The South American Lungfish is a very interesting fish, but it has only very drab colours. The usual pattern is mudcolour, eg brownish, greyish, sometimes a bit blackish. But why should an animal that lives in swamps and feeds on snails show bright coloration? On the other hand: astonishingly enough, very young specimens, like the ones we obtained recently from Peru (6-9 cm long) are very pretty! The fish are pitchblack and have golden-yellow dots. Against conspecfics the youngsters are very peaceful. This cannot be said about the adults! Pictures of adult specimens can be seen here: http://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/lepidosiren_paradoxus_en/
For our customers: the fish have code 265501 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
