# The New Bichir Bar - 110g Prehistoric Polypters Planted Tank



## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

Hello Everyone,

I had a recent disaster where the center brace broke out of my 75g planted bichir tank. I had replaced it a few times already so now it was time to replace the tank. I have had it for many years and my fish were growing so why not upgrade!!!! I got a new visio 110g on a black stand. This journal will chronicle the whole life of this tank. All the inhabtants are detailed in the old journal for this tank. Feel free to check it out, there is a link in my signature. 
First step was to black out the back. Its been a bit windy lately so I set up a spray paint spot in the garage. 































Painted and dry. I had a few trouble spots. The paint can clogged and threw some bubbles which created a few bad areas. I learned from my 84g osaka that a great trick to cover imperfections is black electrical tape.









Now setting up a new tank has its challenges but changing tanks creates a whole new set of problems. Heres whatI was taking down. 









Luckily I still had an old 40g which i put on the floor and filled with water from the existing 75g. I collected the plants in buckets and the moss in a breeder net.








Next I took the driftwood out and put it in the 40g with the plants. The rocks I just put outside. 









Because I was going to reuse this substrate in the new tank, I wanted to clean it. 








Luckily the tank is by a window. I put the garden hose in the tank to add water as I used my large syphon to clean the substrate and drained right out the window. After about a half hour it seemed pretty clear. Stopped the hose and drained the rest.









At this point I rigged up my electrical. Wise to do before tank is on top.









Now tanks are set up for substrate direct transfer.

















Tricky but effiecient! 

















After the substrate was in the new tank, the old one went out to the garage. I hooked up the fluval, airstone and heater, then pushed the 110g into place. Luckily it was perfectly level and I took all kinds of pics for insurance and warranty purposes.









After a lot of work, tank is centered and level in place on the wall. Lights and filter are installed, substrate is ready. Time for water!! 








Pirate the dog approves!
















Full of water and filter running. 

All went well except for my ornate bichir jumped out of the 40g last night even with the cover. He managed to slip out of a 1 inch opening. Luckily I found him in time and he appears no worse for wear. I however was stabbed by his spike and he did manage to draw blood. Little punk!!

With the existing fluval biological filter and reusing the substrate, the cycle time should be very quick. I ran the filter overnight and put my 4 line catfish and common plego in the tank today. They doing well and I will most likely begin the scape and restocking today. 

Thanks for looking and I will keep you posted to progress.


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## BichirAddict (Aug 19, 2008)

Now that's my kind of tank. What are the dimension of the 110 gallon


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Nice to see you got this one going. I really enjoyed your last scape and used it as inspiration for my eel tank. I'm looking forward to seeing this one progress.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

BichirAddict said:


> Now that's my kind of tank. What are the dimension of the 110 gallon


4'x1.5'x2.5', assuming it's a standard 110


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## FDNY911 (Dec 6, 2009)

hows the tank?


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## Burks (May 21, 2006)

I just picked up a 150g solely for the purpose of keeping Bichirs! Can't wait to see how you tank works out and apply it to my tank.


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## BichirAddict (Aug 19, 2008)

update?


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned, but you NEED to get a new powerstrip. Those cheap strips aren't meant to last more than a year or so and at there price, it isn't worth the risk. Just replace it.

Now where i our update!


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

*sad day at the bichir bar*

Hey guys,

Sorry I have lagged on the updates. I just got lazy you could say. The tank has been up and scaped for a while now and its growing in pretty well. 

























Unfortunatly I lost my 4 line cat during the tank change. Not sure what happened but he died on me a few months back. 

I did a 30% WC yesterday, which I have done a thousand times before. The result was a dead ornate bichir that I have had for 5 years and a dead Palmas Poli that I have had for 2. I barely managed to save my senegalus by keeping him QT in a big net in my osaka for a few hours.
My weeksii bichir is touch and go. I can see him but cant tell if hes still alive. I will have to roust him later today to check. But already lost 50% of my bichir population.

I am totally bummed. I loved those bichirs, they were like my water dogs! I cant believe I killed them doing something I have done a thousand times before. I always use tap water for this tank and it has never been a problem before. The plego and marble goby seem fine, it was just the polys that had a problem. 

I know sosme LFS around here that have bichirs right now so replacing them with smaller ones wont be a problem. It just really really sucks. 

RIP Peeping Tom (ornate) and Poly (palmas Poli)...you guys were awesome. I did my best to keep u happy and am truly sorry for killing u.

Kind of sad to post pics of a near empty tank but here you go.










































































I do plan on eventually adding more driftwood to the right side to conceal the heater and make the "stump" look larger.


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

pics updated


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Sorry to read about your losses.  Is it possible that something maybe changed with your local water supply? 

The new tank setup looks really nice though. It definitely has a prehistoric feel to it.


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

What are your temps like in your area? My temps dropped to subfreezing for almost 2 weeks (which is unusual). The water coming out of my tap was much colder than normal and I had to add some hot water to keep from shocking my fish.


