West African lungfish
West African lungfish ( Protopterus annectens )
The West African lungfish ( Protopterus annectens ) occurs in West Africa from Senegal and Gambia to the Niger River before and northeast to the headwaters of the eastern tributaries of the Chari in western Sudan. He has also been detected in Bandama and Comoé in the Ivory Coast and in the Volta in Ghana.
Features
The West African lungfish reaches a maximum length of one meter and a maximum weight of 4 kg. The body is elongated, flattened in cross-section the front side around and behind the pectoral fins. Breast and pelvic fins are reduced to fleshy filaments, as with all non-Australian lungfish. The long pectoral fins, whose base is surrounded by fringes can reach three times the length of the head. The pelvic fins reach twice the length of the head. The body is covered with small round scales, which are deeply embedded in the skin. 40 to 50 are counted in a longitudinal row from the operculum to the anus, 36 to 40 in a row around the body before the dorsal fin. Even adult West African lungfish have two or three short, finger-like external gill tufts usually. The number of pairs of ribs is 34 to 37 Length of head is 8.5 and 13% of standard length. The eyes are small. Their diameter is 6.6 and 11% of head length. West African lungfish are olivaceous on the back page or brownish in color, the body sides are patterned with irregular rows of bright and dark spots. The belly is light, usually dirty yellowish and free of blemishes. The filamantösen, paired fins are spotted. The canals of the lateral line system are deducted from the dark base color. Young fish are very dark, often almost black. The change of color to lighter body coloration of the adult fish begins with a length of 16 to 20 cm.
Way of life
West African lungfish live in heavily vegetated backwaters of rivers and streams and in the nearby, planted with aquatic plants swamps. Drying, these waters during the dry season, he lives in a self-created mucus cocoon buried in the ground until the onset of the rainy season. If this does not for a year, it can also be more than one year over last. West African lungfish feed themselves, inter alia, of smaller fish, frogs and molluscs.