Bichir Skin Bump/tear 10/17/09 Hello there, <Hello,> I've had a Senegal for about a year now with no problems, but about a week ago he developed a "bump" on his back near the back of his head. <Most likely an ulcer, but possibly something else. Ulcers are typically sites of infection, caused by physical damage and/or exposure to serious water quality problems. So as usual, check to make sure that the water quality is good (zero ammonia, zero nitrite) and that there aren't any objects or predatory fish that could be causing physical damage.> I thought it would go away, but it's gotten worse! It now looks like its going to "Burst" through his skin! <Indeed.> He seems to be fine. He's eating and moving around just fine but I'm worried. I've looked everywhere but found nothing, please help! Thanks!! I feed him small feeders, shrimp, and sometimes pellets. <Now, your use of "feeder fish" is one thing that rings alarm bells. If you want your fish to get sick, give it feeder fish. I cannot stress this point too strongly! There is no better way to introduce bizarre diseases and parasites into your aquarium than by adding feeder fish to a tank. Since Senegal Bichirs feed primarily on insects and worms, there's no need to give them live fish. Earthworms, frozen shrimp, chopped clams, lancefish, bloodworms, mealworms, etc. are all taken. The problem with feeder fish is that they're raised cheaply in ponds, and to make them cheap, they receive no real medical care at all. Plus, minnows and goldfish have high levels of thiaminase, and over time, this causes a Vitamin B1 deficiency that can lead to all kinds of problems including, no doubt, breakdown of skin and muscle. This is amply discussed in the scientific literature, and anyone who told you Bichirs need goldfish or minnows was talking rubbish. Your Bichir will certainly need antibiotics to prevent bacterial infection of the muscle and bloodstream (septicaemia). A trip to the vet would also be very, very useful. I have seen large fish recover from ulcers like this, but it does take very clean water and the use of antibiotics at least until the skin has healed.> All Ph, N, A, and such are normal. I Also I attached some pics so u can see what I mean. <Indeed, a sad looking Bichir! Lovely animals, but please, don't use feeders. Whether the feeder fish are the definite cause of this problem is impossible to say -- that's part of the problem with feeder fish -- but they could well be. If you are 100% sure water quality and physical damage aren't the issue, then some weird bacterial or parasitic infection is left, and feeder fish are VERY GOOD way of getting such things started. So, repeat after me, "Feeders are bad"! In the meantime, use an antibiotic, offer clean water conditions, and hope for the best. These are hardy fish, and the chances of recovery are good. Oh, and don't use copper or formalin based antibacterials without consulting a vet first; primitive fish such as these can react very badly to such medications (i.e., they die). Cheers, Neale.>

Bichir... hlth.    4/19/09
Greetings WWM crew/Neale, I'm in need of your advice once again. I can't send a picture but I'll try to describe it as best as possible. I just saw my small 4 inch Ornate Bichir have something like its gill sticking out of the gill socket on its right side. It looks slightly reddish and has a branch like structure, leading me to think it is a gill but my sister thinks it is a parasite. While it seems perfectly alright, I am very worried as to what it is. Could you help me out here by stating a list of possibilities? Thanks a lot. Gene.
<Hello Gene. When very young, Bichirs have external gills; these are red, feathery, and hang out sort of behind the normal gill covers and above the pectoral ("arm") fins. They usually disappear by the time the Bichir is big enough to sell, but yours is so small relative to its final adult size, I suspect that this is what you're looking at. There are no real health issues, but being sensitive and easily damaged, you want to make sure such fish are kept away from boisterous and especially nippy fish, such as Tiger Barbs. Cheers, Neale.>

Ornate Bichir - Torn gill or bacteria?   4/19/09
Hi, I have an ornate bichir that's been with me for a month or two now...recently I saw that the left end part of its gill was red, and had a bacterial-looking pattern on it.
<Are you sure this isn't the fish's external gill? Juvenile Bichirs have external gills similar to those you see on amphibians such as Axolotls.
These gills are red, feathery, and poke out behind the gill and above the pectoral fin.>
I'm not sure whether it is torn, or it is diseased. It is in a tank with another ornate bichir of nearly the same size (barely 5 inches) but as far as I know, they get along very well together.
<Ornate Bichirs are not tolerant animals, and tend to be very snappy towards one another. Do watch these two fish. Given their large adult size (60 cm/24 inches) individuals will require a large tank, and more than one specimen a very large tank.>
The tank's water was not very good for a few days, by that I mean that there was some residue from food and algae, but the ph and temperature were fine.
<Bichirs are hardy, but like all fish they will suffer if water quality is poor, and the external gills on juveniles will be likely sites of Finrot infections and similar.>
So what exactly is wrong with it?
<Either Finrot, or merely the external gills.>
I put some mineral salt in already, and I have some medicine for sores and lesions but I didn't dare put it in just in case it makes the condition worse.
<Salt obviously won't help, since salt has no particular usefulness on bacterial infections (if it did, why would we bother with antibiotics!).
You will need to use some type of antimicrobial, I'd suggest eSHa 2000 or Maracyn.>
Please help as soon as possible.
<Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Ornate Bichir - Torn gill or bacteria?  4/19/09
External gill? I've never heard of that before.
<Learn a new thing every day.>
I'll check and confirm it first. Thanks for the help!
<Cheers, Neale.>

