clown knifes, arrowana, and rays

[philhawk]

Any comments or info about creating a mix of CK's, arowana, and rays.

in two weeks i will be moving into my first house and shortly after getting settled: my first real monster build will begin. 96"x48"x20-30" and getting ahead of myself as we tend to do; i am contemplating my stocking list.

i know that i want a pair of rays (possibly motoro) and an arowana, but i would love to add a CK (they are the fish that got me into monsters in the first place)

All comments welcome: tank size and design, stocking selection/Introduction order, anecdotes regarding similar setups

Thanks in advance

 

[skylineiz]

it is hit and miss with clown knifes.
depends on the temrament of the fish. Could be fine 99% of the time, but if your okay to accept the chance that it might attack the rays, then its cool. otherwise CK's are genrally a no no.
They can go for the rays eyes, but in saying that you could get really lucky and it all works out.

Arowanas are ok, as long as they are not jardini's

introduce your rays last, they are the epic ammonia producers, so have the tank fully cycled and over filterd with lots of other fish before hand. Then once its all good, introduce your rays, be prepared to loose a few small fish when the time comes.

Most the info your after should be found in the sticky's
Good luck!

 

[philhawk]

yeah i've seen a number of pics of successful tanks with ck-ray mixes but those are obvious successes. just looking for how often its been tried and any compatibility failures

 

[slednex11]

im running a pair a CK about 9inches with my 9incher Motoro all good but its only been a week with the ray but the CK have already lost all intrest in my Ray

 

[philhawk]

the only trouble ive ever had with ck's is during introduction. when i added a 12" ornate bichir to the 15" ck's tank he [ckl] grabbed the bichers tail and took him for a ride, but that only lasted half a day and after that it was all copacetic.

 

[MeAko]

My 17-19" CKF is a gentle giant and does not mind any of her tankmates, which includes an 8" ray.

 

[aquaman45]

it is hit and miss with clown knifes.
depends on the temrament of the fish. Could be fine 99% of the time, but if your okay to accept the chance that it might attack the rays, then its cool. otherwise CK's are genrally a no no.
They can go for the rays eyes, but in saying that you could get really lucky and it all works out.

Arowanas are ok, as long as they are not jardini's

introduce your rays last, they are the epic ammonia producers, so have the tank fully cycled and over filterd with lots of other fish before hand. Then once its all good, introduce your rays, be prepared to loose a few small fish when the time comes.

Most the info your after should be found in the sticky's
Good luck!

I reckon this pretty much sums it up...Good advice!
Take a look at a very similar fish,its comes under the common name Royal clown knife(Chitala blanchi)formerly C.vittatus,this species is equally impressive but ive found it to have a far more gentle disposition.

 

[biggfish]

I reckon this pretty much sums it up...Good advice!
Take a look at a very similar fish,its comes under the common name Royal clown knife(Chitala blanchi)formerly C.vittatus,this species is equally impressive but ive found it to have a far more gentle disposition.

I agree to some degree. However, my royal CK attacked my flower ray. I added it to the tank with bigger rays and fish in general and now all is well. Nonetheless, I do find them slightly less agressive and sometimes nicer to look at then the common variety. Not as easy to come by though.

As you can see from my avatar, mine all do well. I have 2 common CK, 1 royal CK and 3 10-12 inch marble motoros in the tank.