Hello, just wanted some feedback from some fello fish enthusiast. I have a 75g with an oscar, lima shovelnose, blood parrot and a clownknife. All is well, the only fish that seems very timid is the clownknife. He is growing slow. At first, he only ate live , but lately seems to come out for frozen as well. I really love clownknifes, do I have to worry or is this normal behavior? Also, how long can this group stay in a 75g. I got them all at maybe 2" in august and they are growing like weeds with the exception of the clownknife.
clownknife worry
- Thread starter racso
- Start date
racso said:
Has he always acted this way? or is this new behaviour? Do you notice a difference in activity with you CK when the lights are shut off or dimmed?
Yes, my worry is that he is not aggressive enough to keep up with the oscar and the shovelnose for live food. They don't display any aggression toward each other and that's a good thing i guess. I read something before about feeding with the lights out. I don't know though. He is the only one in the tank that's not an animal at feeding time so to speak. He just started coming out a little this week when i was feeding frozen, which he'd never done. I just feel bad that maybe he's hungry and can't get what he needs.
clownknifes are most active when the lights are out and usually do their feeding at this time
if you are worried that he is not getting enough food then throw in some frozen foods or feeders after you have turned out the lights
oscars are such pigs that it might be hard to to get food to your knife since they are fairly shy about feeding compared to oscars
if you are worried that he is not getting enough food then throw in some frozen foods or feeders after you have turned out the lights
oscars are such pigs that it might be hard to to get food to your knife since they are fairly shy about feeding compared to oscars
I wouldn't be keeping an oscar with ANY knives, very few are belligerent enough to keep up with one. He should be growing at least around 1" monthly, but they don't always do that... some have radically different growth rates and grow MUCH slower or faster... I wouldn't worry about that too much, but you may want to consider putting him in a tank away from the oscar and other aggressive fish.
deffinitly try feeding after the lights go out, the clown is much more adapted to feed in the dark than the oscars. the 75 will be ok for a short while, but a much larger tank will be needed eventually. a 175-250 should be adequite for most captive knives.
racso said:
That is the way my clowns acted. I have since gotten rid of them because they grow rediculously huge. Mine were about 2 feet in length when I sold them. They were beating each other up and they started to beat on my oscar. They had plenty of room in a 125. I would not worry about their behavior, mine ate all kinds of food, they even ate pellets! Variety is good!
Jen
