Luciocephalus pulcher

[Shaihulud]

Hello, im new here and an odd fish enthusiast. I bought 4 giant pikehead and have been keeping them for some weeks. One of the smallest was eaten by its tankmates, it was doomed in the fish shop anyway. It is an under appreciated fish but I like them alot! I don't feel that it is very sensitive to water parameters, but its only a few week. This being one of the places where people will be more familiar with the native fishes of South East Asia, i will like to have more information about them. Specifically how to sex them, is anyone breeding them? I want to breed them! Are they really an unsuitable fish for the aquaria? is anyone keeping them? I would appreciate any information about them.

I also have a small eel which was caught in a pond, i think its a swamp eel, but that has to wait :P.

[benny]

Hi shaihulud,

Welcome to AQ!!

I think the folks here have limited experience with this fish, but there are exceptions. We do have a few very knowledgeable members in this area.

You might like to know that www.arofanatics.com has quite a lot of odd ball and predatory fish hobbyists around.

Cheers,

[hwchoy]

Shaihulud.

L. pulcher can often be caught in local waters especially in Malaysia. I once had a small 5 inch guy that someone caught from some longkang. But it got murdered by a Channa gachua.

I want to see that eel of yours! where did you catch it?

[MrTree]

Hard to id if they are small but female is probably less colorful & of course bigger stomach...

[Shaihulud]

From a longkang! Then it can't be too picky about water parameters right? i searched the internet, some people at Arofanatics say that it is sensitive and shy and then not many people responded, not many people seems to keep them and most information about them comes from the same sources. European hobbyist might have more info from the hits i got, but i can't read German or French.

Hard to believe, but i got the eel from the lily pond in the Singapore Science Centre. Theres also blood-sucking(confirmed) leeches in that pond, and i have never seen leeches in Singapore. I will post the picture when i borrow a digital camera, its only 6cm long, but its eating smalll fries and tadpoles.

[budak]

remember that in Malaysia... longkangs (esp. those in rural areas) can often be parts of (or connected to) remnant freshwater swamps proper. Also, there, you don't get so much industrial/household waste entering the drains.

[hwchoy]

Most fish will live under a fairly wide range of conditions. However it might need a narrower range to live well and to breed. Some aquarists tend to think their fishes are some kind of art work that needs to be kept in a bank vault with computer controlled environment of ±5% tolerance

Oh and there are plenty of leeches in Singapore, hell anywhere in the tropics for that matter. You just need to go to their habitat more often and give them a chance.

[Shaihulud]

Just dosed the pikehead's tank with Fluke and Tapeworm tablet from Aquamaster, thats because one of my fish ejected a tapeworm! Very sad, the warnings and the stipulation on the label makes me apprehensive. Hope that it works out alright, i dosed the whole tank because i have no idea which fish is at fault, though i suspect the bichir, the pikehead is the only one that is wild caught. I have never used any of this medication before, so hope my fish turns out alright.

[Shaihulud]

My fish turned up alright for the does of praziquental. It messed up the water abit, but the fish doesn't seems to mind it, even eating in that stuff. My swamp eel died, im really sorry to say, it was not in the medicated tank btw. Heres a picture of my pikehead together with a head of a Nomorhampus hageni sticking in.

[hwchoy]

eh where you get your Nomorhampus hageni?

[Shaihulud]

I got it from Y618, they can't remember what the fish is called, but they say its propably 'siao hu zi' or little beard. I agree its an apt expression, because they should have an overhanging dewlap! Mine is pretty banged up. Btw they have none left, i bought all 4 of them.

[hwchoy]

how you know is Nomorhamphus hageni? this fish is from Sulawesi which I imagine doesn't have much fish export.

[Shaihulud]

Well, i can't really say that i can confirm it, but it looks like the Nomorhamphus Hageni from this website http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/aquaria/halfbeaks.html

It could be a liemi, but liemi seems to have abit of the black in their fins and much more colourful. Mine has red at the base of its fins and heavily built.

[hwchoy]

mmm check out my fish http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=20083 which was supposed to be N. liemi which is also from Sulawesi. so much for "little fish export from Sulawesi" haha.

[Shaihulud]

Heheh! It might be any Nomorhampus, or any variant. My opinion here is not exactly an expert one, i originally thought it was a C.hujeta! A search on the internet for liemi showed that it is not likely though, they all seems to have black coloration on their fins.

[hwchoy]

my fish does not have black trim on the fin when younger.

[Shaihulud]

Spoken too soon, one of my largest pikehead died a few minutes ago, at 3 inches. It was alive half an hour ago when i was removing some extra food from the tank for the rest of its tankmates. You can see from the pics above that my pikeheads eat well, that particular pikehead's appetite was diminishing, it was abit skinnier and sometimes it didn't eat a day, but on a whole it looked much healthier and sleeker than it was at the lfs. The smaller ones were all eaten up, so now i am left with only one. One that also has been eating less and less . Maybe they are sensitive fishes afterall, but i don't see any major changes i did to the tank to cause this to happen.