hello, adrea, fellow pond forum person. that just amazes me- irresponsible. then again, look how many in the pet trade sell arowanas. way too big for any private tank. i admit they are gorgeous and usually 3 inches long at the pet store. even my fave and most responsible pet store i know has had them in the past.
i don't even know what a bichir is.
my gram has a pleco in a 25 gal. even here, i feel bad b/c i know it needs a larger tank. but, what can i say. i brought her my old tank several years ago, and got her her fave goldfish. my cousin bought her the pleco. yeah, i know a 25 is even small for goldies. i can't afford to buy her a 55 now tht the pleco has been near full grown, and she doesn't have the room. since she is 95 this year, she has informed me previously that i will be "her monster's" caretaker when she can no longer live in her house. so, i need to find a spot in my place where i can fit a 55. it would be best to move it to a larger tank all at once.

He had arrowanas in there at one point though I'm not sure if he sold them or they died. They only get three feet unless it's an arapmia (sp?) gigas those get 13' but also require a permit.

A bichir is a primitive family of fishes. Most of the common ones only get to 12-14". Exception of ornates which get about 20". Most of the larger ones are more rare but being that I've seen a lot more of them recently the bichir that guy had could have been anything. If you want to see real live babies petsmart sells Senegals as Dinosaur Eels.

Adrea

Here is a link that might be useful: bichirs

My sister in law has a bichir in a 30g tank, she dosn't even know what it's called. I had a ropefish in my 55g but took him back to the pet store because it needed a larger tank. I see this all the time. There are alot of responsible fish keepers out there, but there are alot more who look at fish as swimming little ornaments rather than pets.
And fish stores are often the worst. They are absolutely the worst place to get any helpful information, they're just trying to sell you something. And even people who "seriously" keep fish think they know better than the experts and do what they want anyway. Take my sil... she has 5 tanks. But she still keeps her 10" long african cichlid in a 10g. tank, the bichir in the 30g, and don't even ASK me about her saltwater tank that she basically took a fw tank, added instant ocean and fish to it and hasn't been able to keep a fish alive since she set it up a year ago.
My brother in law also collects fish. He's supposed to know a whole lot about them, but I soon figured he really didn't after hearing about all the fish he got without researching them that ate his other fish, or the arrowana that busted out of it's 55g. tank, breaking the sides...

Look at me, now I'm ranting! lol! See what you did?

Honestly, there really isn't anything you can do about this sort of stuff, people really don't even want to hear it and that fishstore guy, he's making money hand over fist so what does he care?

But it's nice that there are others that do!

Destany

nice website on the bichir! here i thought they looked like gobies, duh.