The knifefish are very widespread in tropical Africa with three species. With a total length of about 60 cm, Papyrocranus afer belongs to the large knifefish, while a second African species, Xenomystus nigri, which also occurs in Nigeria, is one of the smallest (Old World) knifefish with a final length of 15-20 cm. The third, generally accepted species is Papyrocranus congoensis from the Congo, which is almost never available for the aquarium; it probably grows only slightly larger than 20 cm.
Strangely enough, there are hardly any aquaristic reports on P. afer, although at least some colour forms of P. afer have very attractively pattern. However, there is a breeding report by Ong Kay Yong, which appeared in the journal TFH in 1965. According to this report, P. afer is a paternal brood carer.
Among each other the animals are said to be very pugnacious. We cannot observe an increased incompatibility in P. afer, in our fishhouse 15 – 20 cm long P. afer live peacefully together in larger numbers (about 50 specimens). But in the long term we have not yet cared for the species, therefore one should take the warnings seriously and observe the fish well if one cares for several specimens, in order to be able to intervene quickly in case of possible disputes.
Basically Papyrocranus are twilight and nocturnal predatory fish, which are to be cared for similar to their aquaristically better known Asian relatives of the genus Chitala. Although P. afer has several geographically assignable colour forms, they have not been described as independent species or subspecies so far. The animals we usually import from Nigeria are mostly light spotted forms.
Papyrocranus are obligatory air-breathers, which regularly swim to the surface of the water to catch their breath.
For our customers: the animals have code 155305 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
