those lights on all the time, but it ended up that I was really lucky she did or we would have had a major casualty.
Thanks to everyone who commented on this tank. I am actually really glad to have started this journal, especially since the tank is now gone. I am going to start a new journal for the 110g. I plan to keep the layout similar with more crypts and anubis. Hopefully my 4x36w PC will be enough to get decent growth. New thread will have lots of pics of the switch. Keep an eye out, I will add a link to my signature when its up.
Thanks again everyone. Adios Bichir Bar...new and improved in process!!!


----------

