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.
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- Thread starter dodgefreak8
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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..
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.
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.
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.dodgefreak8 said: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
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!dodgefreak8 said: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 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.
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
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
