Hello everyone,
I have a Juwel Rio 450-liter aquarium with the internal filter.
I have eight Malawi cichlids, approximately 10–13 cm in size, two L144 Longfin Snow White plecos, and a Delhezi bichir measuring approximately 8–10 cm.
Here is the problem: I fed the bichir last night, and he seemed fine at the time. I fed him half a cube of frozen bloodworms. However, since this morning, he has been breathing heavily or rapidly, repeatedly opening his mouth.
What could be the problem?
The filter is running properly, and all the other fish seem fine. Before getting this bichir, I had another one in the tank for approximately three months, and it was always doing well.
(I know that these fish are generally not supposed to be kept together, but it has always worked so far.)
The new bichir has been in the tank for about a week and is still relatively new to the aquarium.

I have always loved red sand aquascapes in bichir tanks and so I decided that's what I want for my next tank. But can't find it anywhere in bulk. Anyone know where?

Hey guys, I know I mentioned I wouldn't be making too many changes but I've decided to turn on image posting for comments and responses!

I'll be moderating what gets posted in case folks are inappropriate/spammy/off topic/etc., but given how many times we ask for things like water parameters or more photos of bichirs/tanks when helping folks out, I thought it would be appropriate to allow for images in comments going forward.

Hopefully this turns out to help folks out in the longrun, but we'll give it a good trial run and see how folks take to it.

Just keeping transparent and letting everyone know what's going on.

o7 Godspeed, you funky little guys.

What are the best plants for a bichir tank?

Helllooooooooooo!

Im kinda new to having bichirs and i want to try to breed them but idk if they're even any males or female in my tank :p

I could rlly use some help rn!

Tyy!(btw ik these r rlly ass pics srry:>)

Just added my first bichir. It’s senegal albino. My acaras were curious gave a light bumps and kept minding their own business 😅

My baby girl Godzooky died this morning!!!

She somehow got out of her tank and then I found her in my dogs mouth 😭😭😭😭

I tried to see if she survived...shes gone

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to poke my head in and let everyone know that I've taken over moderation for our sub here.

I'm not going to go around changing up or adding any rules without community input or anything, just filtering spam and going through any reports/queues that went unchecked for a while.

Unfortunately, the last moderator on the sub had not been active in years, so I requested to take over and got the go-ahead from Reddit!

If you have any recommendations on pins/additions to FAQs, rules additions/revisions, and/or suggestions for the sub in general, let me know here!

Thanks all! Hope your day's goin' well and that your bichir are eatin' good.

Love this guy and they share a weird tank. I tried to give the Siamese Algae a school.... I'm pretty sure he sold out his clan.

Dude only has 1 eye. Cant wait to see him grow out fully as a congo

300 gal tank with just bichir and pleco, water hasn't been super clean so I'm doing water changes now but I want help with what medication would be best to help with this. Ai says kanamycin and I kind of agree but i also already have melafix but ai says this has been proven to not really do much so i dont want to stress him more doing something that won't help.

My bichir was a tiny lil baby delhezi grew up loving this house. I moved him and the lil hut to the big tank and my bigger bichirs took it over. Acting like I can’t see him 😂
Lil cave thing is coconut and java fern, but got a lil bit eaten and ware and tart but they love it to much I can’t take it away.
Delhezi also has a bum fin like Nemo. He swims just fine but had it since I got him. I bought him when he was pinky nail sized. I had to hand feed him til he grew big enough to move to my big tank with the Senegals.
I love their silly faces.

Hey everybody new to the group! I found Bones (juvenile senegal bichir 3-4 inches) at a mom and pop shop 2 days ago. I checked the anal fin to sex it and im leaning more toward a female!!! So far she loves frozen blood worms and brine shrimp, and shes well accustomed to my 125 gallon with congo tetras and lizard whiptails.

Is it normal for bichirs to constantly surf around the tank?

Hi i had this bichir since last year, now he's bent it was not this curved before i thought he was just overfed now i fast them for 3-4 days but he's still like this. Any tips?

EDIT: The 55 gal is our extra tank but I should have said that they are currently in our 80 gallon tank. I will post full size pic below...

Lord help me because this one is very difficult for me to say....

