Nile bichir

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a large bichir, reaching about 70 cm, so provide at least 700 litres with a long footprint and a sealed lid. Keep it at 25 to 29 C and pH 6.5 to 7.5. It ignores fish too big to eat but will swallow smaller tankmates, so keep it only with large robust species. Feed meaty items such as fish, prawns, earthworms and large sinking pellets.

In the wild

The Nile bichir is one of the longest bichirs, a pale-bodied predator with faint dark bars and the family's signature row of dorsal finlets. It cruises the bottom of vegetated river margins at night. Its lower jaw projects forward, marking it as one of the larger-mouthed bichirs.

Good to know

Polypterus bichir is the type species of the genus and can reach around 70 cm. It breathes air with paired lungs and can gulp at the surface in oxygen-poor water. Several subspecies are recognised across its wide African range.

Did you know

Bichirs are sometimes called dinosaur eels in the trade, a nod to their prehistoric look, though they are true fish and not eels.

Related species

• 

  Saddled bichir

  Polypterus endlicherii

  25.6 in (65 cm)151 gal (570 L)77–84°F (25–29°C)

• 

  Ornate bichir

  Polypterus ornatipinnis

  21.7 in (55 cm)172 gal (650 L)77–82°F (25–28°C)

• 

  Barred bichir

  Polypterus delhezi

  13.8 in (35 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–86°F (24–30°C)

• 

  Marbled bichir

  Polypterus palmas

  13.8 in (35 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Senegal bichir

  Polypterus senegalus

  13.8 in (35 cm)143 gal (540 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
• West African Bichir

  Polypterus retropinnis

  13.8 in (35 cm)53 gal (200 L)77–82°F (25–28°C)