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## zeldar (Jun 24, 2009)

yea you may want to check if your local water has changed. About a month ago we got a letter in the mail from the water company that said they were going to start adding chloramine and that it was very harmful to fish. I don't know if you add any kind of dechlorinator to the tap water before you add it but that may be causing your problem. I just kept adding prime to my tap water and haven't had any losses.


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

cah925 said:


> What are your temps like in your area? My temps dropped to subfreezing for almost 2 weeks (which is unusual). The water coming out of my tap was much colder than normal and I had to add some hot water to keep from shocking my fish.


Its been a bit chilly but here in so-cal we have not been below 55 degres. I also had a thermometer in the tank during the change and it didnt drop drastically so I dont think it was cold shock.



zeldar said:


> yea you may want to check if your local water has changed. About a month ago we got a letter in the mail from the water company that said they were going to start adding chloramine and that it was very harmful to fish. I don't know if you add any kind of dechlorinator to the tap water before you add it but that may be causing your problem. I just kept adding prime to my tap water and haven't had any losses.


All I can find on the water district info page is they added flouride and from what I can see they say its not harmfull to the fish. It really sucks, the 2 remaining bichirs I have are extremly lethargic. I wonder if they got some permanent brain damage from this.


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

*New Inhabitants!*

I picked up some new bichirs today to replace the two I lost. It will be hard to replace the palmas poli, thosw are pretty hard to find. I got a new ornate bichir. It is about 4-5 inches









I also picked up a nice endlicheri bichir. It is the first lower jaw species I have kept.


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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

Sorry about your loss but those new fish are incredible! It looks like an amazing tank to live in!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

now u just need a rope fish to complete it!!!!


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

This tank has suffered from the worst snail outbreak I have ever seen (MTS and Ramshorn). I remove tons daily and they are all over everything. I dont overfeed so can't cut back on that.
Any other good snail removal ideas besides harsh chemicals like copper? I have "Had-a-Snail" and really dont fear anything in the tank will be harmed if I use it.


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## justdaman (May 12, 2008)

assasin snails!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

get a medium or large clown loach


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## nickcamp12345 (May 2, 2009)

I like the dragons you're keeping in your tank. very awesome looking fish. your tank looks great and im sorry about your loss. it suprises me the dragons don't eat the snails. like someone said above, assassin snails could help and other types of loaches will as well. good luck.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

cool


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

Man you are really good at this tank swapping thing. The pic of the chair and bar stools is hilarious. Isn't the 40g you stored the plants in, the one you swapped into the 84 Osaka? I think this thing is off to a solid start! I'm sorry about the fish loss though. That sucks. I've never heard of bichirs before, but they look really cool. I guess they require a lot of room? 

You did a great job scaping. Lots of places to hide in the dark. I bet it's a task in a tank that tall, but it will pay off for sure, because that's an awesome tank!


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

The tanks look like brothers.


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

fastfreddie said:


> Man you are really good at this tank swapping thing. The pic of the chair and bar stools is hilarious. Isn't the 40g you stored the plants in, the one you swapped into the 84 Osaka? I think this thing is off to a solid start! I'm sorry about the fish loss though. That sucks. I've never heard of bichirs before, but they look really cool. I guess they require a lot of room?
> 
> You did a great job scaping. Lots of places to hide in the dark. I bet it's a task in a tank that tall, but it will pay off for sure, because that's an awesome tank!


 
Lets hope I dont have to do any more upgrades for a while, but yea, lot of practice lately! The barstools were a bit nervewracking, but it worked! :hihi:
Yes, that is my orig 40L tank, it has been very very handy. I am keeping it in case of emergency.

I added some more annubis and some really tall camboba to this tank and was going to add a pic, but I have a common plego in there and he absolutly destroyed the camboba and made a giant mess out of the tank. I need to get rid of him before I do anything else. Finding a bushy nose big enough for this tank seems tough locally.

The new bichirs are all hiders which sucks. The endli is usually out where you can see him but the new ornate only comes out for food. My old ones were very social. Im still bummed I killed them. 

I am also having a hard time with the damn java moss clogging up my filter intake. I have to clean it our at least once a week.

The snail problem is subsiding slowly. Manual removal and copper.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

Why did you get a taller tank instead of a longer/wider one?


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

FSM said:


> Why did you get a taller tank instead of a longer/wider one?


 
Biggest reason was because I already had a 4ft light fixture that I could use. I didnt want to buy new lights as well. This upgrade was more emergency than planning due to the center brace failure on the 75g. Keeping cost down was important, especially because I had just bought my fluval 84g a few months before. With this tank I could use the same light, heater, filter and even substrate.


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

*Updated Pics of all Inhabitants!*

Somehow today all the bichirs were in the mood to be photographed. Here are current pics of the tank and inhabitants.
Tank

























Polypterus Senegalus (Senegal Bichir)

























Polypterus Ornatipinnis (Ornate Bichir)









Polypterus Weeksii

























Polypterus Endlichleri









Marble Goby


















Problems with the tank right now,

1. Low light is causing browning of the java moss and slow growing, small leaf crypts. The glass top is also a problem because it gets dirty so fast and blocks a lot of light.

