Lungfish V Bichir

[Boggnials]

i recently got a job at a fish store and they said we are getting lungfush in and bichirs in. i was wongering if anyone had any knowlage of these fish at all. thanks

 

[ste2k3]

lungfish:

bichir:

there are many speciese of each. they are definatly NOT community fish and the both can grow anything from 10" up to around 3' in length. if you tell us the speciese of each, then we may be able to help more but i'd be here for ever as there are loads of each. the lung fish in the pic is and african lungfish (I think) and the polypterus (bichir) in the pic is a p. ornatapinnis

ste

 

[diVer]

I have the book that picture of the lungfish comes from (or at least it is used in the book) yes, it is an African lungfish.

 

[tdins_2]

i think i like the birchir better even though i have never kept one but i am wondering if a marbled birchir would eat africans?

 

[Boggnials]

i think i want a type of bichir. i really like the type of bichir that you pictured in the picture above. i didnt know how big africanlungfish really get. well if you have any info on the more common bichirs out therei would greatly apreatite it. thanks

 

[fishdudein]

Polypterus palmus is the name for the most common bichir(around these parts anyway)--kind of an olive gray/green color--a good looking fish I have always wanted to try but as of yet haven't had the (space)(money) for. Have never seen a lungfish in a fish store. Shedd Aquarium has a monster--do your research here, it may outgrow anything we mere mortals could house it in(and they can survive at least short periods out of the water)

 

[fishdudein]

By the way, CONGRATS on the new job!!!!

 

[Perky]

Lungfish need at least a 6x2x2 and I think more. They can take a man's hand off. The one that was at my LFS nearly took my mate down the shops hand off. He was feeding it and when he was thawing out the prawns the Lungfish decided it wanted hand for dinner and luckily my mate moved quickly.

 

[chaotica2010]

Yeah I just read up on lungfish and they are ridiculously aggresive. So much so that they must be kept alone and keep your hands out of the tank of the big boys. Some species can reach alomost 6 ft long. That is one big aggresive fish to care for.

I have a Birchir eel P Selanus (sp?) and he made snack food out of my community tank. They are aggresive carnivore's but mine seems to do well with the new cichlids. Altough I think he misses the mioving food.


Rick B)

 

[diVer]

Ooops sorry, the picture isn't an African its an Australian, which gets 6 feet long. The smallest lungfish gets 17 inches long, the longest 6 and a half.

 

[Perky]

What is the smallests scientific name and min tank size?

 

[diVer]

The 17 inche lungfish is the East coastal lungfish or Protopterus amphibius. I don't know what kind of tank size they need but they like shallow, low oxygenated water. I also don't know how shallow "shallow" is.