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Teaching Polypterus Lapradei swimming lesson.


I'm back again to Bichirs but this time more on the experiment that I didn't do last time. When I was once active in bichirs I noticed that some but very very minority of them swim with control buoyancy meaning they can control the depth level like those of ordinary fish using the swim bladder. But in reality; bichirs do not have a swim bladder that is why most time they swim like a drowning fish. 

I noticed this behaviour on some Endlicheris, the control buoyancy and of coz the great Turkana Polypterus Bichir Bichir. So my question is, can bichir learn to control buoyancy with their lungs replacing them as the swim bladder? 

I got 7 cb Polypterus Lapradei and kept them in a species only tank. Food will be available only as floating pellet. The reason is to encourage them to swim and learn to adapt using their lungs as swim bladder. Will they able to do so?

Day 1 of coz they dont eat, I've to start coaxing them to take sinking pellet.

Day 2 they are all taking sinking pellets but i did not feed them full.

Day 3 Feed them on floating pellets. Non of them ate. But they were curious and swim up to checked. Swimming was like drowning.

Day 4 They started swimming up searching for pellets and 2 of them started eating. They can only manage to take pellets that are at the edge of the glass. Using the glass to hold the pellet still so they can gulp them in. Swimming was still like drowning. Those pellets on the middle was left to float. They tried but couldnt eat them. They struggled to stay afloat.

Day 5 Then most of them suddenly gotten better control of buoyancy and taking pellets like normal fish, but control was not really perfect.

Day 6 They get better with buoyancy and seem to enjoy swimming even when not feeding.

I will continue the experiments and see where this will lead, will they get very good with swimming even when older, will they like swimming when they have learn to do so. Will they become active even in adult. This is the experiment so we will know the answers to all these questions.

I'm using hikari floating mini gold pellet. Initially I tried AR-G1 mini gold floating sticks but seems too big for them to handle and they started munching them. The pellet makes them float extra. I've also added some ghost shrimp to clear excess food debris and also to clear the uncomplete digested poo. Bichirs do not digest pellets well and we do need cleaning crew for this task.

BTW species only tank because of the slow eating behavior of bichirs, with other fish involved, it would be difficult to manage.

Stay tune I will update this from time to time.

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