So you think you want a lungfish?

[Lokasenna]

Apologies in advance if this information can be found in another thread. I looked around and couldn’t quite find what I am looking for. So here goes:

I think of all the fish that have ever been available to me, a lungfish has always been number one on my desire list. These primitive fish just have a certain je ne se qua, I guess. Recently I took a trip to my LFS and I noticed that they had several baby (maybe 3 inches long and about the width of two pencils) lungfish for sale at around 25 bucks each. I saw Lepidosiren paradoxa, Protopterus annectens and Protopterus dolloi specifically.

At the moment I have a 10g, a 20g long, a 55g and a 120g available to me. I was thinking of starting a lungfish out in the 10g/20g long and upgrading it as needed. I understand that a 120 will probably ultimately not cut it as a home so my question is how quickly do these guys grow? When is it reasonable to assume that I will be dropping the 20g for the 55g (and so on and so forth)? Also, I’ve read in several places that lungfish can potentially be dangerous if I’m not watching my hands in the tank. At what size should I be utilizing extreme caution? Is one species generally more personable than another? For the record, I am not interested in keeping any other fish in the same tank. Lastly, is it considered difficult to get a lungfish not to eat live food? Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[Bogwoodbruce]

Ive been keeping my WAL for 2 1/2 months and he has easily gorwn 3" and is much fatter but ive been feeding him bloodworm pellets and prawns, cockle and mussle twice daily lol.

 

[GriF]

Hey Lokasenna,

I personally think each lung has it's own personality...my dolloi went agressive at aprox 28 inch...now at 42 inch it's unstoppable it even jumped out of the water to atack the waterhose when I was refreshing the water in his tank.....My Aethiopicus started aprox 2 weeks ago (at 3ft) it snapped at the suction tube I use for refreshing, this was the first time....now he starts chasing it when I work in his tank....(thank god for their bad eyesight).
about the live food part...when I first got my Aethiopicus it wouldn't even exept live food it would only eat (dead) fish, shrimp and algae waffers...So I took out the live food and never tried it again...I did get my dolloi to eat with giant canadian nightcrawlers when I first got it...In the firt year I had it his main diet was live fish...but I never feed live food anymore.

 

[Lokasenna]

Hehe, nice Bruce. Does your lungfish have much of a personality or is it more of "sit-like-a-log-all-day" kind of fish?

 

[Lokasenna]

Hey Lokasenna,

I personally think each lung has it's own personality...my dolloi went agressive at aprox 28 inch...now at 42 inch it's unstoppable it even jumped out of the water to atack the waterhose when I was refreshing the water in his tank.....My Aethiopicus started aprox 2 weeks ago (at 3ft) it snapped at the suction tube I use for refreshing, this was the first time....now he starts chasing it when I work in his tank....(thank god for their bad eyesight).
about the live food part...when I first got my Aethiopicus it wouldn't even exept live food it would only eat (dead) fish, shrimp and algae waffers...So I took out the live food and never tried it again...I did get my dolloi to eat with giant canadian nightcrawlers when I first got it...In the firt year I had it his main diet was live fish...but I never feed live food anymore.

Thanks for the response Grif! When I get one I'd like to do as little of live feeding as I can get away with so hopefully the tiny lungfish take fairly well to prepared foods. By the by, I've been cruising around this forum for a bit and I've seen a fair amount of your lungfish pictures...quite impressive. Didn't you say in another thread that you got into lungfish because of that japanese photo of the albino with the french bulldog? If so, that is *exactly* what first drew me to these animals!

 

[GriF]

Thanks for the response Grif! When I get one I'd like to do as little of live feeding as I can get away with so hopefully the tiny lungfish take fairly well to prepared foods. By the by, I've been cruising around this forum for a bit and I've seen a fair amount of your lungfish pictures...quite impressive. Didn't you say in another thread that you got into lungfish because of that japanese photo of the albino with the french bulldog? If so, that is *exactly* what first drew me to these animals!

Thanx,

Yes that japanese picture sure is impressive...I wanted one just like that (when I ordered it I got a albino dolloi instead of an aethiopicus aethiopicus) I did keep the fish, The second time I did get an P.A.A. , I'm so curious how it will turn out in the long run. I think/hope it wil reach the 1 meter mark this summer.

 

[Bogwoodbruce]

Hehe, nice Bruce. Does your lungfish have much of a personality or is it more of "sit-like-a-log-all-day" kind of fish?

He has a personality alreight when ever some one enters the room he'll come up to the front and go all over it. He loves his food.

 

[nishant_datta]

 

[channarox]

i agree w grif.
my west african lungfish,now in a pond,has never been aggressive to any other fish.
he is very active in terms of lungfish.
i love handfeeding him.
but,he got so used to handfeeding,he'll even try to eat my fingers thinking theres food.
all other lugs ive kept would attack anything.
except the SA lung.

 

[Masvita]

My SAL is pretty laid back, but a little goofy. As in, he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean.

He's still got his baby spots and is only 10 inches at this point, but hasn't bothered any of my other fish. So if you're looking for a lungfish that can be kept with other fish, I think the SAL is the safest bet.

Mine hasn't grown as fast as I've heard others describe the growth rates of their SALs, but I think he may be a little stunted from being underfed when he was a baby. Using the 20 long to grow out seems okay, especially since they're not as tall as a 55, which will make it easier for your lungfish to come up to the surface to breathe.