Dedicated to @ChunkyMunky pengopus ^^ What knifefish (i.e. Notopteroidei and Gymnotiformes) have you seen in captivity? What are your favorites, and what exhibits do you find especially noteworthy?
I also see black ghost knifefish quite frequently, they are almost always at my local fish store and I even see them occasionally in public aquariums. As was mentioned on the Eels in Captivity thread, electric eels, which are not eels but knifefish, are also somewhat frequent in public aquariums.
Saw this very large green knifefish many years ago at Bolton Museum Aquarium: Bolton Museum's Venezuelan Knifefish dies after 10 years in Aquarium | Culture24
Quite a number of knifefish are seen in captivity, mostly in the private trade. I see Black Ghost Knifefish and Clown Knifefish offered fairly regularly, and many others are kept more sporadically. The Electric Eel seems to be the most common species in public aquaria, there appears to be some held privately as well. Something no one has mentioned yet is Electrophorus electricus may be/has been split into multiple species, and what species the captive individuals pertain too was under debate last I heard.
To add to the places in North America where the electric eel is available to see: Aquariums Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead, New York Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, Tennessee Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, Tennessee The Dallas World Aquarium in Dallas, Texas Zoos Akron Zoo in Akron, Ohio Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, DC Toronto Zoo in Toronto, Ontario
Electric eels are so fascinating to me, based on what their bodies are capable of doing. They're designed, by nature, as basically voltaic cell batteries in the form of an animal. Their electricity works just like it does with an actual battery, involving the cation and anion flow of ions, and it's by far the most powerful of any animal known to science. The dreamer in me thinks that if natural selection can create an animal that harnesses raw electricity, why not a real-life dragon that can breathe fire?
Went to the local fish store today and was surprised to find four different species of knifefish for sale! Black Ghost Knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons), African Knifefish (Xenomystus nigri), Clown Knifefish (Chitala ornata), and the Green Knifefish (Eigenmannia virescens). Green Knifefish was a lifer for me, which was nice.
I've kept Bronze Knifefish (Notopterus notopterus), Clown Knifefish (Chitala ornata), and Black Ghost Knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons). I've seen several others in aquarium shops - African Knifefish (Xenomystus nigri), Green Knifefish (Eigenmannia virescens), and Brown Ghost Knifefish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus). Most of these species, plus Electric Eels, are common in public aquariums in Asia.
All importable to NZ? Though I guess those are all warm water fish, which New Zealand's water would probably be too cold for?
Yes, there is an official list I think, but basically almost any tropical aquarium fish can be imported into New Zealand. The species not allowed to be imported for private keepers are relatively few - piranhas, a lot of the tank-busters (Red-tailed Catfish etc), Electric Eels, freshwater stingrays, things like that ... the species you would expect to be restricted.
Since it is also traded as a pet, clown knife fish(Chitala ornata) is the most common in Korean aquarium. They are often called 'indian knife fish' in Korea, but as Wikipedia mentions, almost all of them are clown knife fish. Black ghost(Apteronotus albifrons) can be easily seen in both local pet shops and large aquariums in Korea, but all of them are smaller than human's hands, so they are often kept close to 10 in a not-so-large tank. I know that black ghost can grow big, but I've never actually seen fully grown size black ghost. So I think Korean aquariums don't bred black ghost long. In contrast to black ghost, the electric eels(Electrophorus sp.) in Korean aquariums are always large over 1 meter long. I could saw sometimes small cichlids are mixed in electric eel tank. As if to be used for food. I've never seen it myself, but some people said some aquariums have a feeding show that feeds loach to electric eel.
A few aquariums do from what I've seen, and they're in the aquarium trade too. Very wierd looking fish.
