Aba Aba Knifefish Questions!

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FuriousFish

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jan 8, 2012
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America
Recently i heard the memeber Aw3s0m3 on here talking about how aggressive they were and he got me interested! So, i was wondering about your guys experience with them and your overall thoughts! (I could not find very good info on google...)
Thank you!


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They are best kept alone. They are not "finger chasing" aggressive like a Rhom, rather they are unassuming and like to hide but become fiercely territorial. Mine will take food from my hand. They are very fragile when small but at around 18" in length they become very sturdy. I'm sure other members will have a lot to add. I have had one since June 2010.
 
Haha I'm glad you're doing research on them. Since I'm the one that got you interested, I'll just tell you about the one I have right now. Since it's still small, about 12-14", it isn't very aggressive so it's housed with 3 Hydrolycus scomberoides. It actually gets beat up by them sometimes but at night, its a different story. I see it chase them and occasionally nip at them but nothing too serious. When it comes to feeders though, I will feed it first so that the payara's can get them but any that aren't eating, the aba goes around and will bite them in half, but won't eat them. One morning, I guess none of the scombs didn't feel like eatin, all the feeders were floating around dead, some were bit in half, others were torn to shreds, it was a straight up murder scene. Also, whenever I do a wc, it attacks the hose over and over again. It killed a common pleco that wandered into its hiding spot and it will sometimes attack my hand when I'm doing something in the tank. Luckily its small so it doesn't do much damage to my hand.


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Haha I'm glad you're doing research on them. Since I'm the one that got you interested, I'll just tell you about the one I have right now. Since it's still small, about 12-14", it isn't very aggressive so it's housed with 3 Hydrolycus scomberoides. It actually gets beat up by them sometimes but at night, its a different story. I see it chase them and occasionally nip at them but nothing too serious. When it comes to feeders though, I will feed it first so that the payara's can get them but any that aren't eating, the aba goes around and will bite them in half, but won't eat them. One morning, I guess none of the scombs didn't feel like eatin, all the feeders were floating around dead, some were bit in half, others were torn to shreds, it was a straight up murder scene. Also, whenever I do a wc, it attacks the hose over and over again. It killed a common pleco that wandered into its hiding spot and it will sometimes attack my hand when I'm doing something in the tank. Luckily its small so it doesn't do much damage to my hand.


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I assume abas have teeth? Sounds like a true beast! I wish i had another huge tank to house one but i am currently what i like to call "tanked out" :)


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I assume abas have teeth? Sounds like a true beast! I wish i had another huge tank to house one but i am currently what i like to call "tanked out" :)


The pic does not belong to me. They have flat but very sharp teeth.

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Extremely aggressive. Extremely sharp teeth. Mine went well with an arowana. Around 36" in a big pond. Till i found my arowana without a belly one day. Then took down a 2 foot clown knife. I was pretty sure my pond then was big enough, but he proved me wrong.

I would advise against hand feeding these at huge sizes, i believe they can seriously hurt you. They could kill ducklings.


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Extremely aggressive. Extremely sharp teeth. Mine went well with an arowana. Around 36" in a big pond. Till i found my arowana without a belly one day. Then took down a 2 foot clown knife. I was pretty sure my pond then was big enough, but he proved me wrong.

I would advise against hand feeding these at huge sizes, i believe they can seriously hurt you. They could kill ducklings.


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How long did it take to reach 36 inches?
 
I cannot speak for the other poster, but I got mine as a baby almost 4 years ago (June of 2010) and it is about 27 inches now.
 
Also, for the first year, mine grew a little more than one inch per month.
 
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