Freshwater fish - ghost fish

Question
I have a black ghost fish.  It vanished in my 40gal tank for almost a year.  My 20 gal tank had some live bearer babies and so I started feeding both tanks frozen baby brine shrimp.  The ghost fish reappeared (I really thought that it had disintegrated).  I am so surprised (very pleasantly).  The ghostfish must like the baby brine shrimp.  There was a baby ghost fish about a month ago.  I saw it for a couple weeks, not lately.  But the big one is out in the open for the most part right now.  My most important question is do you know if they need to have mates or else, how did the baby get here?  Also, of course, do they need live food?  I kindo of suspect that some fish are like that, but I really do not know anything about these ghost fish, except they seem to be very easy going (not volatile).  The tetras and mollies and plattys and cory's and clown loaches are still surviving with no apparent stress, even tho this ghost fish has been hiding in the tank (and Growing) for a long time.  It has only started coming out since I started the brine shrimp feeding.  I would really appreciate it if you can share any insight about this particular species.  Thank you  -K

Answer
Hi K,
So you discovered a baby ghost knifefish? I don't mean to be a downer but that really seems unlikely. This is cause it is very unlikely that these fish will breed in captivity and you need a pair of course.  Breeding has never really been reported except for a case in Australian.


I did find some info (and pics)  here-
http://www.gnsaquarium.com.au/html/bgk.html

Black ghost knifefish definitely do thrive on meaty/frozen foods, especially bloodworms and other meaty frozen foods. They have a keen sense of smell for detecting food.

I bet the reason you don't see your fish often is because he ventures out at night.

Best of luck, I hope this helps!
Karen~