I am totally mind blown. I was showing off (par usual) my aquaria to some of my buddies Monday night. It always seems to impress when I feed my oscars by hand!
I hand fed both oscars around a half dozen to a dozen finger sized chunks of thawed tilapia fillets each. After they got their fill and lost intrest, and I was left holding a chunk in the tank, I decided that I would try to get my clown knife to "smell" it and hopefully eat it from the bottom. I drop chunks to the bottom after the Oscars are full to get my Venezuela Pike Cichlid fed.
In the roughly one year that I have owned it, i have never seen my clown knife eat ANYTHING that was not alive! I wiggled the tilapia chunk around one of the holes in the 6" diameter PVC tube that the clown has claimed as home.
I can't believe that it actually took it from my fingers. I have never attempted anything like this before, mostly from fear, due to the "explosion" scales whenever the knife "hits" a live feeder. I figured it would take my finger off!
We all freaked, and I of course had to try again. The knife wound up taking four tilapia chunks right out of my fingers. This fish is BY FAR the most gentle "snatching" hand held food. Most of my other fish that accept hand feeding "accidently" bite my fingers from time to time. When my Oscars, Jaguar, Tilapia bite, it more tickles. The Gars do not hurt much either. I can tell that they are being as gentle as they can!
Was I under the wrong impression to believe that the clown knife could "remove" my finger with a swift chomp? Dog gone that was so cool, I would love to continue hand feeding it, and man do I think that we have "bonded".
Is hand feeding the clown knife too risky to continue, or am I being a chicken poop being afraid and it is common, or harmless to do?
I hand fed both oscars around a half dozen to a dozen finger sized chunks of thawed tilapia fillets each. After they got their fill and lost intrest, and I was left holding a chunk in the tank, I decided that I would try to get my clown knife to "smell" it and hopefully eat it from the bottom. I drop chunks to the bottom after the Oscars are full to get my Venezuela Pike Cichlid fed.
In the roughly one year that I have owned it, i have never seen my clown knife eat ANYTHING that was not alive! I wiggled the tilapia chunk around one of the holes in the 6" diameter PVC tube that the clown has claimed as home.
I can't believe that it actually took it from my fingers. I have never attempted anything like this before, mostly from fear, due to the "explosion" scales whenever the knife "hits" a live feeder. I figured it would take my finger off!
We all freaked, and I of course had to try again. The knife wound up taking four tilapia chunks right out of my fingers. This fish is BY FAR the most gentle "snatching" hand held food. Most of my other fish that accept hand feeding "accidently" bite my fingers from time to time. When my Oscars, Jaguar, Tilapia bite, it more tickles. The Gars do not hurt much either. I can tell that they are being as gentle as they can!
Was I under the wrong impression to believe that the clown knife could "remove" my finger with a swift chomp? Dog gone that was so cool, I would love to continue hand feeding it, and man do I think that we have "bonded".
Is hand feeding the clown knife too risky to continue, or am I being a chicken poop being afraid and it is common, or harmless to do?
