so i had a major die-off in my tank (posted about it in the cichlid forum, long story short, filter clogged and they suffocated) but anyways so once i get the water parameters back in check i was planning on going ahead and moving my bgk (about 4in) from his grow out to the big tank since there isnt really anything in there anymore that would bother him at that size, Since most of my stock was lost i am now looking into ideas of where to go with this tank from here and a vendor i am looking at ordering from has some zebra knives in right now and i was wondering if these two were too closely related to get along in the tank together? since they are both electric i know the answer is most likely that they will fight but just figured i would go ahead and ask since i really like the zebras but def wont get one if it would make them both miserable
Zebra knife with bgk?
- Thread starter Sarah88
- Start date
Well...unfortunately, you do have the right idea. They are too closely related to really get along. Some people have had success with mixing Knives and other electrical fish. Their EOD don't cross frequency like most believe. The problem lies with territory issues.
When they get to about 8". That's when the problem to starts unless you can starts. Zebra knifefish or any from genus gymnotus are nasty nipper compare to other knifefish from the gymnotiformes. Gymnotidae (banded knifefishes) tend to have the bite and shake method which can rip flesh apart. While other apteronotidae (ghost knifefishes) does the nip and push method when they fight. The jaw of gymnotidae have much powerful bite force compare to apteronotidae. Also when when the black ghost knifefish is able to out grow the zebra knifefish, then the table could turn. Zebra knifefish maxes out at 8-9" in captivity and black ghost knifefish at 18-20"+.
My private dealer had a group of zebra knifefish that he was selling back in 2008 before. He kept them for a year till they started ripping the belly of each other. Best to have lots of hiding place incase one losses the fight so it can hide. Even small tank with lots of hiding places won't work as the dominant will just do a search and destroy method. Unless you wanna add more than 6 of them, not just two electric fish. You will have better chance of mixing two black ghost knifefishes than mixing a zebra knife and a black ghost knife.
My private dealer had a group of zebra knifefish that he was selling back in 2008 before. He kept them for a year till they started ripping the belly of each other. Best to have lots of hiding place incase one losses the fight so it can hide. Even small tank with lots of hiding places won't work as the dominant will just do a search and destroy method. Unless you wanna add more than 6 of them, not just two electric fish. You will have better chance of mixing two black ghost knifefishes than mixing a zebra knife and a black ghost knife.
ok thanks guys for all the great info, yeah my tank is a 5ft 120g but thats pretty much what i was thinking was that they would fight once they got bigger, im just going to skip over the zebra knife right now then and just keep it on the wish list for when i have more than one tank haha