Ghost Knife Hi, I recently bought a new fish from a local pet store and he is doing just fine.  The guy that sold it to me said it was a Black Ghost Knife fish, although the fish does not have a white stripe down its back or a white band around its tail. It does, however, have a very dark brownish red stripe where the white one normally is and no band of color on the tail. The fish's body is jet black. Is this a Black Ghost? If you know the answer could you email me back? Thanks! <Hmm..., not quite sure, do you have a picture?  Check out Monga bay and Fishbase to see if you can find a match. -Gage http://www.mongabay.com/fish/knifefish.htm http://fishbase.org  >

That's Black the Knife Hi guys and dolls.... <Hello, Sabrina with you today> My question refers to the black ghost Knifefish.  I saw some at my LFS for $25!! Expensive but they are really cool. Now I know they are supposed to be black with a white stripe running down the top, and a white ring on their tail. The LFS had about 9 of them, but some of them had a yellowish stripe instead of white. Is this normal or are they sick? Thanks for the info. <I've seen older ghosts have yellowed looking stripes as well as a graying body, but when young, they should be quite black with rather vivid white markings.  Do keep in mind that this is a shy, nocturnal animal, very aggressive within its species (one to a tank, basically), and reaches a whopping 20 inches....  A very large tank would be quite necessary to house one of these beautiful beasts - and no aggressive fish, nor any small fish, could be housed with it.>

UFS (Unidentified Freshwater Specimen) Hello again, Mr. Fenner! On my yesterday's trip to my LFS I spotted in one of the freshwater tanks, along with some Discus, a black sort of "file fish" thin) around 2" long; it also had a white stripe near the head and a peculiar way of swimming, since it only uses a long ventral fin to do it. Not recognizing the species I asked the employee the name of it. The answer was: "It's a Roberty... but that's all I know!". Can you please give me any clue of it is, or a positive ID of this specimen??? <Umm, sounds like a "Black Ghost Knifefish" to me: Apteronotus albifrons. Please take a look on the net (at least fishbase.org) under these names. Bob Fenner> Luis Santos