Our beloved Bichirs, Rexy & Tiger were recently returned to us after a 3 1/2 month battle with homelessness, due to Veterans United Home Loans deceiving our family, which ultimately lead to us seeking out a 2nd lender who successfully got us into a home. We were put in a position where we were told we would be guaranteed a home loan within a month, give or take a few days. Well...as the story goes, that was all a lie and here we are today, 4 months after a happy 3 years life of our beloved Bichirs.

We were lucky to have so many people in our life that wanted to help us out during what we thought would be a quick transition. Unfortunately, that obviously didn't happen and my step brother looked at our simple ask to keep our family fish safe as a means to get a ROI from us. Yeah, it wasn't much, but it was something. Despite that and after spending 3+ months bouncing back and forth from a camper to tents, we finally made it to the finish line only to find most of our pets were not taken care of. Yes, the ones we entrusted with them cared, but unless you know what you are doing and have a knack at these types of things and the species of pets that are then transferred onto their hands, it's extremely hard to trust that they will be truly looked after like you would do. That is exactly what had happened and we are now in full recovery mode with all of them, however, only our male Bichir has seemed to be the one significantly affected.

I said all that to say this.... please don't judge me for posting this as we just got our tank and fish back a little over a week ago. It has been extremely humbling as it was on it's own, to appreciate the simple things, like a running toilet and full shower, let alone bathtub. Oh and let's not forget the amenities of a fridge and freezer when having experienced trying to keep food cold, let alone cooking it, in the dead of summer with only coolers and a fire ban in place. 💔

Tiger who was thought to be a female early on, later was confirmed to be a male. He has always been one of my favorites because of his personality. He would come up to me when I sang to him, and he just loved being curious with anything new. I would talk to him when I was alone late at night when I couldn't sleep, all while knowing he didn't understand a word I said, but he still was right there by my side, staring at me through that a curlic tank thinking I was a crazy alien 👽 😅🥹🫶.

As I briefly stated before, Tiger showed up with a semi enlarged tummy. This was not a red flag until 2 days ago being we know very well how their tummies look after eating. Our 1st guess when it became more obvious without any other symptoms and fully normal actions, was that we were wrong on the sex and that it could possibly be eggs. We got excited for a brief moment and started talking about setting up our other 55 gal as a tank to put the other fish so that we could give "her" all the space she needed along with the other Bichir. But that was the thing....the sex didn't match and I started to get that gut instinct that something was wrong. It was tonight when I realized that I should check "him" out thoroughly and film it for observation. That's when I discovered the redness and the tail, as well as the redness behind his front fins. This wasn't like this yesterday or the day before, at least not this bad or I'll else I would have noticed. I am afraid because I don't want to lose this amazing creature in fish. Tiger has been a huge part of my husbands and my healing as I am sure he has enjoyed living a wonderful life being spoiled and loved until our move. It absolutely breaks my heart into peices because I know deep down that the chance for his survival is low and I right now, I need all of the advice and help I can get. Thank you in advance 🙏

Please 🙏🙏🙏, if anyone can help us save him if it's not to late, we would be so grateful for any and all advice.

I want to keep lower jaw bichirs but i dont know how many should i get or the specific care, i've been in the hobby for years and i kept many different monster fishes, anyways, i have an 160x60x50h cm aquarium, i have 10cm internal sump so its 150cm of free space, sump has basic things like sponge and filter wool and 2000 lh controlable pump, i have 2mm dark sand and minimal basic plants. can i keep an lower jaw bichir or bichirs? please help me 🙏🙏🙏

Will my juvenile bichir be okay? because my oscar nipped it's external gills, although i have separated the oscar from another tank. Im kinda worried what would happen to my bichir but it's still has one of its external gills only the other one was completely nipped, it's currently 5 inches... Will it be okay?

She always had a weird fat lip but the last two days I realized her jaw is never really closed and it’s slanted. I have one image of it “fully” closed. She eats just fine but it did take her a long time to get to 6” and to eat when she was little, but nothing to worry about now. I just wanted to know if any others jaws are like this. I can try to get a better photo later.

I'm thinking of including an Ornatus in my 50-gallon fish tank, also in the future I'm going to buy a 120-gallon fish tank. I currently have a senegalus and edrilchery (sorry if I wrote the names wrong) they measure about 15 cm and the Ornatus measures the same 15 cm. But I read that they fight a lot and it could harm the other bishires.