African Brown Knifefish

[bball4life]

I am thinking about getting an african brown knifefish, the ones I saw at the lfs are still pretty young and some are about 5" or so. I have a 25 US gallon tank with a could caves and I am thinking of putting a pvc pipe in there. Do you this tank size would be ok for now? And will I have to move him when he gets to be 8"? Also they told me that I can feed them frozen brine shrimp, beefheart, etc. but can I feed him live foods too such as rosy reds those (those small feeder goldfish)? And how often should I feed him?
Thanks

 

[penguinpimp1990]

at 5 inches a 25 would be ok temporarely (what are the dimensions? and any other fish in there?) I would make the switch to a 55 gallon tank minimum at 6-7 inches. As for feeding I would skip the beefheart, its really not that good for the fish and it makes them grow very fast, and that 55 gallon tank will need to be purchased a lot sooner. If the rosy reds are quarantined for at least 2 weeks they should be ok but frozen silversides are a better option.

 

[bball4life]

24"x13x18 are the dimentions. No I dont have any other fish in there at the moment. I have a 55 set up now, but I have 2 smaller sized angels and 2 medium sized tinfoil barbs in there right now, and I didnt know how they would go together especially the angels.

 

[bball4life]

Also I would like to know what kind of plants they should have. I heard that they like floating plants because it reduces the light, but what kind?

 

[Mad Duff]

My ABK loves swimming through java fern, I have two big clumps of java fern and he will pretty much always be in the middle of one of them.

As for floating plants to reduce light, I was told that they don't like bright light but I hardly ever saw it when it was in my 44 gallon tank but I have recently put it in my 80 gallon tank and he is out all the time, Ive never seen it so much since I got it and the lighting on the bigger tank is a lot brighter because that tank has a twin T5 unit on it.

Mark

 

[bball4life]

Ok thanks. I think I have an idea for the food, where I can give live food to him anytime. Here is my idea well I have a 10 gallon tank with 3 dwarf platies in it (which are livebearers) They have bred a couple times and I am raising the fry in a growout tank and they are getting pretty big for there species, they only get as big or a little biger than guppies. I can get a couple for of those and put them in there and breed them, and have tons of fry that he can eat once they get a little bigger. I am just trying to plan ahead. What do you think of the idea?

 

[Mad Duff]

To be honest in my experience I have found that African brown knifefish are the easiest knifefish to feed, from day one mine has been happy to take frozen bloodworm, frozen brineshrimp, frozen mysis shrimp and chopped shrimp. It will take any dried foods that are put in the tank like flake, catfish pellets and it loves tetra prima.

To be honest unless you have to I wouldn't bother with the live food.

Mark

 

[ringham]

I may be wrong but I have previously been led to believe that ABK only grow to 8" any way. Please correct me if wrong.

Also could you post pics of it?

 

[Nevergone815]

Ok thanks. I think I have an idea for the food, where I can give live food to him anytime. Here is my idea well I have a 10 gallon tank with 3 dwarf platies in it (which are livebearers) They have bred a couple times and I am raising the fry in a growout tank and they are getting pretty big for there species, they only get as big or a little biger than guppies. I can get a couple for of those and put them in there and breed them, and have tons of fry that he can eat once they get a little bigger. I am just trying to plan ahead. What do you think of the idea?

this idea could actually work really well. i let my livebearers just breed like crazy to feed themselves at times. it is good for the fish to eat fry/live foods every once in a while. the only problem with this scenerio is that it might be better to get more females and let them breed so there are more babies being born and will continuosly supply the tank. also the fact that the platies will eat the babies also, but should only do this for a few batches as they sometimes get sick of eating the fry as it is no longer a big deal for them. lastly you will have to watch the tank well. after a few weeks or months you may see some of the fry that have grown up and are now to big to be eaten. just give the bigger ones away or replace them for your older ones. inbreeding doesn't really matter as you would be using the fry for food.

personally that is what i was planning to do when i got a knife fish or other larger oddball.

 

[bball4life]

I may be wrong but I have previously been led to believe that ABK only grow to 8" any way. Please correct me if wrong.

Also could you post pics of it?

Yeah they only get about 8" in captivity.


Nevergone815 What I am going to do is take the fry out of the normal tank and grow them up myself.