Cool new fish

[toddnbecka]

Here's a few pics of a rare aquarium fish, a Carapo knife collected in Brazil by a CCA member earlier this year. Brought back in his suitcase and auctioned off, I won the little bugger for $17. Not a bad price at all, particularly since they're so few and far between. He/she is now in the 40 gallon tank with a couple hundred endler's. I figure by the time the endler's have been brought down to a more reasonable number the knife will be large enough to mix with cichlids in a 75. Just about 3" now, it will eventually grow to 2'.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/P1040175.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/P1040171.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/P1040172.jpg

I also won an old (thick glass, no center brace) 75 gallon tank for $27. One of my 55's has a broken center brace, and the top trim has been replaced once already. Its contents will be switched over to the 75 sometime soon, just need to fill the 75 and check for leaks first.

[VoidParadigm]

Cool looking fish, how big do they get?
Edit: Just read post more closely. lol

[Northernguy]

That is cool!thumbs2:
What a great looking fish!
It will be awesome to watch it grow.What a score!

[toddnbecka]

Definitely not as fast-growing or hard to house as a clown knife, but it will outgrow a 75 sooner or later. I figure to move it along before it grows too large to ship well, but it will be interesting in the meantime.

[Demjor19]

Excellent knife fish! Congrats!

[Lady Hobbs]

He is cool. Never heard of him and now I have another fish to read up on. LOL

[Demjor19]

oh yeah...we will be needing some updates and in-tank pics! :11:

[toddnbecka]

They're nocturnal predators, and hunt/navigate my using a weak electic field similar to elephant noses. From what I've been reading they seldom grow larger than 12" in aquariums, so I may be able to keep it long-term after all.
Pics of the tank it's in wouldn't show much, mostly Najas and blurry endler's. I just finished pulling enough Najas out of the tank to totally stuff a gallon ziploc bag. That was about half of it, so now the endler's have some open water to swim around in for a couple more weeks.
I figure I'll give it 3-4 weeks, then pull out the available cover to take some new pics of the knife.

[Northernguy]

I am sure you will enjoy that fish.thumbs2:
It looks like an interesting fish to watch.

[Crispy]

Awesome pickup! Will look forward to his progress...

[Spartanhockey89]

SCORE! Nice knife, definetly an eye catcher. O and by the way, if he happens to, you know, grow a little too big, I may, uh, be able to take him off your hands for ya. Nice pickup tho

[toddnbecka]

I was pleasantly surprised to see the new beastie tonight, looking quite fat and sassy. I dropped a few pieces of canned green beans into the tank for the handful of BN juvies sharing the tank, then moved along to finish emptying the can.
A few minutes later I saw the knife in the front corner near a chunk of bean. He (?) didn't seem to be bothered by the bright light (I was thinking he was only moving around after the tank was dark) or by me looking quite closely. I didn't get any pics, but the color/pattern is much better looking now that he's settled into the tank. I watched him for several minutes, making his way around the bottom of the tank. Most of the upper 3/4 is a rather thick tangle of Najas, a bit too dense for him to move through easily.

[toddnbecka]

Saw the beastie along the side of the tank and snapped this pic. He's definitely put on some size after almost a month in the endler's buffet bar. This is the side of a 40 gallon tank, 12" front-to-back, the knife is now a bit over 4":
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/fishroom/P1040223.jpg

Here's the front view of the tank. Doesn't look like there are a few hundred wee fish in there among the Najas:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/fishroom/P1040253.jpg

[Cococrunch]

Saw the beastie along the side of the tank and snapped this pic. He's definitely put on some size after almost a month in the endler's buffet bar. This is the side of a 40 gallon tank, 12" front-to-back, the knife is now a bit over 4":
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/fishroom/P1040223.jpg

Here's the front view of the tank. Doesn't look like there are a few hundred wee fish in there among the Najas:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/fishroom/P1040253.jpg

Salad bar! that's what i call GREEN! :hmm3grin2orange:
Nice fish!

