Ethiopian lungfish
| Ethiopian lungfish | ||||||||||||
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Ethiopian lungfish ( Protopterus aethiopicus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Protopterus aethiopicus | ||||||||||||
| Heckel , 1851 |
The Ethiopian or Marbled lungfish ( Protopterus aethiopicus ) comes in East and North East Africa Sudanese portion of the Nile , in Albert , Lake Edward , Victoria , lake nabugabo , Tanganjikasee and Lake Kyoga before and is kg with a maximum length of two meters and a maximum weight of 17 the longest Lungfish of the Earth. It has the largest genome size of all animals described so far .
features
The Ethiopian lungfish have a cylindrical, slimy and smooth body with small scales embedded deep in the skin. The tail is pointed, the caudal fin grown together with the long dorsal fin and the anal fin. A longitudinal row of scales from the rear edge of the eye to over the anus consists of 55 to 70 scales, a row around the body of 40 to 50 scales. The beginning of the dorsal fin is equidistant from the eyes and the anus or closer to the latter. The pectoral and pelvic fins are refused like threads. The fish are slate gray on the back, yellowish gray or pink on the belly, sometimes also bright yellow on the underside. The body and fins are often patterned with numerous dark spots. The bright sensory channels on the head and body are bordered in black. In both jaws, Ethiopian lungfish have tooth plates with sharp, cutting edges. Young fish still show distinct, tufted outer gills, which in most cases disappear from a length of 15 cm.
The Ethiopian lungfish differs from the East African lungfish ( P. amphibius ) and the West African lungfish ( P. annectens ) mainly in the relatively short head and the larger number of ribs (35–41 compared to 34–35 and 27–29).
Way of life
The Ethiopian lungfish inhabit rivers and lake shores, swamps and floodplains. In Lake Victoria it occurs in the open sea and in marginal swamps, in Lake Tanganyika only near the flowing rivers and in the river deltas. Young fish live between the matted roots of the real papyrus ( Cyperus papyrus ). Adult animals mainly eat molluscs , as well as smaller fish and insects, and juvenile fish that are smaller than 35 cm, especially insects. The Ethiopian lungfish can survive in small rivers and swamps that dry up completely for a relatively long time of the year. It digs into the mud layer at the bottom of the water and forms a cocoon from large amounts of slime, which protects the fish from drying out. At the top of the cocoon is a small opening that allows it to take in oxygen. When the rainy season begins and the body of water fills up again with water, it leaves the cocoon. In many habitats of the Ethiopian lungfish, however, it is not affected by dry seasons. It reproduces during the rainy season. Several females lay their eggs in a cave dug by a male that guards eggs and fry.
Subspecies
- P. a. aethiopicus Heckel, 1851
- P. a. congicus Poll , 1961
- P. a. mesmaekersi Poll, 1961
literature
- Kurt Fiedler: Textbook of Special Zoology, Volume II, Part 2: Fish. Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1991, ISBN 3-334-00339-6 .
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
Web links
- Ethiopian Lungfish on Fishbase.org (English)