Surprising fish knife, apteronotus (Apteronotus albifrons), or the black ghost – one of the most mysterious and exotic inhabitants of aquarian space.
External features of fish knife
Apteronotus is from upper courses of the great Amazon River, belongs to Apterontonov' group. Only one its appearance blows the mind: the small fish of deep black color has no habitual fins, and the shape of a body reminds an eel or a moray eel. The lower fin creating oscillating motions accelerates its movement to 10 cm a second and gives it unique maneuverability.
The South American Indians, meeting in the rivers of large individuals of "the black ghost", took them for the embodiment a shower of the ancestors who were killed in battle – the appearance of this anthracitic-black fish was so impressive. By the way, even color at her is unusual: during pairing of the black ghost it is already impossible to call that, then his body gets a red-lilac shade, and fins become olive.
There is an opinion that knives can grow to a half a meter in length, however practice of house aquarium husbandry claim that it is very exceptional case. On average the size of these small fishes – from 7 to 20 centimeters. With an eel they are made related also by existence of the electric sensor which allows to find in the dark location of production on reaction of space to electric field of fish.
"Nature" of an apteronotus
Justifying the western name "black ghost", small fishes can be quite cruel predators if in time to keep out them of food. Experts do not recommend to lodge smaller fishes together with "knives", otherwise in a rush of hunting passion they can kill little fellows. It is considered that fish knife has the character, many even call her sociable, she the first will swim to a mini-reservoir wall to greet the owner. These fishes are allocated with fantastic ability with identical effort to float not only the head or a tail forward, but also vertically down or up that created them in the history glory of magic beings.
Contents in an aquarium
It is simple to contain "the black ghost" in an aquarium: it does not need special conditions, except places where it is possible to hide. Besides, for this small fish it is better to buy a big aquarium, they very much love pursuits and a sports way of life, a lot of space for this purpose is necessary. If the small fish grew more than 15 cm, on an aquarium it is necessary to establish a cover: fish knife is capable to jump out of water and to fall down a floor. If you lodged two apteronotus in one aquarium, provide with both places for an ambush, otherwise they will begin to divide the territory and can seriously fight.