Gray Bichir

• GeneralIt breathes air with primitive lungs; its lineage is over 350 million years old.
• evoluciónIt retains very primitive features, working lungs alongside its gills among them, which makes it a study model for the evolutionary step from fish to four-limbed animals.
• It is a facultative air breather: it surfaces to take in air with a modified swim bladder and survives in water almost devoid of oxygen.
• The larvae keep feathery external gills and look much like a salamander's; they swim in a shoal alongside the male.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Slow rivers, swamps and floodplains

Sexual maturity

Size at maturity of 19 cm on average, with a range of 15 to 23 cm

Gestation / incubation

It is egg-laying and an egg scatterer: the female releases them among submerged vegetation and there is no parental care. Breeding in captivity is rare

Life expectancy in captivity

34 years or more recorded in captivity

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Polypterus senegalus · Fishipedia, ficha Polypterus senegalus · Guias de acuariofilia de Polypterus senegalus · Seriously Fish, ficha Polypterus senegalus senegalus · FishBase, Polypterus senegalus · Animalia

Best time: It lives in marginal swamps and freshwater lagoons of the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Volta, Chad and Nile basins; it lies still on the muddy bottom or glides with snaking movements, and comes up to the surface in the hottest hours of the day

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.