Copepods for Delhezi Bichir

I've just purchased a DelhezI Bichir, and i'm wondering how copepods are for their diet?

One of my established tanks has a colony of copepods(randomly found them in there a couple months ago, was freaking out cause I didnt know what the heck they were !) , the only fish in the tank are female guppies, and they arn't all that great at catching them. So when I do water changes for the tank, I check the bucket and usually get out about 10-15, and would feed them to my Kribensis juvi's and the smaller copepodes to my larger Krib babies.
I got a DelhezI Bichir yesteray, he's about 2 inches now, and when I put him in a tank for quarentine, after about 20 min of getting used to the water and exploring, I noticed him hunting, digging, and eating. Since I hadn't put anything else in there with yet, I realized there must have been some copepods down in the rocks that the baby Kribs never ate (the baby kribs were in the tank before, they just recently got upgraded to a bigger tank). He obviously really liked them.

So, I'm wondering if copepods would be good for the main part of Herman's (the delhezI bichir) diet? Maybe 3 a day? .

He will also be occasionally getting blood worms, (he seems to like the thawed frozen ones over the dried) I heard these can cause constipation for fish, is it the same for the bichir species ? Should I only feed blood worm to him once a week?

I feed the rest of my fish peas once a week, but Mr Herman is a carnivore, so peas would not be for him... is this correct ?

What else would be a very good food to have to help vary his diet? Preferably something my Kribs and pygmy platys would like too!

THANKS !

EDIT!!: Sorry! They are AMPHIPODS, not copepods.

 

I'm not sure about copepods. I wouldn't feed them as the main part of his diet. He would benefit from other frozen and live foods too, such as mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, krill, earthworms, blackworms, etc. Feeder fish aren't generally recommended, but if you have excess guppy babies you could likely feed those to him. You could try to get him to eat sinking carnivorous pellets too.

Hope you have a large enough tank for him! They get big!

 

wow, that is a baby bichir! Can we get a pic?

How big are these copepods? I would imagine they aren't huge, but maybe something fun for it to go after while it's small. However, usually big fish like this don't stay small too long. I second TexasDomer's ideas. Getting it onto the carnivore pellets would be easiest, and cheapest, down the road. However, offering live food as a treat would be ideal weekly.

 

LOL I was gonna say, getting an accidental copepod infestation would be rare. Not good either, as they frequently carry parasites.

Scuds are great for fish. I would assume, though, that you already have lots of them living in the substrate in that particular tank. Unless Herman found and ate them all. They're detritivores and will live, eat, and spawn in the gravel and filter media in your tank.

Adding supplemental live foods in is always a good idea, though. Also frozen bloodworms won't cause your bichir to bloat, but they won't give him much nutrition either. They're mostly just fatty, delicious goodness. If you can get them, live or frozen blackworms would be a much better staple food choice.

 

copepods do not necessarily mean a bad thing. Yes, they Can come from bad situations. However, my 5G for instance has had a small, continuous, colony living in my floating plants' roots for almost a year. My scarlet badis eats them occasionally. I have had a bad "explosion" before, in another tank, and it's not pretty but easily controllable.

 

You realise a Bichir will not go with Kribs and Platies...?

 

TexasDomer I do have 7 female guppies that are all pregnant, but I couldn't bring myself to catch them and feed the babies to another fish. If I see them in there I have to save them ! :3
So pellets are okay even if he will swallow them whole ? They won't expand in his stomach ?
I looked up mysis shrimp and would love to get a feeder colony going, but I haven't had much luck hatching my brine shrimp lately, so I wouldn't be able to feed them.):
So I'm planning on getting carnivore pellets and black worms.
I do have a large tank for him ! Thank you! Once he's done in QT he will go in my 30 gallon until I move in a couple months, and I will be getting a much larger tank!
MJDutI yes of course !! and no not very big at all, the biggest are maybe a centimeter.
Thank you! I'll give them as a treat weekly. I went to my LFS and thought I was getting him shrimp pellets, like pellets made of shrimp, but when I looked closer it's pellets FOR shrimp! So I've got to take them back. I plan to exchange them for carnivore pellets! I saw them when I was there but was hesitant to get them, as I wasn't sure if they would explanation in his tummy.
junebug I haven't noticed anything wrong with any of my fish, and it's been months since they appeared, am I safe ?
Okay thanks ! Wanted to make sure he wouldn't bloat because that and the pods were the only food I had for him the first couple days!
And the colony of pods is if a different tank them Herman, so he hasn't eaten them all yet ! I'd like to keep them going because all my fish love going after them.
And I plan to get blackworms, but I couldn't find any last time I was at petco /: I'm going to check at a different pet/fish store.
hampalong yes I do ! Don't worry! he will be going into his own 30 gallon after qt, until I move and he's a little bigger, and he will get an even bigger home. I haven't decided what else I want in with him yet.

 

 

You can feed frozen mysis and brine shrimp too. They're sold at most pet stores.

It's very normal for him to eat pellets whole