2. Filteration - I need more than the fluval 404 on this. I thought I could get by, but I can see now I will need more.

3. Common Plego - Has destroyed the small anubis and ravaged my camboba.

4. Snails...have resorted to using had-a-snail and massive manual removal. Check out the snail removal tool I made. I call it "The Snail Snake". Its on a dowel long enough to reach anywhere in the tank without getting hands wet. This thing is GREAT!


















Hope you enjoy the pics and thank you to everyone who has made comments.


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## benon (Feb 18, 2010)

That marble goby is sweet! Love the bichirs too.

I understand the strange attachment to a certain type of fish.

Right now, I have this strange attachment to firebellied newts and axolotls (building tanks for both). All are in quarantine in several different tupperware bins.


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## cah925 (May 18, 2007)

Every time I read your journal it makes me want to build a bichir tank too. Are the rocks and many caves a necessity? Do the bichirs get territorial after claiming a cave?


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

benon said:


> That marble goby is sweet! Love the bichirs too.
> 
> I understand the strange attachment to a certain type of fish.
> 
> Right now, I have this strange attachment to firebellied newts and axolotls (building tanks for both). All are in quarantine in several different tupperware bins.


Yea, I cant say what it is about these guys. They are just so mellow and interesting to me. The best thing is they dont beg for food like fish. They are pretty interactive after a while and will come to the glass and check you out, but they dont freak out like fish or turtles thinking food is on the way. I still want to add a delhizi and another palmas poli to the collection.




cah925 said:


> Every time I read your journal it makes me want to build a bichir tank too. Are the rocks and many caves a necessity? Do the bichirs get territorial after claiming a cave?


Awesome man, set it up!!! I wouldnt say they get territorial in my tank, although there is always that possibility. There are occasional test bites but I have never seen any type of fighting between my bichirs. They definately have caves they claim but they also share the big cave on the lower left corner and often lay right across one another. They are very peacefull which is one of the most attractive things about them (well...they are peacefull untill you toss in a few goldfish, they are awesome predators).
Most other bichir tanks I have seen do not have all these caves and rocks. They mostly have sandy type wide open flat areas. I have never been really impressed by other bichir tank scapes (no offence anyone..would love to be proven wrong there). That is why I thought it would be so unique to mix plants and bichirs. Some things I have read say that hard edges on rocks scrape off the natural mucus lining on the bichirs, but I have never seen a problem with this. My opinion is that the more caves and hiding spots mean the less chance of fighting and agression. Plus its kind of fun to toss some food in, when people say there is nothing in the tank, and watch the dragons emerge from their lair.

MFK.com has a great information section on bichirs. Look under the anchient fish section and they have a whole forum dedicated to polypterus.


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## Aubzilla (Mar 2, 2008)

I'm thinking about adding two ornates to my 75, but I'm sure they will get big enough soon enough to eat all of my gold tetras and Colombian red and blue tetras.
Maybe once I've moved and settled I can add another 75 into my life.....


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

AubLaw said:


> I'm thinking about adding two ornates to my 75, but I'm sure they will get big enough soon enough to eat all of my gold tetras and Colombian red and blue tetras.
> Maybe once I've moved and settled I can add another 75 into my life.....


 
DO NOT MIX THOSE FISH! You will be sorry.

The bichirs will eat them all in 1 night. No matter how small the bichirs are, they will do major dammage. Dont let anyone tell you different.


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## FSM (Jan 13, 2009)

If you're ever wondering, how ambitious is my bichir?

Check out this thread

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3577851#post3577851


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

FSM said:


> If you're ever wondering, how ambitious is my bichir?
> 
> Check out this thread
> 
> http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3577851#post3577851


 
:eek5:


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## rhytemaker (May 29, 2008)

*current evolution*

Heres the current version of the tank. I added the big sword and anubis that were grown in my osaka as well as some red ludwidgia. I forgot to move the intake back so please excuse...


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## Tpark (Jan 3, 2013)

I really like the tank. I used to have a ropefish in one of my tanks and always thought having a ropefish/bichir tank would be cool. I like the cave work you created alot. I dont know what I think about the addition of the sword, liked it better before. The grungy looking moss really flows with the style of the bichir. The sword, to me, gives it a more "tropical" appearance.


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## chomper149 (Dec 16, 2011)

awesome tank
just came across this since i just picked up some senegalus! i already had a foot long guy in my 120 gallon, but picked up 4 more babies today!
2 are regular, and 2 are albinos( for 5 each!!!)
Didnt really expect to pick these guys up this morning, but couldnt resist the price on those albinos so i got them.
Looking to do a 55 gallon planted with these guys and leopard ctenopoma
did your senegal and weeksii make a fulll recovery?


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