lungfish compatability
- Thread starter BigFish
- Start date
It would depend on the species. African's have almost no tankmates. Gotta be pretty lucky. South Americans are better tempered. I think most are nice but there are the select few that are nippy
I have a baby (9") african that is right this second in with an equal sized Lima Shovelnose and a slightly smaller Sand Goby.
In your experience is there likely to be warnings or should I just count on getting them apart soon. They have been set up for a couple inches now.
In your experience is there likely to be warnings or should I just count on getting them apart soon. They have been set up for a couple inches now.
its possible that there's a warning and the fish will be fine, BUT if it were me, i would count on getting them apart soon, unless you don't really mind losing them. Fortunately your african is still pretty small so it might not be as aggressive yet. More often than not, warning from an african lungfish attack comes in the form of death of the victim.
Just hope it stays good tempered. Mine is 17'' now and is pretty good with his tankmates. It will eat anything the size of a feeder fish and doesnt do anything to the others. Sometimes I get scared when some of the other fish decide to rest on or by its mouth but nothing has happened. Just keep a close eye on it be prepared to seperate them.
how big do lungfish get?south american 4'
west african 3'
marbled african 6'
slender african 5'
gilled african 2'
australian 5.5'
west african 3'
marbled african 6'
slender african 5'
gilled african 2'
australian 5.5'
I'm not sure what you have in mind to keep or try to keep with a lung. I'll just give my brief observations on the three species i've kept.
West african lungs P annectens: i have kept this species off and on for about ten yearss. right now i have one thats 30 inches long, one (probably soon to be two) around 12 inches long and one thats around 4 inches long. My first big one (RIP) i tried keeping bichirs with (i was totally new to them and figured it wouldnt happen to me) and ended up separating them when the bichir was found to be mostly scaleless one morning with a good chunk of tail missing (he recovered fully). He would eat anything including rodents (long story on that one), and he died one day after crushing the heater in his mouth and toasting himself. My current large one will tolerate fish for random periods of time then i'll wake up to nothing in the tank but a few left over scales. He has attacked my hydrovac several times and tried to get me more than once. The small ones are intolerant of each other no matter what tank i've tried to keep them in (six foot long is the biggest i tried). So they live separatly in 20 gallon tanks. the baby is in a two and a half gallon tank for now so i can see him and he can do his growing safely away from other fish.
Slender lungfish P. dolli. I've only had this one for about a month now, i've never seen it feed yet and the person i got it from only saw it eat once or twice (if i'm wrong i'm sure solomon will correct me on that). I do see food disappear at night in the tank so i'm not too worried. I've never tried to keep anything with it up to this point since i wanted to see if it settled in well. I might try some fast moving small fish (mostl likely acclimated bait minnows) and see what happens with that. Seems to be gentle but i've been surprised before. He is also extremely shy and rather lazy hiding behind the lift tubes all day.
Australian lungfish: i've had this one for over a year now and its by far my favorite, i purchased her (i just call it a her for kicks and grins) from Neo and she's been nothing but a great fish ever since. I keep a tropical gar a clown knife and three pelteobagrus catfish with her most times. I'm getting ready to move right now so she's living solo and getting power fed to put on some weight for the stress of moving. She is the center of my collection and will be getting the biggest tank i can afford to put into the new apartment and some new buddies. She's never tried to bit anything that i've seen. Indeed my main worry is making sure she gets her share of the food (that tropical gar eats more than any three fish i have combined). I do feed her directly using hemostats and i keep the others away while she eats. I dont doubt she would eat smaller fish but so far she's never left me worried about my others. On the down side she has to be the densest creature i've ever kept, brains did not develop much in her family tree. She's become a repetative hider to the point where she'll force herself under decorations that do damage to her scales and fins. Since i cant have that happening (to any of my fish) i've taken to using Oddball's idea of mounting a half round of cork bark to a piece of slate so she cant get under anything but can feel secure and i can still see her in the tank.
From what i've been able to gather if you want to keep other fish with a lung i'd go with a south american (never kept that species as of yet, but i hope to soon) or an AUL (but they are kinda pricey, took me awhile to recover from that purchase but i dont regret it in the least) South americans can be found most times at any size from a six inch baby to four food adult (though babies are much cheaper).
All seem to be rather hardy with the possible exception of the gilled lungfish which i'd trade a kidney to keep. I"ve read that they are a bit fussier than most lungfish about water quality.
I hope this helps, i'm dead tired now and going to sleep, take care and lungfish are great pets
.
jason
West african lungs P annectens: i have kept this species off and on for about ten yearss. right now i have one thats 30 inches long, one (probably soon to be two) around 12 inches long and one thats around 4 inches long. My first big one (RIP) i tried keeping bichirs with (i was totally new to them and figured it wouldnt happen to me) and ended up separating them when the bichir was found to be mostly scaleless one morning with a good chunk of tail missing (he recovered fully). He would eat anything including rodents (long story on that one), and he died one day after crushing the heater in his mouth and toasting himself. My current large one will tolerate fish for random periods of time then i'll wake up to nothing in the tank but a few left over scales. He has attacked my hydrovac several times and tried to get me more than once. The small ones are intolerant of each other no matter what tank i've tried to keep them in (six foot long is the biggest i tried). So they live separatly in 20 gallon tanks. the baby is in a two and a half gallon tank for now so i can see him and he can do his growing safely away from other fish.
Slender lungfish P. dolli. I've only had this one for about a month now, i've never seen it feed yet and the person i got it from only saw it eat once or twice (if i'm wrong i'm sure solomon will correct me on that). I do see food disappear at night in the tank so i'm not too worried. I've never tried to keep anything with it up to this point since i wanted to see if it settled in well. I might try some fast moving small fish (mostl likely acclimated bait minnows) and see what happens with that. Seems to be gentle but i've been surprised before. He is also extremely shy and rather lazy hiding behind the lift tubes all day.
Australian lungfish: i've had this one for over a year now and its by far my favorite, i purchased her (i just call it a her for kicks and grins) from Neo and she's been nothing but a great fish ever since. I keep a tropical gar a clown knife and three pelteobagrus catfish with her most times. I'm getting ready to move right now so she's living solo and getting power fed to put on some weight for the stress of moving. She is the center of my collection and will be getting the biggest tank i can afford to put into the new apartment and some new buddies. She's never tried to bit anything that i've seen. Indeed my main worry is making sure she gets her share of the food (that tropical gar eats more than any three fish i have combined). I do feed her directly using hemostats and i keep the others away while she eats. I dont doubt she would eat smaller fish but so far she's never left me worried about my others. On the down side she has to be the densest creature i've ever kept, brains did not develop much in her family tree. She's become a repetative hider to the point where she'll force herself under decorations that do damage to her scales and fins. Since i cant have that happening (to any of my fish) i've taken to using Oddball's idea of mounting a half round of cork bark to a piece of slate so she cant get under anything but can feel secure and i can still see her in the tank.
From what i've been able to gather if you want to keep other fish with a lung i'd go with a south american (never kept that species as of yet, but i hope to soon) or an AUL (but they are kinda pricey, took me awhile to recover from that purchase but i dont regret it in the least) South americans can be found most times at any size from a six inch baby to four food adult (though babies are much cheaper).
All seem to be rather hardy with the possible exception of the gilled lungfish which i'd trade a kidney to keep. I"ve read that they are a bit fussier than most lungfish about water quality.
I hope this helps, i'm dead tired now and going to sleep, take care and lungfish are great pets
.jason