Question about Black Ghost Knifefish

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ismellfishy
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:37 am

Question about Black Ghost Knifefish

by ismellfishy

Hey guys, i'm still cycling my water and am researching certain fish that i would like to buy once the cycling is over. I've seen the Black Ghost Knifefish in stores before and have found them very interesting and pretty freakin awesome, but i went on wikipedia and found out they can grow up to 25 inches which shocked me. I've never seen one much bigger than 5 inches, it also said that they will eat feeder fish... now i know wikidpedia isnt very realiable all the time so i was wondering what your experiences with these fish are. I want to have a 55 gallon, planted, community tank but i'm starting to think these fish may be too dangerous for my smaller fish and too big for my tank. What say you?


ismellfishy
 
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:37 am

by ismellfishy

Here's the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_ghost_knifefish

Then i saw this and now feel confused because i see several small fish in no danger. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtWYqevw ... re=related


vwfan79
 
Posts: 80
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:20 pm

by vwfan79

I've kept African Clown Knifefish in the past....the last one I had was about 16" when I got rid of him....so they do grow pretty large, and will eat pretty much any smaller fish in the tank....not a community tank fish for sure.....and as for a 55 gallon, they would out grow it in less than a year.....I kept mine with a large Oscar (14") and a Florida Gar (16") in a 90 gallon and fed them all large feeder gold fish....but then seeing that youtube video you posted has me a little stumped too....I would suggest no to having one in a community tank, but thats just me


tomargir
 
Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:18 pm

by tomargir

As a rule of thumb. The size that a fish grows is limited by the volume of the aquarium and also by other factors. For instance A-males are always bigger than the rest of the fish in a certain tank (this is regulated by hormones excreted by the a-male). When the a-male is removed another fish takes its place and grows bigger.
The first fish i had was a shubunkin. I kept it in a fishbowl at first and it didn't grow bigger than 5cm. When i moved it to a bigger tank it grew to 10cm. Then i moved it to a bigger aquarium and it reached 15cm.

So don't worry. Your knifefish will never reach 25 inches in a tank.

PS One "exception" of this rule are plecostomus. Well, i am not a marine biologist, and i don't know if this is a real exception, but plecostomus seem to grow get abnormaly big in a given tank.


tinadno
 
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu May 15, 2008 5:03 pm

by tinadno

Hi I've had a black knife fish before and basically if you have any small fish in there you may start to find that they are missing. Knife fish feed at night since they are nocturnal and usually hide through the day so make sure you have adequate hiding places. Mine when i got him was about 5 inches and didn't get much bigger. They also are scaless fish so if you ever decide you need to medicate any other fish or the water make sure you separate the knife fish or he will die. That was my experience at least

Question about Black Ghost Knifefish

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