Gold knife fish questions.

[reptilerescued]

Hello.

Was in a LFS buying the kids the kids/wife more glofish ( we have a tank just for them and it pops with the blacklight! )
They have a gold clown for sale in with a alligator gar. the GCK is about 11/12 inches or bigger.
the owner says they are great together.

My question is? ARE they great together?

I have a ally gar about 7 or 8 inches and he is alone right now. I was going to get a sterlet for him as a take mate.
The gar in with the GCK now is about the same size as mine. My gar was in with this same knife when I bought him.

Owner said the GCK grows about a inch a year . Is this true? I'm asking because I only have a 150G that the gar is in and that's the main reason I'm only looking for one more ancient fish that gets big but not huge right away.

Will the CK and gar compete for food, space or anything else?

any issues I need to know about before I cell them up together?

The CK is 34.99 after tax. (same price as the gar was when I bough him)

Anyways, original plan was to get a gar and a sterlet but I keep thinking about the gold CK and going back to the fish shop to to check him out.

Any advice is welcome. Yes I know I'll need a bigger tank in a few years for the pair.
Thanks
Rich

 

[King-eL]

It's fine to keep the GCK in 150g tank but not the alligator gar. Alligator gars grows fast and eat other fish even it think it cant swallow it. One of the many reason of gars death by choking. I had an alligator gar that grew to 25" in 7 months. Now it's 45"+ in my friend's indoor pond. They should be fine together for now but you need to move that alligator gar to a bigger tank or pond soon.

 

[reptilerescued]

Thanks I'll have to get a pic of the gator gar only had him about 2 weeks and the more pix I look @ the more he looks like a spotted or florida spotted and that's cool with me as I don't want a 10 foot fish 2 or 3 foot is fine.

So I'll have to get golden then in a week or two.

it looks really nice I never saw one in real life until I bought the gar.

 

[King-eL]

If it's a florida gar it should be fine as they usually get to 20-25" in captivity.

 

[reptilerescued]

OK so do you think the two would be good long term together? I have read where the gold CK seems to "go off" his meds. and shread everything in the tank.
That was one reason I wanted the 2 foot sterlet nice looking fish and pretty tame.

Reasons I wanted the GCK is he is cool, it's at lfs, he's 35 bux ( no shipping of 30 +)
The owner has treated me really well. things like whole sale cost on my 150 tank. Free aquatic plants. and just a friendly person all the way around willing to talk about fish and other stuff.

Like I said I don't want this thing to go all psycho on the gar in a few weeks or months.
Right now the gar is about 2/3rds the size of the GCK.
Adding another tank would be out of the question as we have 6 tanks inside and one outside now.
Upgrading to larger might be tough too. the 150 could be brought up to a 185 but that's it. the 55's could be brought up some but probably not worth the expense to go 75 or 90 g.

Wife likes the gck and I do to. I just don't want to be getting rid of him as I truly believe you take a pet it's for the life of that pet.
Hence my User name.
I do alot of rescue from IDIOTS that buy stuff cause it's cool then realize it's to much work,to expensive,to big, or what not.

Again thanks.

 

[King-eL]

Clown knife fish will mostly fight other clown knife or any other feathers and bony tougues. It will leave other fish alone unless it's being disturbed or being challenge. I have CK with gars an many members here as well. CK will usually just hide.