My laid-back African lungfish 2.5'

[thebiggerthebetter]

If it is thirty inches, it must be atleast a decade old, cause my protopterus annectens annectens, which is the exact species as yours, was 19" when I got it way back in 2009. It is an inch less than 30" now,

My guy gets very less Pellets and more of fruits such as banana and papaya, spinach and fresh water Tilapia with spine and scales, and he his favorite is apple snails, which I give him as treats.

Although my guy, doesn't like tank mates, as he has devoured quite many plecos, before I gave up on the idea, also doesn't like being handled, I have seen him snap at nets and hoses, so I don't try my luck

Hey bro, I think you are replying to my posts. So you think my species is annectens annectens, right?

Since my first post, it appears the lungy tacked on a few more inches and got thicker. Its appetite has been insatiable. It would appear it wants and is able to eat as many pellets as I can give it.

It had had a half of a 240 gal and I have removed the divider a week or two ago. So now I am trying again to comm the lungfish with four Cephalosilurus apurensis, ~15". When these 5 were divider-less before, the apus would disrupt lungy's feeding but otherwise they were ok with each other. This time, the catfish got a few bite marks on them from the lungy but so far nothing serious. I think it's mostly because they all have been exploring the suddenly doubled space and figuring out who lives where and who likes what part of the tank the best. The things are still in flux, it seems. The apus have not bitten the lungfish.

I gotta fire up the desk top and get the external hard drive for pics. He was a slender African lung. Protopterus Dolloi, didn't get much over 3'.

I've been looking though Raymond Chan's Amazing Fish photographs on Instagram the other day and have seen multiple pics of his 5' dolloi, who Ray says is still his favorite fish.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

June 14, 2017 update on my two African lung fish. No big changes, just some growth:

smaller one at 2':

 

[Oddball]

Cause you still have all of your digits. Don't those things have a mean bite?

LFs don't have traditional teeth, per se. They're more like metal press shears. Check out a CAT scan of a LF head.



My LF bites through 9" crayfish like they were warm butter. This species could, in all likelihood, take off a finger clean without you noticing at first. I've seen mine bite 6" shiners in half and the front half continued swimming (after a fashion).

 

[Oddball]

For comparison, here's my 3ft aethiopicus. Sorry about the mess. He just finished off 6 crayfish.



Goals:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

You scared me. I should stop playing with my lung now! It's so laid back that I have been getting less and less careful with it. Thank you so much Oddball !

Also forgot to mention I just got two aethiopicus aka marbled lungfish from Wes myself too. Can see them somewhere in this video:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Update on both lungs:

 

[SfirtenK]

He looks very chill. Do you pet him often like this so he got used to it? Do they get chiller with age? Mine is half as big and I always double check where he is before I put my hand in the tank. He bites everything that moves around him.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

He looks very chill. Do you pet him often like this so he got used to it? Do they get chiller with age? Mine is half as big and I always double check where he is before I put my hand in the tank. He bites everything that moves around him.

Hey, sorry just saw your post. A stated above, I was handling the lung like this because I didn't know the danger of their bite. Phil Oddball filled me in. I don't do it anymore.

 

[PYRU]

LFs don't have traditional teeth, per se. They're more like metal press shears. Check out a CAT scan of a LF head.

View attachment 1258786

My LF bites through 9" crayfish like they were warm butter. This species could, in all likelihood, take off a finger clean without you noticing at first. I've seen mine bite 6" shiners in half and the front half continued swimming (after a fashion).

I'm glad you posted this. I had no idea they had that kind of hardware

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Update.

And just like that, in the span of two weeks, we lose both West Africans.

I've gone out for 2 hours and the 240 gal where the smaller one lived overfilled (for the first time in years), cutting off lungfish's access to air. My wife came home before me and saw this and the fish swimming frantically around looking for air but it was too late. She opened a lid for the lung but the fish couldn't find it. Nor has it figured out that it could easily lift a lid off the tank and take a breath. The lids are glass but two portions are acrylic and are very light, easy to lift. It could have lifted the glass portions too as the fish was 32" while the tank depth was 2', not counting big 1' tall concrete blocks in the tank. The lids had no weights on them. Anyhow, I am dumb, the fish is dumb and now it is dead.

That was the one we bought from snookn21 in Aug 2015 at ~5", which makes it about 3.5 years. It reached 32" and has always been a super duper feeder, slow but would eat anything until it finished every last bit.

The blood in the mouth is self-inflicted when it was looking for air.

The other, from Gerber's in Dayton, OH, has stopped feeding 2 weeks ago abruptly, in the last two days got swollen a lot and passed. Both symptoms are consistent with those of many other fish we have been losing for the last half a year and the suspected killer is a columnaris strain, one the internal-acting ones.

It's age is not known, suspected about 4-5 years. It reached 39".





The bigger one from Gerber's: