African Rope fish / Reed fish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus)

Description

This awesome snake-like fish is a peaceful carnivore which hails from slow moving but heavily vegitated areas in Western and Central Africa.

This fish can reach sizes of up to 2 feet long and can live 15 to 20 years in captivity!

The general rule of thumb for this fish is that it does best with fish too big to swallow (it is a carnivore after-all) and peaceful fish that wont swallow it either!
A great addition to most community aquariums as this fish is as active as it is peaceful, but keep in mind it needs to eat meaty foods such as live or frozen worms and can will also usually eat shrimp pellets and sinking carnivore pellets.

Can be kept in groups of 6 or less.

One really interesting thing about the Ropefish is that they have a modified swim bladder that can act like a pair of lungs, therefore this fish has the ability to take oxygen from the water through its gills and the air through its lungs — giving it the ability to survive quite a few hours out of water.
This is an evolutionary adaptation developed so the species could survive in stagnant waterways with low oxygenation but this can be helpful in the hobby since ropefish are incredible escape artists. When keeping them I strongly suggest a tight fitting aquarium lid to keep them from escaping.