Self explanatory title, how big is the smallest gymnotus species and what is it in the first place? I imagine it's hard to find and unimaginably expensive. Doesn't stop me from liking the genus.
Smallest species of gymnotus?
- Thread starter Hybridfish7
- Start date
There are many of the Gymnotus genus which were reclassified such as the black ghost knife. Many of the existing remaining genus don’t have common names and as such are often not widely seen for sale. Some of the more known fish are:
Banded knife - G.carapo
Zebra knife - G.pedanopterus
Tiger knife - G.Tigre
False tiger knife - G.Javari
Spotted knife - G.maculosus
Tiquie banded knife - G.tiquie
most of these above are available occasionally at varying prices and the smallest of them is the False Tiger knife at around 8”. Aquaimports had some on their list at 45 dollars.
obviously many other well known knife fish are now under many different genus
Banded knife - G.carapo
Zebra knife - G.pedanopterus
Tiger knife - G.Tigre
False tiger knife - G.Javari
Spotted knife - G.maculosus
Tiquie banded knife - G.tiquie
most of these above are available occasionally at varying prices and the smallest of them is the False Tiger knife at around 8”. Aquaimports had some on their list at 45 dollars.
obviously many other well known knife fish are now under many different genus
That's a good question. Truthfully, we really don't know for certain. There are a lot of Gymnotus species, and for most of them, the only data we have is from the original description. Most descriptions are based on only a handful of specimens, so they are unlikely to include the true maximum size. A recent paper shows that the subgenus within Gymnotus called Tigrinus is made up of 7 species that all have an adult body size of less than 250 mm (about 10 inches). I think that of these, G. coropinae (162 mm max.) is the smallest species for which there is a decent amount of data.
Unfortunately though, out of the 40+ species of Gymnotus, I have only ever definitively seen 3 in the aquarium trade: G. carapo, G. tigre, and G. javari. Of these, javari is the smallest as Fishman Dave said.
Unfortunately though, out of the 40+ species of Gymnotus, I have only ever definitively seen 3 in the aquarium trade: G. carapo, G. tigre, and G. javari. Of these, javari is the smallest as Fishman Dave said.
