I tried the African Lungfish and failed miserably!

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screaminleeman

screaminleeman

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 27, 2009
1,445
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38
Westminster, MD
I felt guilty about my negative "crack" on Lungfish in the "Ancient fish section sub-forums" over my favorite fish, the bowfin, so I bought one to give it a fair shake and try it out.

I asked the LFS store owner about compatability of this fish (9") with other ancient members of a tank that I planned on putting them in. They said no problema with my 12"+ Black Ghost Knife and three 6" - 8" Albino Senegal Bichirs.

Well, The african lung fish lasted less that two hours before being skinned alive and devoured. The LFS was right, and no agression between the ancients. I failed to inquire about the other tankmates not even a bit worried about them. Don't make my mistake!

I have had a spawn of baby Jewel Cichlids (Female red & Male electric blue jewel). The Female (around half the size of the male) killed it soon after the fry were born, I moved the fry & mother into the ancient tank for "feeders".

Around 20 of the fry survived past feeder size, and are now around 2". They LITERALLY skinned the Lungfish within the first hour! Holy Crap! I SWORE that my screwup as a newbie with a small electric blue J.D. sneaking through a tank divider into the section with a juvinile gar being my GUINESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS most expensive feeder fish ($45) in my fishkeeping career. Well two years of experience and I just topped that with a $65 feeder Lungfish.

I did get an excellent Retropennis Bichir at half price ($15) as a replacement. I did not risk putting it in the ancient tank, and it is doing great in the Malawi African cichlid tank!

I thought rift lake cichlids were suppose to be more "agressive" than Riverine Jewels! :screwy:Guess not. In fact, I have to 100% disagree with ALL african cichlid keepers! I keep Nile, Buttikoferi, Polleni & Bleekeri Tilapia cichlids, and none of the mbuna I have EVER kept would last ONE MINUTE with these natural born killers. :WHOA:
 
sucks for the lung. Sorry, but could have seen that coming. Jewels (as you found out) can be very aggressive. Live and learn.
 
pwmin said:
sucks for the lung. Sorry, but could have seen that coming. Jewels (as you found out) can be very aggressive. Live and learn.
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I catch so much heck from my friends. The fry of the Red/ electric blue jewel cichlids are so outrageously colorful, that they all say that they blow out anything they have seen in any store in the way of jewel cichlids. They freaked out that I fed like 100 of them to my Gars and Bowfins! I am kicking myself in the butt now for being a "softy" and keeping the "22" to be exact that I did. They are SUPPOSE TO BE FEEDERS. That is the ONLY reason I bought the adult jewels in the first place.

They werw bought, bred and raised as feeders for my "ancient fish". Not a $65 ancient fish as a feeder to B.S. jewel cichlids. Oh how I despise these brightly colored rat finks!
 
Wiggles92 said:
Ouch, how big was the lungfish, and what species was it?
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It was 9" (under 1" wide though!). I have absolute ZERO experience with the "lungfish". I went on a rant second to none over the Lungfish in the ancient section over my favorite "Amia Calva" and was extremely rude in my predjudice toward the fish. My guilt got the best of me and I decided to at least give the lungfish a fiar shake and try it out.

It was simply labled in the LFS as "african spotted lungfish" although I understand that this is of less than no help in true "species" identification.

I thought the Jewels would make excellent feeders for the lungfish. My Gars and Bowfin love Jewel Chichlids (Eating them that is)!

Bowfin are obviously a different animal entirely. I had a 8" bowfin OBLITERATE larger uber agressive green sunfish. The Green sunfish had no problem with the Jewel fry as feeders either?
 
screaminleeman said:
It was 9" (under 1" wide though!). I have absolute ZERO experience with the "lungfish". I went on a rant second to none over the Lungfish in the ancient section over my favorite "Amia Calva" and was extremely rude in my predjudice toward the fish. My guilt got the best of me and I decided to at least give the lungfish a fiar shake and try it out.

It was simply labled in the LFS as "african spotted lungfish" although I understand that this is of less than no help in true "species" identification.

I thought the Jewels would make excellent feeders for the lungfish. My Gars and Bowfin love Jewel Chichlids (Eating them that is)!

Bowfin are obviously a different animal entirely. I had a 8" bowfin OBLITERATE larger uber agressive green sunfish. The Green sunfish had no problem with the Jewel fry as feeders either?
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Lungfish are surprisingly fragile when they're young, but turn into tanks as they get larger.

Sounds like you had an actual spotted African lungfish (Protopterus dolloi) based on your description. If you wanted to try again, see if the LFS can order another since that particular species can be tough to come by, and I don't remember how long it has been since small ones popped up in a decent quantity like they have recently.
 
DariusAmurdarja said:
I feel sad about the lack of respect for life here...
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Are you against feeders because your fish food has fish in it. I'm just not sure what you are referencing. He shares his story of loss. Speaking in monetary terms is not necessarily disrespectful considering he'd only had it for 2 hrs how could he bond with it how could it be more than a fish and the lungfish getting eaten by the jewls is only bad because odds are the lung was wild caught feeding wild to captive is bad, again not his intention so what is wrong?
 
I'm not seeing a problem here; he wasn't trying to kill it after all. Lungfish are almost always the ones to do the attacking and killing of their tankmates rather than the other way around. I certainly wouldn't have expected one that size to get killed by those jewel cichlids; I fed a similar sized jewel cichlid to a lungfish that was about that size with no problems at all.
 
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