Erpetoichthys calabaricus - Rope fish

Hi,

Have anybody kept these fish?

From what I've read they are quite peaceful and will only eat other fish when they are small enough.

Can be kept in larger community tanks 200l plus.

They are escape artists. Prefer live meaty foods. Nocturnal feeders.

Grow up to about 40-60cm in captivity.

Water temps 22-28celcius

ph 6.5 - 7.5

I would like to hear from someone who has kept these to share your experiences.

Regards

Dieter

 

Hey there

Most of your info there is right, although from what I know, they rarely exceed 30cm (I've seen very few over 25cm). They're great fish to have but one thing to take note of is that they hunt more by smell than by sight, so if you keep them with overly active feeders, they may miss out on most of their meals.

Another important thing is to make sure that they're eating before you buy them - some just refuse to eat.

 

These fish are meant to escape. Thats what they do in the wild. An open space the size of a 20cent coin anywhere above your tank (in the hood, between hood and out/inlet pipes) is sufficient for this fish to make its escape.

According to reliable sources, can survive up to 4 hours out of water (thats if you happen to find it and put it back into the tank).
From my experience, they will survive out of the water for about 3 hours. All depends on how fast they dry out.

These are great fish, and seen them for sale at around R50 each. I suggest you go ahead and get a pair provided you have the facilities and make sure they don't escape.

 

Thanks I got a pair yesterday and so far so good.. :blink1:

 

Definately

I got 4, and they do miss out to the barbs if I feed them at the wrong time.

Some eat on top, some eat at the bottom, which makes for interesting feeding times and patterns.

Real little Characters.

3 are about 25cm, one is about 15cm and black. He was been bullied for a long time, as they cant see anything really coming.
A reshuffle of the tank and a nice rockery where he hangs out resolved that.

PS sexing is quite easy.

Males have an Anal fin
Females , the anal fin and cardual fin are streamlined with the body. Nice taper. You can almost say the Anal fin is missing

Easy to spot. Dont worry about trying to count fins.

 

Thanks for the replies,

What do you normally feed them?

I just feed bloodworms and on occasion some brine shrimp, pellets and flakes.

Is it better to feed them at dark because of their nocturnal habits?

 

Ropes, as I'm sure SA will agree to, are a bit of trial and error.

My bottom feeders eat at night, in their corner, where the top feeders are found patrolling the opposite end on top when I get up in the morning.

I feed them bloodworm and larvae, I've seen them eat pellets, and then spit them out again.

 

It also depends on a bit of luck - mine wouldn't eat for the first week, and now eat pellets every day. I really recommend giving them bloodworm every so often though. Here's one of my boys:

 

I have 2 of them great little fish, ok not so little..... just make sure you have a lid that has no holes in it these fish are great escape artists I have lost one before due to him trying to escape.
I keep my to in my predator tank because Oscars are very messy eater so the rope fish eat the pieces of food that fall to the bottom.

 

I have read that somewhere on the the internet of a person using a glass bottle to put the bloodworms or whatever food in and then the bottle would sink to the bottom of the tank and then the ropefish can eat at their leisure.

The other fish cannot fit inside the bottle.

I tried this last night and this morning sure enough one of them was in the bottle.. Comments?

At the moment they share a tank with a few tiger and black ruby barbs.

 

Good idea !!!!

 

That's a very clever idea!

 

YOu're a GEnius!!arty:

 

Thanks but it's not my idea.. Discovered while reading up on them on the internet.. The original idea was to use a glass 250ml coke bottle but I used an old sodastream glass bottle, if the fish are bigger I would think the coke bottle should work better because of the width..

 

still looking for a narrow bottle, so used a glass semi submerged

It works just as well.

Word of caution though, I had to rescue one of the angels, she got stuck in the glass