Black Ghost Knife Fish & Oscar, Together?

Good day,
Is the Black Ghost Knife Fish compatible with an Oscar, i.e.will they live happily together?


Picture above, from website: http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/black-ghost-knifefish/100196.asp

 

I don't believe they will. Oscars are very territorial fish and would most likely try to kill the BGKF

 

@OscaCT I have seen a large (35cm+) BGK kept with a medium (20cm) Oscar in a standard 5 foot but the BGK was looking a bit worse for wear!

 

I have a pair of BGK's. They are really wonderful fish but they are fairly timid despite their large size, so I can safely say that I do not recommend putting them and Oscars together...

HTH...

 

I'd imagine that it could work, though probably only temporary, as long as the BGK is larger than the oscar and there are suitable places for the BGK to hide. However I think the growth rate of an oscar is a lot faster than that of the BGK, and I would imagine that once the Oscar is larger, he will bully the BGK. Having said that though, I have heard reports of people keeping all sorts of other fish with Oscars - fish that would normally be killed by the Oscars-, so I think it's also a case of individual temperaments that would vary in fish like Oscars. I don't have experience keeping either fish though - I tried with a BGK not too long ago, and one of my Senegal's Bichirs actually swallowed the poor thing - I didn't think he'd be able to :/

 

From experience, the only thing you keep with an oscar is another oscar if your tank is big enough for it and then of course, a decent size plecostumus. Other than that it is a no go.

 

@wsteene - that's probably the way to go. What about keeping some of the larger predatory catfishes with them though? One of the shovelnose spp maybe? Although that may get too big and look at the Oscar/s as food...

 

@Zeiphex, hope you have a tank big enough to keep those monsters, you need to have a tank almost the size of a swimming pool. That is unfortunately the problem from some of the LFS, they keep these fishes as small ones in their tanks and tell the people, who don't go do some reading and research, they won't grow big or they will only grow as big as the tanks is as the tank will limit their growth, as if a human is going to stop to grow if you place him/her in a smaller house. As you've said, the chances of the oscar becoming food at a later stage is very possible. Saw some people tend to keep bala sharks or even pengasius with oscars but again, tanks size do play a crucial role here.

 

@wsteene - I don't. I have a mere 280L. If I ever wanted to keep them I'd go for a heated pond (which I plan to have one day). Though I don't think all the shovelnose cats grow as large as the Tiger Shovelnose does.