Senegal Bichir and other fish.

tman57193

I recently got a 36 gallon bow front fish tank and have been researching some fish I want. I definitly want a Senegal Bichir or some sort of eel fish. Also in the tank I was thinking about adding 2-3 African Chiclids and may be a butterfly fish. Please give me your thoughts, I'm open for suggestions. Also I've been looking around on Senegal Bichir's and I saw a minimum tank size for an adult one should be around 50 gallon, I'm wondering how long my Bichir would last in a 36 gallon tank before I had to get rid of him or get a bigger tank. Thanks in advance.

iamntbatman

You'd need a bigger tank for a bichir. They will get to be over a foot long as adults so something like a 75g tank is needed to house adults comfortably. Growth rates depend on a lot of things (diet especially) so unless you have immediate plans for a bigger tank I think I'd consider something else for a tank of this size. If you do get a bigger tank, the butterfly fish would probably make a good tankmate. By "African cichlids" I hope you don't mean the rift lake fish as these need completely different water conditions. Other African riverine species would make good tankmates though, provided they're too large to be eaten (Congo tetras, Leopard Ctenopoma, riverine synos, large Kribensis, etc.).