knifefish with small tankmates

[Leo1234]

Is there a knifefish that can be in a 33L aquarium (48in x 12in x 12in) with small tankmates? Also its preferable if it only gets 6in or less, but up to 8in is ok as long as it fits the other criteria. I'm fine with rare species too, so it's fine it it does not show up all the time.


It's a stream aquarium with mainly freshwater gobies, but have some other fish. The smallest fish are my 2 bumblebee gobies and my thinnest fish is my 1in palau stiphodon goby. The tank has little amount of plants, but has a lot of river rocks stacked to form many caves. the right side is very fast flow, but the left is pretty calm water.
and the water is medium-hard water. Some of the fish are aggressive feeders (ex: sinibotia, red shiner), but I feed heavily so everyone gets fed.

PH: 7-8
Hardness: medium-hard (I can test again for numbers if preferred)
Equipment: 2 Aqueon QuietFlow 50 pro power filters, 1 model 60 Whisper Air Pumps,
2 Hydor Koralia Evolution Pumps (1 model 1150, 1 model 1500)
Water changes: once a week
Filter change: usually every week, sometimes 2 weeks if still clean
Plants: java ferns, Crypt sp.
Fish: (some not listed. ones listed are the ones that decide if/what I get)
freshwater damsel (peaceful, 2in)
Freshwater blenny (peaceful, 2.5in)
2 palau stiphodon goby (1in and 3in)
multiple rhinogobius sp.

 

[Ozip]

Maybe while it's a baby but once it grows I can't think of a knife that would work out.

 

[benzjamin13]

I'm think a Transparent Knife aka Glass Knife would work, but they should be kept in a group.

 

[Leo1234]

wetspot has them at the moment. Are the glass knives Eigenmannia virescens? How big of a group should I get. Some care sheets say glass knives get 12-18in. Is that true?

 

[benzjamin13]

wetspot has them at the moment. Are the glass knives Eigenmannia virescens? How big of a group should I get. Some care sheets say glass knives get 12-18in. Is that true?

I would go with a group of 7 (6 is the usual recommendation, but I like odd numbers). I rarely see them for sale in my area, but the largest I've ever seen was no bigger than 6"-7"

The next choice that would be the smallest that comes to mind would be the African Knife (Xenomystus Nigri), but l feel they will predate on smaller fish.

 

[Leo1234]

Do glass knife fish have a large bio load? I might get them, but I'm worried that adding 7 3in fish at once might be bad for the aquarium

 

[leskoluke]

Bumble bee gobies are pretty small but a brown ghost knife might work. They don’t get as big as the blacks.

 

[Hendre]

Personally, I think a 33 gal is too small for African brown knives.

Some of the smaller knifefish may work, the main issue is just getting them settled.