Re: Bichir, hlth.
WWM/Neale,
Appreciated that you gave me a list of sicknesses related to it, but the fish died. Thank you anyway for trying and sorry for not providing a photo or responding earlier.
<Too bad. Sorry to hear this.>
Since the tank is rather empty, aside from my Ornate Bichir and Oscar, my sister asked if keeping another Ornate Bichir is advisable. Go for it or don't?
Thanks. Gene
<Depends on the size of the tank. Polypterus ornatipinnis is a reasonably big species (to 60 cm in the wild, and easily 50 cm in captivity) as well as territorial. So unless your tank is upwards of 300-400 litres, I wouldn't even think about mixing two specimens. Even in a big tank, you'll need to take care that there are ample hiding places for each specimen. Cheers, Neale.>

Please tell me how to help my Polypterus ornatipinnis 5/23/08
Sick Polypterus
I hope you can point me in the right direction to save my Polypterus ornatipinnis. We have had this guy for about 5 years now. He is about 18 inches long and he lives in a 90 gallon tank. His tank mates are 2 very large Oscars, a African water frog, a gar pike and a very large algae eater (Pleco I think) Anyway...yesterday I noticed the algae eater sucking on the Polypterus. Today, he is covered in whitish spots (seems like he is losing his color) and it appears as though he is bleeding under his scales. He has been out of his normal "spot" in the tank a lot today. I am at a loss for what to do or what is wrong with him. Everything seems to be ok. He gets fed mostly Rosies and occasionally frozen brine shrimp. But this has been his main diet for all his life. Can you help us? He seems to be getting worse very quickly. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Karyn
<Ropefish and Bichirs sometimes come down with this weird bacterial infection. This usually occurs while acclimating wild fish but I guess it could happen to a long term captive if the conditions were less than ideal. The best medication is Oxolinic acid. Very expensive and difficult to come by but wholesalers find it very effective when getting wild shipments in. I would recommend a 50% water change, vacuum the gravel and clean the filters in the meantime. If you cannot find this medication then try Nitrofuranace with Metronidazole together.-Chuck>

Ornate Bichir may be dying...   9/10/07
My boyfriend and I were just cleaning the tank and we moved some decorations and found our ornate Bichir laying on his back
<Bad>
at the bottom of the tank. He is still breathing and every once in awhile he starts to "spaz" out and do barrel rolls and jerk around. Could he have gotten hit by something slipping in the tank like a rock and gotten stunned?
<Possibly>
Could this be a sickness??
<Mmm, yes>
He did not eat for the last two days. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated!
--
Thank you,
Stephanie Beetsch
<What re the water quality here? Is there much in the way of ammonia, nitrate? What did it feed on? How long have you had it? What else... decor and livestock is in this system? Bob Fenner>

