Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Pantodon buchholzi - The African Freshwater Butterfly Fish

My African Freshwater Butterfly Fish, Pantodon buchholzi, arrived yesterday. All 6 of them almost immediately started feeding on those "ulat burung" commonly sold at LFS. Shameless!

These little distant cousin of the African/South American/Asian Arowana can grow to a max size of 15 cm or about 6 inches in length. They have huge draw-bridge like mouth and feed on anything moving near the water surface.

Although they're called "butterfly" fish, they don't actually fly, I read on Wikipedia that they are "ballistic jumper", whatever that means so this species needs a tight fitting cover to keep them from "ballistically jumping" themselves to death.

After 1 hour floating in the bag in the tank.
This is to match the temperature in the bag with the temperature of the tank.


The morning after introduction to the tank... They have good appetite, which is a good sign.


My photos doesn't do them any justice...

So here are some beautiful photos of the same species taken from the net (I don't own these photos and the credit goes to the respective owners).

They look like miniature Arowana with fin extension.


The top profile showing the "butterfly" part of the name.


They have big mouth that can swallow big prey item.



As for the new lungfish, it is currently living next "door?/Tank?" from the old lungfish. I'm preparing a new tank for it soon.

Look at the colour/pattern difference. The old one is one the left, the new one's one the right side

1 comment:

  1. Hi there, where did you buy your African Butterfly fish from?

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