SA lung fish grow out.

[Rpul]

Around 7 week ago I was suggested to try keeping a SA lung fish. As I was after something that was impressive, yet calm.
The perfect combination.

Whilst chatting in a LFS,a group of 3
extremely small lung fish was in stock. When I say small, these fish were around the 3-4” mark and thinner than your average pencil.

I collected the larger one, and returned home. It’s since been living in my bedroom with me in a small 10g tank. Untill today, where I moved him into the 350L front room aquarium. (40”Lx30”Hx24”w)
I’ve become quite accustomed to this little fish. The growth rate has been quite impressive. Happily taking blood worms, chopped mussels and pellets from the off.

I do have a question regarding tank depth, whilst I’ve noticed a change in behaviour since moving said fish into the larger tank, it’s been sat/resting on top / near the water line in the plants roots and around the top of the large bog wood. Inches from the surface. I am concerned a 30” deep tank may be alittle much for the 7/7.5 “ lung fish to get up to the surface to breath, whilst currently it has positioned it self in a safe manner. I am concerned this will affect the growth and feeding due to spending all his time up there. The flow is low in the aquarium, but I am doubting myself if I made the right decision moving him.


first picture- day of collection,
Other pictures - today. Moving into larger aquarium.

 

[wednesday13]

Wish these guys kept their juvi colors… would b amazing to see em like that at 30”+… As for its housing and requirements. Sounds like ur ok there. Offer floating plants and slow water so they can breathe easy. It is possible to drown them. IME they will stay pretty close to the surface most the time for easy air access. “Rule of thumb” is to keep small lungs in depths of their length but most people dont and they get on just fine. Kinda similar to baby turtles. Its a suggestion for safety but not an absolute requirement. Im sure they encounter deeper water than their length in the wild. I raised an aethiopicus from 5”. I kept it in various sized floating tubs As it grew for easy food access and breathing until i had a tank with water depth appropriate for its length. I did stretch the rules a bit tho for example a 8-10” depth for a 5-6” fish… mine got on and grew just fine with “tub life” for around 2-3yrs until i felt comfortable with its length in a 20” depth tank.

I wouldn’t be overly worried with ur current setup as long as u have plenty of floating plants for it to rest on and spend most of its time there to breathe easy. The majority, im sure, does not even offer that and they can still thrive lol…

 

[Rpul]

Thought I’d do a quick update , he’s grown not a huge amount, but starting to chunk out more. Was expecting more growth from what I read online. Maybe he’s not getting enough food. Saying that, he’s one of the first to it. Very greedy. The vibrant colours are slowly starting to fade.
Maybe 9” now.

 

[jjohnwm]

Nice to see this; I had one many years ago and it was always a favourite. I rehomed it during a move, but I didn't really know the new owner and never kept up on the progress of the fish. A mutual acquaintance informed me about a decade later that the fellow still owned a large SA Lung, and I like to think it was the same fish. I got mine at the same very small size as yours; after three years it was somewhere in the vicinity of 18 inches, much chunkier than before, and its colours had faded to a dull medium grey...but of course, it was a pet by that time. It was always kept alone when I had it.

Yours appears in the last pic to be showing some erosion or aggression damage along the edges of the unpaired fin(s). The tail tip is rounded off, should still come to a point, although the paired fins (tentacles?) look undamaged. Anything in that tank that could be picking on him?