African Lungfish

[William]

My LFS has one of these guys in right now, had him for 2 weeks already without sale.


Hes so ugly that hes cute, Heh, and I've been tempted to buy him.

However, I know he'd require his own tank... Since he could not go in any of the tanks I have right now because of his carnivorous nature and their requirements for clean water.


My question, is how long do these guys get? I cannot seem to find a standard adult size of these fish on fishbase.


Also, anyone that keeps these fish, what size tank would you reccomend for them, and what info could you offer someone pondering the fish?



THanks

 

[Toirtis]

I have two. Depending on the exact species/subspecies that your LFS has, expect a bulky 4' to 6' (P. aethiopicus reach nearly 8' in the wild)....you really need 250 gallons and up for these guys.

 

[TankGirl]

Okay, here is what Baensch says about them:

Length - 26" (only young specimens should be kept in the home aquarium, according to this)

They should be kept alone and are antagonistic and quarrelsome predators. No special water requirements.

Wonder what you are supposed to do when they start to approach full length.... 8O

 

[liquidelusion]

are they tastey?

 

[Toirtis]

Okay, here is what Baensch says about them:

Length - 26"

Faugh....Baensch i s limited and outdated.

 

[Fruitbat]

Besides the fact that there is at least one recorded case of an African lungfish neatly amputating all the fingers on a fellow's hand with one rather nasty bite!! 8O

 

[TankGirl]

I know about Baensch - some of the profiles are completely wrong. That is why I always say it is from Baensch when I quote stats from it. Good place to start, tho.

 

[William]

Hrm.


So no African Lungfish for me.


I'm kinda bummed tho, He was an interesting little bugger.

 

[TankGirl]

Well, to cross threads a little bit, I wonder what will happen to him? I reckon he will go to someone's aquarium that is completely inappropriate and end up eating all of his tankmates and becoming this nightmare fish that has to be euthanized.

Once I asked a LFS employee what would happen to the cute little baby red tail catfish they had, and he joked about how someone would put it in their 10gal and realize it was going to get too big, ha ha (shakes head, like "what're you going to do?") and it makes me so sad for him and the poor lungfish.

 

[William]

Yeah, Cause I'm forbidden to have any more tanks [ 8s a tad to much, it seems ]

So no nice African Lungfish biotope for me. Which is kind of sad, considering he'll probably go into someones 30 or 55gal and live out his days

 

[TankGirl]

How big is he now?

 

[Toirtis]

Besides the fact that there is at least one recorded case of an African lungfish neatly amputating all the fingers on a fellow's hand with one rather nasty bite!! 8O

They don't have teeth so much as a crushing plate which enables them to pulverise molluscs....so you can imagine what a large lungfish could do to a hand.

 

[krap101]

lol sushi... kinda

 

[William]

How big is he now?

I would say...between 6 and 8 inches.