African ABA

[feinwerkbau]

Has anyone kep an African Aba before?

It looks like a tapering torpedo with super small beads for eyes and if they face you directly (head-on), they look like a smiling dolphin.

I miss mine. Raised him for about a year till he got to be 3/4 meter long.

[Carrie]

I've never heard of one of those. What is it? I'm sorry you lost yours. Is it a snake?

[dollface]

I too have to ask what that is?

[Ritz459]

I think it is a fish but I'm not sure? They sound scary. lol

[feinwerkbau]

Yes, it's a fish! A very cute fish because they are highly intelligent and really look like smiling Dolphins , even down to their all grey bodies but elongated without the sharp fins! In fact, it has only 3 fins; a very very long, wavy fin on top, and two very small, petal like fins on each side of its head.

Apparently, it has very little studies done because it's very elusive. Apparently, no adults have ever been captured and they have only been briefly witnesed when they come up for air.

Natural born predator with a perfect half-moon mouth with razor sharp teeth that are not readily visible (I deduce this from the bite wounds on prey and strips of raw beef). Sometimes, they kill purely to defend territory without consuming the prey.

Interestingly, they are nearly blind, nocturnal and navigate by weak electrical signals generated and discharged by the tail.

More interestingly, they have cranial cavaties that are very large for a fish. It's equivalent is comparable to that of the human cranium, suggesting that the Aba has highly developed brains. The material I researched in the enclycopedia did not mention and dissections made on living fish, probably because no adults have been caught.

I had this really bad habit. Every night, I would completely re-arrange the entire tank which had tons of drift-wood, plants, stones, rocks and caves. Wavy would stay quietly at one swide during the one or two hours while I did this and about 30 seconds after I finished, he would zoom all round the tank, litarally mapping it out at one go!

BTW, one observation made was that he could accelerate forward very fast, do a dead stop, reverse and turn with amazing speed and agility. This was when he was less than 50 cm long. The seen adults have been observed to be about 1.5 metres long in the wild. Can you imagine the power and speed that an adult can generate!!!

When I had 'Wavy' from the time he was a baby, I kinda trained him that unprovoked attacks were not to be tolerated, and as a result, he went on to live in a community tank, killing only for food or as a direct result of threat to his food source or territory, specifically from deep black coloured fish of any sort (why I don;t know), eels and similarly shaped fish once they reached a certain size. Before that, he lets them be.

He also knew when I got home from work. I would whistle as I passed the tank and he would peep out from under his rock or hides, and I would slowly move my hand to the water surface while whistling and cherrily calling out his name, snapping my fingers all the while.

He would come up to investigate, bump his snout a few times on my clenched hand and after two or three 'bumps', he would immediately and very quickly do a three-point turn and offer to have his tail stroked!

I swear, I remember the day my then to be brother-in-law who considered hiself a aquarium expert snidely whispered to my wife to be that fish don't know their names and don;t respond to a whistling call. I did my usual whistle, call Wavy wave clenched fist thinmg and he came right up to me to have his tail stroked! It was only much later that evening that my wife told me what her brother said. I almost work up the whole house with my laughter!

One of Wavy's all consuming past-times was stalking and seeking a fellow ell-like tank-mate, who by gnere, are harry houdinis at hiding and escaping. Wavy could spend hours stalking and finally when Wavy gets him, Wavy would simply pick him up and transport him at top speed to another part of the tank and deposit him. That's it. Poor ell-like tank-mate! Then Wavy would contentedly stick his head back under a rock or into a cave or under a 'shelf' he constructs of branches, leaves and whetever else and sleeps!!!

I have pictures of him but they are all im Mac files stored in MO discs, and I don't have any way to download the pics!

As Wavy grew, and we kept on switching tanks, the day came when I knew that he was unhappy and frustrated in the tank so after much consultation, a carefully-planned release was performed in an area where he would not only have a habitat similar to his own in Africa, but where he would not be a nuisance or threat to the local fish population in a negative manner.

[Ritz459]

Wow, he sounds like a really cool fish!

[Cassiepeia]

Thanks for the info, I agree with Ritz it sounds like a cool fish. I looked for ages to find info (and a photo!) on the net and this is all I could find. I'm not even 100% sure if it's the right fish... correct me if I'm wrong.



Cass.

[feinwerkbau]

Oh dear Cass, I can;t see the picture.

But you're right, there is very little data on this fish, mainly because it is so elusive and close studies are almost impossible.

However, they do exist (in case anyone thinks I'm making this up@! LOL!) and have been listed in fish encyclopedias. Chances are, you might not find more than a short paragraph or two describing them, or rather, their habits.

After Wavy, i was never inspired to keep any more fish, and while I tried several times, I'm afraid that nothing, absolkutely no other aquatic fish could compare, so I just gave up. Oh well, at least I did try several times. Perhaos later on in life...