African Brown Knife Fish

[benzjamin13]

Family: Notopteridae

Scientific Name: Xenomystus Nigri

Common Name: African Brown Knife

Origin: Africa. Coastal river basins in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Benin and Cameroon. Also in the Chad, the Nile, the Congo, the Niger (Benue and Niger Delta), the Ogôoué and the Congo (Cuvette Centrale and Ubangui) Basin

Water Parameters: pH 6.0-7.5, Temperature 75`F-82`F (23`C-27`C)

Temperament: Not Aggressive, but don't keep with small fish

Size: Average of 8" in aquarium

Tank Size: 50g minimum

Aquarium Set Up: A well planted and/or dim lit tank is most comfortable for them. Noctural in nature, so it is best to provide lots of hiding spaces. Small groups can be formed when they are small, however, as they get larger, they will become aggressive towards each other.

Feeding: Will except Flake, Frozen, Freeze-Dried, and Live.

Breeding: Difficult and rare in aquarium.

 

[nitrofish1]

can they be kept with a BGK? there are about 4 hiding spots in my tank, but my ABK is occupying one of them, inside an ornament. i tipped it over so i could see what it was going all the time and it just made it easier for him, but im wondering if they would get along or not. cuz id like to get a BGk, but i have some swordtails in the tank, but i think itd be a while b4 he got big enough to eat them. plus i need another fish help eat their fry my tank is mostly angelfish, i have 7, but i have 1 male and 3 female swordtails. and a blue gourami, but i dont think hell have a problem of getting eaten

 

[artemis1]

Great write up! Learned lots of new info

 

[LittleBigAl3]

i had one before and it seemed to stalk my fish more than my clown knife does! lol

 

[castintotheopensea5]

Haha yea my ABK is always stalking his tank homies.....especially the pacu.

 

[Taso Zen Fish]

I am looking to put four 3" kives in with irridescent sharks in a 55 gallon. Good mix? Maybe some debuai cats(too small?) or pims?

any help would be appreciated

 

[nitrofish1]

I had issues with anything more than one knifefish. They are very slow growing, I wouldnt mix them with an ID shark. The dominant one in my tank was always the smallest one, and when it looked like they were s tarting to get along, the bigger one was dead.

 

[cassharper]

I wouldn't mix ID sharks with a 55g seeing as they get well over 3'

 

[nigaharu]

Thank you for the great info.

 

[xanhax]

I have a 20g tank with a male bata, red tailed shark, female bata, angle fish and a rather large African brown knife. I'm amazed that they all are so peaceful, no fights and the nocturnal knife fish is over joyed with the random company. He actually leads the smaller fish around like they are a community of the same family of fish. Is this normal or am I just extremely lucky?