A new present, how long can it last?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Longimanus

Longimanus

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2009
405
19
48
BC, Canada
Well, my husband came home with a little present for me. A four inch clown knife. Now I would not have bought one myself, as I know how big they are capable of getting.

How long can I keep the little guy before he starts eating my other fish? I put him in my 37 gallon with my Threadfin Acara, I know he can hold his own. But there are also four peppered corys and two otto cats in there. Are the otto cats small enough that the clown will ignore them? They spend most of their time stuck to something and are kind of inconspicuous. But what about the catfish?

Is this just a recipe for disaster? I could put it in my 90 gallon, but you can see from my signature that it is pretty stocked already, and a couple of the clown loaches are still kind of small.


Some pictures.

The knife:


With corys and my hand to compare size:


The tank: How does it look? Does it need more hiding places or is that enough? The knife is currently hiding head down in the back right corner behind the plant. (Oh, and yes that is a betta in the breeder trap on the right, the trap on the left is full of moss balls because my threadfin destroys them.)



What size tank will this fish need to live as an adult? Also, I will not feed feeders, so will NLS pellets suffice? I also feed frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and krill.

So far the knife has been hiding head down in the corner, it hasn't moved at all.

EDIT: This tank will be updated to a 50 gallon fairly soon, so they will all have another foot of space.
 
It is only a matter of time before the CK eats any of the smaller fish in the tank. Maybe once he grows another inch, I would put him with larger sized fish. The tank size for an adult CK is 300 Gallons, so you will need a much larger tank. And sometimes, CKs will not take frozen foods, and if that happens then you might have to go with feeders or earthworms. They do like to hide most of the time, so if you could possibly build something by piling rocks on top of each other or just somewhere he could hide that would be great. Because of the size tanks you currently have and the sized fish, if this doesn't seem like it will work out in the long run, I would return him even if it was a gift.
Good luck.
 
Thank you. Well I already saw the knife go after an otto cat, so I removed both ottos and all the corys as well as the betta. I still may return it, but this way no one will get eaten in the middle of the night. We'll see how the Threadfin gets along, as it is his territory.
 
;) Great gift from hubby but unfotunately it's gonna create some problems. Nocturnal by nature , all will seem fine during daytime observations. In a very short time tankmates will start disappearing. Best not to chance housing w/ smaller mates. Perfect time to 'nudge' hubby for that 125g or better. Then you can select larger tankmates that can't fit in the Ck's mouth. "T"
119yau.jpg

By tonytheboss1, shot with Canon PowerShot A70 at 2009-06-21
 
Yes I would love a 180, but we will be moving soon so it won't be for a while.

The clown knife is now housed with just the threadfin acara which is bigger so there won't be any eating of tankmates now. I moved all the smaller fish to the 90 gallon.
 
Any fish that is half it's size, you'd probably want to remove to be safe. Deep bodied fish are usually safe for awhile.
 
So like I said the knife is about four inches, would it kill a couple 2-3" Senegal Bichirs? The knife so far doesn't do much but hang head down in the corner, he seems afraid of my Threadfin Acara who thinks he owns the tank. He hasn't attacked the knife though, just plays mind games with intimidation lol!

I'm also going to add a 2" Flagtail, I figure it should be deep bodied enough for the knife not to bother. Hopefully!
 
Well I had to do much shuffling around to find a combo that works.

The Threadfin Acara was chasing the knife, so it wouldn't come out of the corner. I added two three inch senegals, and the knife checked them out, but hasn't attacked them at all. But Charlie, the Acara, was attacking them. So I took him out and put him in my 90, and took my four Boesmani Rainbows and put them in the 37 with the clown knife (Sideshow Bob) and the two baby bichirs.

So far it is working beautifully! The rainbows are way too big to eat, yet they are active and docile and have drawn the knife out. He came out to eat and practically ate pellets from my fingers! The bichirs are much less terrified now that Charlie is gone too. It is a lovely tank to watch now.:)

Note: I do know that once the knife gets a little bigger the rainbows will have to be moved. Hopefully the bichirs will grow with the knife, but if not I can move them too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom