# Black knife fish with african cichlids???



## dayhiker

My wife was wanting to get a Black knifefish to go in our new 75 in which we are going to house african cichlids a blue lobster and a fidler crab they are classified as semi agressive but I dont know if they will mix together??????


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## Fogelhund

A Black Knifefish is from South America, and prefers water that is in the 6.4 - 6.7 ph range. Malawian Cichlids are from Africa, and prefer water that is in the 7.8 - 8.4 ph range.

From there, we need to consider dietary requirements that could be polar opposites depening on which particular cichlids you keep. If you get a small knifefish, it could easily be bullied or killed by the Africans, and at over 3ft long once mature, your 75 gallon will seem a bit small down the road.


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## dayhiker

Is there a knife fish species that would work with them? I think the most appealing factor is the waving fin on the bottom...


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## Fogelhund

I would suggest that it is best to take a pass on knife fish with Africans.


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## barbarian206

please do not put any knifefish in with africans the knife fish will end up dead *** tried it they killed it but *** seen them in with discus perfect harmony also seen them with elephant nose my lfs has no problems with them at all im thinking of putting up a discus tank . :fish: :fish:


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## BIG BWALZ

Not a good idea from my experience. When I stared b4 cichlids, i did a comm for about a month, at first i put a black ghost knife, a blue lobster and a few other misc comm fish in my 55g. Within a few hours the yabbie (lobster, if we are talking about the came thing, mine was 3", i hear they get about 6-8, theres another blue lobster that gets huge, like a few pounds), one i had is actually from australia and is basically a crawfish, ate the knife, had him almost completely skinnd id say within 4 hours of adding him. U will prob find that if u keep the yabbie, he will need to be by himself, great critter but super mean, total predator. He ate a fish per day for the week to weeek 1/2 that i had him, he would hang off the plants and rocks with feelers pointing down and jump onto anything that swam under him, including smaller cichlids (got rid of him when i saw him do this to a lil red zebra). It got to the point where i would wake up and see who he ate the night before, not cool so back to the lfs he went! Should be in a species tank and fed live fish/variety, and larger cichlids that he couldnt kill would eat him, prob eyes first, from what i have heard. let me know tho if u can achieve a workable balance, cuz the yabbies are really cool.


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## kewlkatdady

I had a blue mudbug (lobster...whatever you wanna call it) in with 3-4" africans...

The mud bug got a few of the africans, but the first time it molted....

they got revenge... lobster bisque...

mmmm....


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## Dewdrop

I would take the advice given here and not get the knife fish or blue lobster and even though nothing was said about the fiddler crab, I doubt it would work with african cichlids either. Maybe you should get another tank or two though :wink:


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