Re: ornate Bichir may be dying..   9/11/07 
He ended up dying last night but just so I can get an idea what it could've been....the water was 7.8 to 8.0 ph, no ammonia or nitrate when I tested it last night. The temp. is about 80. I have him in a tank with African cichlids and some silver tip sharks. There was no marks or bites on him as far I could tell. He was eating thawed out silverfish. This is what the fish store told us to feed. He had no interest in worms or beef heart, was really the only thing he would eat.
I wanted to get another one because he was so fun to watch. What would you recommend.
Thank you for all your help, really appreciated!
<Hello Stephanie. Bichirs are basically very, very hardy animals, so to lose one tends to imply something has gone wrong. Since all your other fish are fine, you can probably rule out water quality. I'd expect (and have observed) cichlids to become distressed from such things well before Bichirs. Diet may be a factor. Feeding a fish just one thing is never a good idea. Bichirs are not really fish eaters by specialisation, since they move too slowly to catch them. Fish are a bonus most of the time. Rather, they feed on a variety of invertebrates, particularly insect larvae, large aquatic insects such as beetles, worms of all types, crustaceans, and so on. River shrimp, earthworms, and mealworms all seem to be especially good (and completely safe) live foods for Bichirs. On the frozen food front, shelled prawns, mussels, bloodworms, and krill should be accepted without complaint. There's no need for a Bichir to eat every night, and if it didn't eat a meal one night, remove the food and try it again the next night: often hunger improves a fish's willingness to try something new! Once trained and settled in, Bichirs will also take good quality pellets, like Hikari Gold, and these sorts of foods are excellent "vitamin boosters" to really optimise your fish's health. Rotating the menu from one item to the next is important because it allows a fish to get all the different nutrients it needs. This isn't to say whitebait were a bad food item, but if the only thing the Bichir ate month after month, you can't expect the fish to stay in good health. Now, in terms of trying again, the two Bichirs that recommend themselves as being excellent aquarium fish are Polypterus senegalus and the fish sold in the trade as 'Polypterus palmas' (but almost certainly one of any number of look-alike species). Both of these are small (~30 cm), placid fish that feed primarily on invertebrates. Juveniles thrive on bloodworms and similar foods, while adults happily take various small items of seafood. Neither is expensive or difficult to find. P. senegalus is perhaps the easiest to keep, and the one species that breeds fairly regularly in aquaria. 'P. palmas' is perhaps marginally more testy but is a bit prettier to look at. Both would work well in your tank, assuming the cichlids were not aggressive. Bichirs are easily bullied. I wouldn't mix them, for example, with Hemichromis, Pseudotropheus, or Melanochromis type things but they get along fine with Pelvicachromis, Nanochromis, Pseudocrenilabrus, etc. I hope this helps, Neale>

Polypterus palmas problem! – 08/31/07
Hey crew,
I had bought a Polypterus palmas from a pet shop around 3 months ago. I had started off feeding it sinking pellets, but it wouldn't eat those anymore so I decided to buy some earthworms and blood worms. These worked perfectly until now. My palmas usually finds his food and bumps into it, but now he sometimes passes over it or hovers near it and chomps around that area but still completely missing it. I looked closer and I noticed his two nostrils/antennae have shrunk a huge amount. What used to be nostrils are just small bumps where the nostrils should be. He hasn't been able to successfully get his food for days, and I'm worried he might starve to death because he isn't able to smell his food anymore. The water isn't cloudy at all and is pretty clear. The only decor he has is a small ceramic temple where he lounges under. I think it might of been ammonia burning off his nostrils, I just changed the ammonia remover from my filter (Aquaclear) recently, the instructions on the filter told me to change the ammonia remover every 3 months (When I bought the box with the ammonia remover it said to replace it every month). Hope by replacing the ammonia filter with a new one he'll be able to grow bank his nostrils. He's around 4.5 inches and lives in a 4 gallon tank.
Hope you can help me,
Worried palmas owner.
<Greetings. Polypterus are lovely fish, and generally very hardy. However, I think your problem here is Finrot or something similar, caused by problems with water quality. There is simply now way you can keep these fish in a 4 gallon (15 litre) tank. None. Nada. Nix. They are all fairly large creatures (even the smallest species gets to around 30 cm). The species sold in the trade as "Polypterus palmas" can actually be one of a whole group of things, including Polypterus teugelsi (~40 cm), Polypterus mokelembembe (~34 cm), Polypterus retropinnis (~34 cm), or one of three subspecies of Polypterus palmas (from 30-35 cm). At the very least you need a tank not less than 100 litres (about 26 US gallons) in size simply to provide even basic water quality and space requirements, let alone "good" conditions. Anyway, ammonia does indeed cause problems similar to burning; specifically, its necrosis of the delicate tissues causes by poisoning. Left untreated, such wounds commonly become sites of Finrot and fungal infections. Now, let's expand this a little. Ammonia remover has no place in an aquarium containing large predatory fish -- unless you're using large amounts of the stuff and replacing it weekly, it simply cannot deal with waste produced. You need a proper biological filter for the Polypterus aquarium providing at least 4x the volume of the tank in turnover per hour. A large external canister filter would be the best choice, but a decent undergravel filter would also work. Polypterus are hardy and somewhat tolerant of immature aquaria, which is why your fish is wounded rather than dead. But still, you're imposing on this hardiness, and there's only one possible eventual outcome: death of the fish. So, here's what you need to do to save this fish: buy a tank at least 6 times bigger than what you have. Then, install a proper filtration system. While the filter matures, perform large water changes: 50% ideally daily, but not less than every two days. This will likely take about 6 weeks to mature the aquarium to the point where you cannot detect ammonia or nitrite in the water. Once you're done, your Polypterus should heal quickly, and will live happily for another 10+ years (they're quite long lived animals normally). You may decide to treat for Finrot/fungus as well, but if you do, choose a brand of medication safe with sensitive fish, because Polypterus are quite distantly related to the mainstream bony fish groups, and their reaction to medications can be unpredictable. Ideally, choose something deemed safe for use with stingrays and invertebrates. That said, if moved to good conditions, I would expect this fish to heal quite readily by itself. If you can't do ALL of these things, then re-home the Polypterus: you clearly don't have an aquarium that can house this wonderful fish, and keeping it would be cruel, end of story. I hope this helps, Neale>

