12/07/2024
I’m still in shock. While cleaning the sump of my big tank, I noticed what I thought was leaf near the return chamber. I thought “how did a leaf get passed my filter spongers.” I grabbed my flashlight for a closer look and did a double take. The last thing I expected to see was a baby ornate bichir. My female ornate is nearly 9 years old so there’s no surprises there but my male ornate is much smaller and I think it’s just over two years old. Somehow eggs were laid, fertilized, and hatched while in a tank with several large bichirs, an Oscar, and a Texas cichlid. At some point after hatching the non-free swimming fry must have been sucked into the sump where they were protected from predators, but exposed to the return pump of my sump. There’s no telling how many fry made it into the sump but when I tore apart the sump searching for fry, I was only able to recover 3 fry. I talked to a couple experts and we all agree these 3 fry are approximately 2-3 weeks old based off of size and development. I am beyond excited that one of my oldest, first bichir has had babies and I’m crossing my fingers that I can keep these little guys alive long enough for them to get onto a normal diet. Keep an eye out for a video soon. Nothing yet this all just happened.