aba aba knife

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

sbuse

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2009
7,728
11
0
39
IN YOUR HEAD
been on my list for a while, just haven't had a tank to devote to it. how agressive are they really? i have heard they can put chuck norris to shame, but then i have seen them in comunity tanks. the lfs has a mess of them in stock and i am really thinking about one. i miss my knives, lossed them all after the ck died. here is what its tankmates will be when its size allows it.

6x silver aros
'x' x true gars('x' cause i will be adding any number of them as i go.)
1x ornate
1x endli
2x sen
1x small mouth bass
'x' x south american lungfish(will be getting more)

and a few others that are undesided at this point.
 
Somebody just brought in a 2' aba knife to the LFS where I work. They had it in a tank with a buttikoferi cichlid, and two 12" bichirs. It would beat up any new fish in the tank and it started to beat up the buttikoferi cichlid when they traded it in. Right now it's in the store in a 125 and gets along fine with the bichirs. There was an 8" Red devil in the tank ahead of the knifefish and bichirs, but when it picked on the knifefish he got mauled and we had to move him.

Fish are far more aggressive when kept in bare unstimulating tanks. If you watch youtube videos of aggressive fish, they are almost always in bare or undecorated tanks. I think if you wanted to mix it, you would need a ton of rockwork and caves and fake plants and that would be your best chance.
 
I think its ok to put it in a community tank but when it reaches 12", bye bye tank mates
 
They are fairly peaceful until they hit about 18". Mine will kill feeders just for the heck of it after he has eaten his fill. Very few people have ever kept them long term with any tankmates. I would advise against it.
 
1x small mouth bass!! It must be small. When he gets big every thing will be lunch, including the ABA.
 
My aba has staked out a territory.. more like a lair.. in the 40B he's in atm.. his tankmates are some small plecos and a dwarf pike cichlid. Long as the pike leaves his "spot" alone.. they play nice.. if the pike gets to close. He will attack her. this pike happened to destroy her tank-mates after I moved my other pikes from the tank... She is one nasty fish. I keep a close watch on the tank... Knowing very well that at some point she'll need to be moved if he get to nasty before outgrowing the tank.

the only long-term aba aba being in a community was with some other pretty aggressive fish.

THe biggets issue is these fish are very delicate when young. I wouldn't intentionally mix an aba with others until it hit the 10"+ mark and was eating steadily and in good health. on the up side.. it only took mine about 3 monthes to do this.
 
thanx for the info i ended up not getting one for now.

bassguy;5057584; said:
1x small mouth bass!! It must be small. When he gets big every thing will be lunch, including the ABA.
Click to expand...

no not really my smallie is about 10"+ and it is fine, alittle agressive at times. i have had it since it was a 1/4" fry and it has had live food 3 times since i have owned it and it resisted eatting the minnows. it will distroy any shrimp or tillapia i put in the tank though. also an adult smallie doesn't have a large enough mouth to eat most larger fish i have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom