Raising a Lepidosiren paradoxa

[Xeno]

Hey,
after around 2 years juvenile SAL are available in Germany again so even though they doubled the price for them I still ordered a specimen which will receive in 4 to 8 hours.
They are supposed to be 3 to 4in long which is extremely small for a slender bodied fish.
At first I though about raising it with my fire eels (around 6in) in an 30gal tank but thinking about it that tank might be too large for such a tiny lungfish, especially the water level of 14in might cause the tiny fella to drown.
I do have several small tanks like 10 or 20gal nanos which I could use to raise it I guess that would be the way to go until it hits 8in or so, right?

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

I raised the tiny one I got in a small 5.5g for two months until it perished due to unknown reasons; it did pretty well in a tank that size and I probably wouldn't go with a tank that's taller.

 

[wednesday13]

Rule of thumb is to keep them in tanks as deep as they are long… you can get away with a bit deeper water using floating plants and low water flow also. Personally id start him off in a larger tank so the water is more stable and use a breeder box or floating container inside the tank to “rear” it in. Once its eating well and puts on a cple inches u can go from there. Ill try and find some pics for u of the box i used for my 5” aethiopicus. Like SA lungs they are prone to drowning so the same rules apply. I used a rubbermaid container inside a 230gal tank similiar to how people keep ray pups.

 

[wednesday13]

This was the 2nd tub i used, 1st one was smaller/shallower and the lung was 5”. No pics of that tho sadly as it was 6 yrs ago. I “cheated” a bit keeping him a tad deeper than recommended. Water supply was fed into the tub by an airlifter tube similiar to an undergravel filter. This method works better than drilling a bunch of holes in the container. The opposite side of the tub was cut out and covered in plastic screen to let water out. He was kept in this tub for a good 2 years, upgraded the tub after that for another cple years until it reached 20” then placed in a tank with 24” depth. As long as ur water flow is minimal and they can breath slowly/easy u should b fine. Good luck!

 

[Xeno]

Hey,
I've got it in a 10gal with 4in of water in there.

It's already eating everything I drop into the tank.

 

[Xeno]

Hey,
the specimen is doing great and is pushing 30cm.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6P5t-_IViG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==