[korweabo0]

wow nice fish!

[rothenb1]

That fish is way cool!

[Bristley]

Very, very cool TnB. Keep us posted with pics as he(?) grows.

[Meenu]

Very cool looking fish! What else do you feed him except the BNs' veggies, toddnbecka?

[toddnbecka]

The knife fish doesn't eat the veggies, he's a strict predator, growing fast on the endler's fry. I feed the BN's veggies once weekly because they mainly eat the earthworm flake and NLS Grow pellets that I feed the endler's.
Eventually the knife will grow large enough to effectively control the endler's population. He's been cutting down on the number of small fry, but with all the Najas in the tank there's no way he can get them all even if they didn't breed faster than they get eaten.

[Meenu]

Ah, I thought I saw where you had said you'd caught him nibbling on a green bean. I must've misunderstood. :)

He's pretty cool looking. I really like how knife fish look as they swim - very beautiful.

[toddnbecka]

He just turned up to check out the green bean when I dropped it nto the tank, probably curious because the salt from the canned bean would have affected the conductivity of the water. Knife fish use weak electric fields to navigate and hunt, and are very sensitive to any change in conductivity.

[William]

Indeed a very nice pick up. I love those guys.

[Northernguy]

Its markings are really cool.thumbs2:
It will look incredible when it reaches a foot!lol

[toddnbecka]

Cleaning the 40 gallon tank tonight, and I got a new, accurate measurement of the beast. Living in the endler's buffet and eating like a wet pig, the beast has doubled in length since I brought it home. It was a skinny little 3", now it's a very fat 6".
I did see a small white spot on the back, looks like an injury. I added a bit of salt to the water, and will keep a close watch on it.

[toddnbecka]

The injury seems to be healed, just a little scar now. I moved the last 2 adult endler's and 15 small fry out of the tank today. They were replaced by 100 1" cutteri fry. About the same length as the endler's, but taller, fatter, and a bit spinier on the dorsal fin. I don't expect that to slow him down much though...

[FishGirl-Seattle]

Wow, that is the coolest looking knife I've ever seen. He's worthy of his own tank and tv show! Thanks for sharing!!

[toddnbecka]

I saw the beastie resting along the side of the tank, and took the opportunity to measure him again. He's now a very fat 6.5", and aside from the tapered tail looks more like a striped cigar than a knife. :hmm3grin2orange:
The endler's have been reduced to about a dozen adults and maybe twice as many fry. The last survivors were moved to the 10 gallon tank last weekend to repopulate, and 100 1" cutteri fry were moved into the 40. From the looks of his fat belly the cichlids go down as easily as the endler's did. I had expected the largest/oldest female endler's to be the last to go, but he had other ideas. Given an endless buffet of live fish to feed on he's more than doubled in size over the last 7 weeks. If the growth rate stays constant he'll reach 12" by October.
The tough part is going to be getting him to accept pellets after the excess cichlid fry run out.

[Crispy]

he's got it made in that tank! ...at least until he outgrows it. :hmm3grin2orange:

[Bristley]

Pics, pics, pics!!

[Arowanabee2]

is it related to a Ghost Knife ?

[toddnbecka]

he's got it made in that tank! ...at least until he outgrows it.
Not a problem, I just shipped out 5 good-size adult zebra obliquidiens from the 55. That tank now contains 4 juvie Aulonocara and 7 Synodontis petricola and lucipinnis. More room for the Carapo when he outgrows the 40, likely to end up in a 75 sooner or later though.

Not related to the ghost knife, completely different genus, but there are more than 30 related species.

I'm thinking about picking up a zebra knife too. The Carapo just isn't chowing down the 1" cichlids as quickly as the endler's. Worse, there are now free-swimming cutteri fry in the 45 with the Gymnogeophagus. Not likely to last much longer with a dozen other cichlids besides their parents in the tank, but there will be more fry coming along sooner or later.