Clown knifefish - Chitala chitala question

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Most CK's peak at two feet and do damage at night-if it were me I would say atleast 8 inches long-better if the fish was 10 though-don't underestimate a CK's hunger and aggression-my is only 9 inches and ate a fat 4 inch gold fish!
 
Peter McFarlane;2552100; said:
thanks everyone for the info.

glad i found all this out before i bought them, could have been mayhem in my community tank lol

are they fin nippers? or they'll only attack if they think they can actually fit the whole fish in their mouth?

thansk again :)



They arent agressive at all they are very placid animals in my oppinion. If they cant swallow it they wont even hint at eating them and the same even if they can eat them everything will appear ok right up untill it eats something then resumes normal crusing.
 
You can try African Brown Knives as they would do fine in a community tank. Black Ghost Knives grow pretty slow and aren't aggressive to other fish unless it can eat it.
 
When I first got Ck's I thought they were very placid and once they hit a certain size they seem to gain confidence and get a little aggressive-not like a Red Devil or Umbee but will nip at times-my at times chases my Ocellaris Bass.
 
thanks for the info everyone, very helpful.

will keep you guys posted on what i end up doing :)
 
When I had oscars, 3 around 10, 11, inch, they dint know any better and they started to attack my two CK's 17 and 21 inch. Well that dint last long at all, The CK's, would do more than a little fin nipping, they would take small chunks out of the oscars sides, you could see the white meat in the sides of the Oscars. And they would do this durring the Day and at night! Like someone said, when they attack there mouths have allot of striking power. Its hard to understand until you see it in person. My clownknifes are very nice fish, so long as no other fish attacks them. If so theres hell to pay! :)

And dont blame the CK if he dose eat your other fish, be proud and dont make the same mistakes twice with small stock in the future if that happens. Thats a great Monster!

Best of Luck!
 
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