# Dojo Loach and Bichir



## TigerOscar (Sep 10, 2012)

Heres the deal, I was given a 10g (no heater) with 2 Kulhi Loaches 2-3", one pleco (need to id him), a Dojo Loach and a Bichir (Dinosaur fish?)
At the time I did not realize what I was getting, except for the Pleco and the Kulhi's. All the fish were kept in the 10g 3/4 filled and with no heater. 
I thought I was doing them fish a favor by putting them in my bigger tanks with regulated temperatures. Did some googling and soon realized the Dojo and the Bichir actually prefer the cooler water.

Put the Kulhi's and pleco in my 20g and all seems well so far. The other two in my 55g. I went to check on them after a while and the Bichir had one of my small Plecos in its mouth! Totally did not see this coming until now after doing a little research. It eventually spat it out and I don't think he'll try that again, I think it hurt himself trying to eat a spiny fish. 

I want to ensure a peaceful tank so I may have to isolate this guy now so I'm not worrying about other fish falling prey. Sucks cuz I wanted to turn the 10g into a shrimp tank.

So what I learned from this is, even though two fish looking very similar to each other, they are totally different. The Dojo is calm and peaceful and now I see the predator nature in the Bichir.


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

The bichir will eat anything it can fit into its mouth, and if it gets the pleco stuck in there it could be fatal for both fish. They're pretty predatory. Even the dojos can be a bit territorial. I had to rehome mine because they were terrorizing my fancy goldfish.

Bichirs get big, so you'll likely need to upgrade him to a larger tank eventually. The other thing to watch with both the dojo and the bichir is that they are escape artists, so make sure you have a good lid! I had a dojo who left my tank and managed to land in the bucket that my (leaking) canister filter was sitting in, luckily for him there was water in there! He was there for about a week before I found him and put him back in the tank. 

If you post a pic of the pleco, somebody can probably ID it for you, or check out http://www.planetcatfish.com.


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## mdwflyer (Jan 11, 2011)

Give or sell the bichir to somebody setup for a predator.


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