How big do's a African Knife fish get?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
A

Aphilophus

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 1, 2008
1,051
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Dodge Center,MN
O.K. I picked up a 6 in. fish that is mainly brown in cooler no dorsal fin
small discription just in case there is more than one fish sold as african knife fish. I thought that they grow to about 12 in or so but lfs told me thay get to close to 2 feet witch is correct. also was wondering on the size of bgk for a future project?
 
If you get one to 12 inches it would be absolutely huge

8-9 is a much much much better "max" size.


They absolutely do not get to 2 ft (in capt at least idk about wild) if it is X. nigri. which how you are describing it thats what it sounds like.

for bgk... anything 18+ would be a very big one. 24 inches I would say would be a very very very very large one and you don't see many of those. Better, more common max would be 16 inch IMO
 
cool,how many would be o.k. in a 75 4 and maybe some congo tetras life plants and drift wood and a few Kribs or jewels sounds like a cool mid sized tank dont you think?
 
Aphilophus;2055513; said:
cool,how many would be o.k. in a 75 4 and maybe some congo tetras life plants and drift wood and a few Kribs or jewels sounds like a cool mid sized tank dont you think?
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It would be a good tank set up. I had one ABK with 12 Congo Tetras, one Ctenopoma, a Syno cat, and a Long Fin Senagal. Most of my Tetras died...I think they're sensitive to large water changes.
Most Knife fish labeled as African Brown Knife is Xenomystus Nigri which averages 8" There is another species from African called Papyroranus Afer that grow to 2' and are pretty aggressive, but those are pretty rare.
 
I think I may have the papyroranus afer as this fish is pushing my 4 jags and a larg pleco around. do you have any pics of these fish or do they look alike.
 
Aphilophus;2056590; said:
I think I may have the papyroranus afer as this fish is pushing my 4 jags and a larg pleco around. do you have any pics of these fish or do they look alike.
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P. Afer has a dorsal fin and the color is brown with tan spots while X. Nigri doesn't have a dorsal fin and is overall tan to dark brown.
 
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