LUNGRIES!!!!
Boss got back from Zimbabwe last Tuesday. When I walked into the lab, my first reaction was to think, "Yay! Boss is back!", but before I could finish the thought, I saw the fish box he was unloading, and darted over, ignoring Boss unintentionally, and thought, "Yay! New fish!". No sooner had I finished that thought when I heard Boss say the word Protopterus. That got my attention FAST, and the only thing in my mind was "ProtopterusprotopterusprotopterusWHEREARETHELUNGFISHES?!?!" .... and then I actually finally noticed that Boss was really right there, kind of anticipating a welcome-back hug. I had to conciously tell myself to wait, chill, hug Boss, say things like welcome back, we missed you, did you have a good time.... All the while my pulse was whispering Protopterus! in every fiber of my being.
I chilled myself out enough to calmly and patiently help unpack the fish. Then I heard Boss say, "Oh, Sabrina. Here is one of the Protopterus." My brain warred with itself wether to address the fact that Boss was holding a baggie-o'-lungfish or the fact that boss had said one of the lungfish. As in more than one lungfish.
I had to reign myself in from grabbing at the bag or saying GIMME GIMME GIMME or anything else of that nature and waited the second or two (which felt like a year or two) for Boss to hand me the little bag.
"How many?" was the best my jumbled brain could manage in regards to addressing the "one of" comment. There were three. Three whole lungfish. One to be kept by Boss, of course.
The first I inspected had been badly damaged, either by other things in his environment or by having been netted and handled. He was (still is) missing a few big patches of skin, the worst on his belly. To date, he is much the same. He doesn't appear to have contracted any infections yet, but with bad wounds like that.... Who knows.
That first little guy was the smallest lungfish I'd ever seen. Ever. Tiny. Just a mere 7 or 8 cm. I didn't even know they came that small. But the second couldn't have exceeded 5 cm! SO LITTLE OMIGOD TINY BITTY BABY LUNGIE!
The third was the same size as the first, and undamaged.
The little bitty guy got some pretty bad patches of fuzz from very small wounds that had gotten infected. I started treating him a few days ago. We'll see how he does.
The third went home with Boss. I am told that Boss' son has declared himself a lungfish and now wanders about the apartment waving his arms like the lungie's little leg-strings. I'd feel silly if I admitted to doing the same thing, so I won't admit it. I haven't, really. (Okay, maybe a little.)
The smallest actually appears to be P. amphibious. This is a REALLY BIG DEAL. Seriously. Freakin' AWESOME. The two larger ones are either P. amphibious or P. annectens brieni. This is fortunate, as the other possibility, P. aethiopicus, gets unmanageably large. We'll know more certainly as they grow up.
But in any case.... I HAVE A LUNGFISHIE!!!!!
And his name is Lungry The Hungry Lungfish.
Oh, incidentally, they're all gladly eating Spectrum pellets. I'll post later on how ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING it is when they eat. I so totally love these little guys :D