Ropefish/freshwater eels

[rmalford]

Anyone ever had any success in keep these with malawi? I've read of some success, problems with feeding mainly. What if I trained it to eat pellets in a smaller tank with less inhabitants? Hmm...

[eklikewhoa]

DO IT!

I always thought or thought of ropefish to be ferocious eaters.

[rgonzales]

Ive heard of ropes and some of the upper jaw types of bichir kept eith malawis before

[mnemenoi]

Aethiomastacembelus shiranus is a native spiny eel from Malawi and I have seen them kept in tanks with their biotope specific areas. I see them up on aquabid regularly, but they can be fairly pricey and expensive.

[wesleydnunder]

I kept a ropefish for several years with a variety of malawian and tang. cichlids. It fed exclusively on earthworms...never could get it interested in anything else.

Mark

[rmalford]

Hmm... I have an itch. Sometimes it turns into a twitch if I don't hurry.

[mnemenoi]

They had a solitary Tanganyikan Mastacembelid at Ultimate Fish a few weeks ago, not certain how it would work in a Malawi setup. I doubt it would be far different then one from Malawi though. I know a few other shops do carry them, just call and check around. I'd try Fish Gallery and Fish Ranch and possibly City Pets. As to a Ropefish, I would not recommend them in that type of a tank. Most starve with anything that won't let them eat slowly or actively eat all the food and from what I've seen on the Malawis I have kept they are always ravenous. They are actually quite chill and don't appreciate very boistrous tankmates, I would keep them with a schoal of african barbs (smaller) or tetras (jelly bean), possibly a few Butterfly fish as they would not compete for a food source. Synodonts would hog all the food and kribs would stress them out. Perhaps a few african annual killies or even some Morymids or african knife fish in a large enough tank might work. They love plants and will hang out in them all the time if there are enough.