kind of confused with african brown knifefish

[bball4life]

I went to petsmart the other day and saw an african brown knifefish. I heard that it can go in 30 us gallon tank since it gets to between 5-8 inches, is that true? Because I thought it at least had to be a 55 us gallon. I am confused please help.

 

[Fruitbat]

A 30 gallon tank will be adequate for an African Brown Knife Fish (Xenomystus nigri. They do, indeed, max out at about 8 inches (give or take an inch or two). Just be sure you don't accidentally get their much larger cousin, the African Featherfin Knife (Papyrocranus afer). These characters will eventually exceed 30 inches in size. You can easily tell them apart because P. afer has a dorsal fin and X. nigri does not.

-Joe

 

[pica_nuttalli]

would a Xenomystus nigri make good tankmates with an African Butterfly? how territorial are X. nigri (as in, could 2 fit in a 4'x1'x2' tank?)

 

[Fruitbat]

They do make good tankmates for African Butterfly Fish. I've got a tank now with some medium-sized bichirs, a few Bush Fish, an African Brown Knife and three African Butterfly Fish in it and everybody gets along just fine.

There have been reports of people keeping multiple X. nigri together but my experience with them (and with most knife fish) is that they get fiercely territorial as they mature and every time I've attempted to keep them together the experiment has ended with failure (and one or both Knife Fish with some minor injuries).

-Joe