african knife question

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thrillbillie12

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 11, 2008
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Conneaut Lake PA
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i just got an african knife for my birthday sunday. i was wondering if any one can explain why they "gulp air". it seems like every 30-40 min he will swim to the top, stay right at the surface for a few seconds, then stick his head out, come back down and release air from there gills. sometimes he will do it very fast. i tried to google it but all i came up with was info on clown and black ghost knifes. i asked about it at the lfs i bought it from but the guy working didnt know much about knifes. any help or advice would be great.

o, and it seems that i got lucky, my knife has the best personality of all my fish, anytime i put my hand in the tank he comes up and plays around my fingers. and ive only had him for three days.

here are some pics
kinfeandplecos.jpg


knifefish.jpg

knifecloseup.jpg


and one to show off the tank
tankfromafar.jpg
 
Their natural habitat is stagnant water with not a lot of air. So they naturally gulp every now and again. Obviously more aeration will cut this behavior back but it will never eliminate it...
 
thanks for the quick reply, i was worried i bought a sick fish. now its gonna be a lot more humorous watching him do this. thanks again
 
My Clown Knife does this! As well as my ID shark and my Pleco. My GT, Convict and Oscar all don't do it. It's neat to watch, and my Pleco sucks so much, you can hear him do it in the kitchen. I've heard Pleco's do it to maintain boyancy when they are sticking to the glass sideways or upside down, but was never sure about the others. have 2 huge airwands running 24/7 in my 150gal, so they have pleanty of air
 
how big is he. i dont want to sound mean, but i highly dislike the type of gravel you use, but hey to each his own. i just dont like it cuz my last tank was a hand me down, and it had gravel like yours does, and everyday it just looked worst and worst.
 
Mine never did that so don't know was about a year old and just died on saturday so can't observe for it anymore.
Cool we have the same birthday too.
 
sorry to hear about your fish. it always sucks losing one. i just saw mine in my lfs and thought "why thats a odd fish", and after i bought him home i fell in love with him. i actually moved everything around just so he was comfortable in the tank.
 
yes i know how big all of my fish will get, really im only interested in growing out my jack dempsey/texas hybrids. when they get big, then ill take the other fish back to my lfas.
 
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