check out this find today

[dodgefreak8]

hey everyone went on a fish shopping trip to denver today and I found the one fish I wanted more than anything to add as a tank mate for my silver aro.. a Royal Clown Knife. I found him at a little fish shop that an asian couple owns. he is about 5" long and quite beat up from a freshwater barracuda but for $25.00 I couldn't pass it up. now I just have to get him off of feeders.. that should be fun.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/dodgefreak8/royalknife.jpg

[repair]

Let me know how you get it done.....Nice fish...it's cutting edge :grinno:

[dodgefreak8]

I think I will try getting him at least on night crawlers first. that way less chance of desease. then get him on frozen krill if possible. does anyone know if those scratches will go away as he heals? he was one of the better looking fish in the group just hope he turns out stunning.

[dodgefreak8]

got a better pic
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/dodgefreak8/royalknife2.jpg

[stchris]

the two clown knives i've kept recovered fully from any damage done by a jardini ... but died of stress :cry:

[dodgefreak8]

that sucks I hope I can keep him alive and healing. thanks for the reply

[islander671]

that sucks I hope I can keep him alive and healing. thanks for the reply

As dedicated as you are to your fish, i am sure he will recover nicely. Good luck getting him off feeders. I wasn't very succesful with my regular clown knives.

[dodgefreak8]

thanks I will give it all I got. but I would rather loose him early on because he won't eat than to loose all my fish to a feeder disease.. its kind of harsh but its reality. I think I can pull it off though just going to take some persistance.. thanks again

[kido]

nice pick-up, royal knifefishes are one of my all time favorites :)

[bosshawg]

pretty sweet fish :thumbsup:

[SKYLINE_WJ]

cool kinfefish u hav there

[redtailfool]

congrats dodgefreak. Im sure you can raise that one up into a beautiful specimen.

[Caveman]

Very nice! Good luck getting him off feeders.

[DRaGoNoVA]

get a clown knifefish to accompany it~!

[jenBLKAROWANA]

Your knife should recover just fine...I had a 4" clown knife that was bitten nearly in half! We put him in another tank, and he recoverd just great! Stayed 4" for the longest time too, then all of a sudden...BAM...he was getting bigger and bigger!
You sould try frozen beef heart, mine ate that, and pellets, and the occasional feeder too...

Good Luck!
Jen

[dodgefreak8]

thanks everyone. I will try beefheart good idea. I got him to eat worms last night so thats a good start.. I will try beefheart tonight. thanks again

[jay]

ahh ur so lucky ive been looking for a royal clownknife for over a year now!! too bad im not in your area!

[dodgefreak8]

no kidding I told my wife that a week ago that if I ever saw one I was going to buy it.. well I really lucked out because I found this little store and they had one.. I was very lucky.. as you can imagine in colorado we don't see very many of they very exotic fish.

[zhuangsw]

got a better pic
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/dodgefreak8/royalknife2.jpg

wow, thats really pretty, looks like it has the tigrinus catfish zebra like pattern.

does the pattern stay when they grow big?

[dodgefreak8]

yes the pattern will stay this way. I think it actually gets better with age but i am not sure. the normal clown knife grows more spots with age so i think the royal clowns get more stripes.. Since I love his pattern now it can only get better.. just an update everyone he is eating worms regularly and I did see him eat 1 piece of frozen krill but left the rest alone.. I think he will come around though..

[CentralMayhem]

you should be able to wean him off feeders easily. fish get hungry and only the strong survive. crickets, worms, beefheart, and pellets have all been taken by the knifes ive kept. some take longer to eat than others, but like you said it is better than losing your entire tank to a parasite or virus or anything. if hes strong and hungry he'll learn to eat what you feed. gotta train the fish dont let the fish train you.

[dodgefreak8]

thats the best thinking I've heard yet thanks I hope he's a strong one. one question, as youngsters do they seem to hide more? with the lights on he just hides next to my air tube. I was wondering if he could grow out of this or if I should take steps like leaving the lights on 24/7 to try and break him of this. I think that being in the tank with a real aggressive fish probably didn't help this habit much though..

[islander671]

If Royals are nocturnal like regular clown knives then the hiding is normal. mine would only come out in the light if they new there was food.
as for the feeders..i originally was thinking you wanted to get him of all live food not just fish. knifes are hungry eaters, and you can get them from feeders to worms pretty easily. mine primarily ate night crawlers.

[dodgefreak8]

mine won't move until the light is off. I would like to see him swim some of the time. I do want to get him off of live food I was just using this as a step to get him used to somthing other than feeder fish. thanks

[islander671]

mine won't move until the light is off. I would like to see him swim some of the time. I do want to get him off of live food I was just using this as a step to get him used to somthing other than feeder fish. thanks

Just a thought, try using some floating cover like plants. it may work if you can subdue your lighting as much as possible. or what i used to do is have candles set up behind the tank. shut all the main lights off and he would come out. you wont have the best visibilty but you could still watch him in his element..the darkness.

I do want to get him off of live food I was just using this as a step to get him used to somthing other than feeder fish. thanks

I see...in that case i revert to my original response... i was never succesful hehe. but as central mayhem said, with consitency and patience im sure you can do it. Good luck!

[dabigshot77]

I have a 10' royal and a 8" clown knife in my tank. Both of them are very active and I've trained both of them to eat from my hand. It took me about a month to train them but it wasn't very hard. Try starving him for about 3-4 days, then put your arm in the tank and hold a live feeder by the tail in front of him about 5-8 inches away from his mouth.It took my fish ten minutes before he ate from my hand the first time, it'll probably take a few tries of this before he'll get used to your hand in the water but when he gets comfortable eating feeders from your hand, then swith to other foods like food sticks, krill, crickets.... after a month, I was able to get my clown knife to eat from the surface of the water from my hand, the royal knife however is a little lazy and prefers to be fed from the bottom of the tank. The best food I've found to help all my fish grow was crickets. Both of my knife fish are a year old and I got them when they were about 3 inches long.

[dodgefreak8]

thats very cool. I will give it a try thanks. do you have pics of your royal? if so post them here please. thanks again

[dodgefreak8]

just wanted to update, I got my royal to eat some frozen brine shrimp today. and no feeders for 2 days.. I think I am on to somthing here