Lungfish together

[SimonL]

Here's something interesting; today my budget lungfish tank (48"x16" plastic bin) started leaking and with no time to set up a new tank, I chucked my 24" annectens into my 220 gallon with my 3 foot SA. And.....they are getting along :) Not so much as a nip. I guessing because they are different genuses (genusi?), and because the SA is so much larger.

I once (somewhat foolishly) attempted to keep multiple large annectens together, which resulted in immediate battling. It was like watching bull elephant seals fight.

Anyway, I wonder if this will last.....I'm tempted to not remove the annectens right away.

Anyone else heard of anything like this?

[Oddball]

Wait until lights out. Have a divider ready in the morning. I have 5 species of lungfish and only the AULs and juvie L. paradoxa get along with only minimal squabbling.

[SimonL]

My aro won't appreciate a divider...:) I've got another tank for the annectens, it would just be cool if they would co-exist. My annectens is very mellow, it only bothers shiny silver fish (silver dollars, sabretooths, etc).

[Infblue]

any updates? it'd be cool if the combo works out but personally i'd be very cautious

[Simcan]

Alarm bells should be ringing, in my opinion. The amount of damage an annectens can inflict with one intestine-exposing rip, makes this a pretty nervy experiment. My guess is, with a two foot annectens, you won't get a chance to see some nipped fins before it is too late. And not just the SAL either...your arowana is at risk. It may work for a while, but if he gets hungry or irritable, and either fish gets too close, it'll be ugly. There are lots of stories about annectens living with other fish, which works until it doesn't. And when it doesn't the other fish is dead.

Of course, good luck and there are no real rules, but this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

[SimonL]

My annectens is ridiculously unaggressive, he's been the "community" tank for almost 2 years. I just ended up setting him up another tank though, because my big clown knife keeps attacking him and ripping his tail up. The annectens has taken the occasional chunk out of other fish, but never anything serious ('cept the hydrolycus and some red hooks, he like shiny fish).

[Jox]

I understand this is an old post but I am an extremely curious as to this situation. I have seriously been considering doing that because you african lung is like a clone of mine behavior wise. It has been kept with community fish less than half its size like small spiny eels and silver dollars and the only thing it has taken out is one silver dollar. Please post on how your lung is doing. Here is a pic of mine.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f288/Phillipe01/aquariumpics040.jpg