Re: Polypterus palmas problem! – 09/01/07
Thank you and thank god you answered, you saved it's life :)
<Cool. And perhaps you should thank Dagon the fish-god as well. Cheers, Neale>

Ill or injured Bichir, no useful info.   5/20/07
Dear WWM Crew,
   <Everett>
      Thank you for the information and advice your site provides. I have a question about my Senegal Bichir. She is about 3 months old and 6 inches. Recently I noticed redness along her anal fin and tail.
<Mmm, sign of environmental issue/s...>
The tank has no aggressive fish. Is it possible she simply doesn't have enough room to turn in her favorite cave?
<Possibly, but much more likely there is/are something/s amiss with your water quality...>
The cave is a 6"x 6" plastic container that is upside down and covered in rocks. I appreciate your assistance.
<... What re the system make-up, maintenance, water quality tests, foods/feeding... Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/polypterids.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Polypterus senegalus, beh., hlth.    5/20/07
Hi
<Hello.>
My Polypterus senegalus has recently stared to eat the stones in the tank, I was just wondering if this is natural or could there be a problem with my fish?
<It is extremely *unnatural*. Bichirs are predators that hunt by smell. So they don't normally eat stones. Are you feeding it enough? If so, what are you feeding it? The ideal diet for Bichirs are frozen bloodworms, small pieces of mussel and prawn, and small amounts of frozen fish such as whitebait. Some Bichirs will also eat pellets. Unless you are breeding your own livebearers, do not use live feeder fish and UNDER NO circumstances use goldfish/minnows bought from pet stores, as these are parasite bombs. If you want to use live food, things like mealworms and earthworms are ideal, being clean and easy to obtain.>
Hope to hear from you soon,
<Well, here I am.>
Dave.
<Cheers, Neale>

Rope Fish With Spots  4/9/07
Hello, My fiancé and I bought our first Rope Eel (or fish since that's what they come up as under Google) and she looked fine when we were in the store.  However, the next morning I notice two small white dots on her back, so I called a friend whose had a fish tank for over 30 years.  He assured me that Kaliah didn't have ick, although we went ahead and put Ick away in her tank.  This morning when my fiancé and I woke the two dots turned into three large ones, one on her underside and two along the length of her body.  We are extremely worried about her since we've grown attached so the question to you is if Kaliah is shedding at all, since the spots do look like dead skin. Is it normal for a rope eel to shed its skin and if not then what can we do to spot it and make her healthy?  We feed her tropical fish food and some shrimp, per the sales lady.  Thank You. Lotsa Love Aurora
< Check the WWM website for articles on general info on bichirs. To be more specific, your bichir probably has a stubborn bacterial infection. Do a 50% water change, vacuum the gravel and clean the filter. The first drug of choice is Oxolinic Acid. Difficult to come by and very expensive, it is a miracle worker on rope fish and other bichirs. If you cannot find it then try a double dose of Nitrofuranace and Metronidazole. Let your local pet shop know so maybe they can treat the next batch before they sell them. Many stores don't know about this treatment and think that rope fish die because they are fragile, but they are actually very hardly and live for many years.-Chuck>

Polypterus delhezi... dead  3/6/07
I had a young Polypterus delhezi about 3 in.
<This IS small>
that just died 2 days ago. I was shocked because I've never seen a Bichir suffered like that to death. The body was half paralyzed and it's having a hard time swimming to the water surface to gulp for air until its whole body got paralyzed and died. What killed my fish and how can I prevent that kind of disease? Another thought i fed it with chopped feeder guppies. Do you think that cause my Bichir to die? thanks...
<... Please send your writing through spell- et al. checking... to learn, correct your English. Small Polypterids often are imported with enteric bacterial problems... "chopped feeder guppies" did not help... Please read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/polypterids.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>