Spotted African lungfish

Congo lungfish ( Protopterus dolloi )

Congo lungfish ( Protopterus dolloi ) is in Central Africa before the lower and middle Congo Basin, in Kouilou - Niari and Ogooué. Is named the type after the Belgian paleontologist Louis Dollo, who established in 1893 a phylogeny of the lungfish.

Features

He is the most stretched and thus aalartigste lungfish Earth. Its maximum length is 1.35 m, the maximum weight at 11 kg. Breast and pelvic fins are reduced to fleshy filaments, as with all non-Australian lungfish. The long pectoral fins can reach twice the length of the head. Your base is often surrounded with fringe. The pelvic fins are slightly shorter. The body is covered with small round scales, 80-104 counting in a longitudinal row from the gill cover to a point above the pelvic fins, 40 to 48 in a row around the body. Congo lungfish have 47 to 55 pairs of ribs. The head length is 8.5 and 13% of standard length. The eyes are small. Their diameter is from 4.5 to 9.5% of head length. The anus is not exactly at the body bottom, but a little to the right or left.

Congo lungfish are brownish or grayish. The belly is yellowish, the throat often slightly reddish. The canals of the lateral line system are bright deducted from the basic color. Black spots on the back and sides of the body, showing the young fish, disappear with age.

Way of life

Congo lungfish live in constantly wet habitats with no severe droughts. Tunnels that they dig in the banks of their home waters, especially swamps, so do not serve the survival during the dry season, but the reproduction. The male guarded and guarded there eggs and young fish, while female Congo lungfish are more likely to find in the nearby rivers or streams. Congo - lung fish feed on fish and insects during the breeding season they also take herbal food.