regular CK, as said before small ck's have these dark vertical stripes that will later turn into the spots.
Is this a Royal Clown Knife?
- Thread starter lujor
- Start date
Alright, from what I have read, it is a CK. Royals seem to have very small faded spots as well as the stripes, that gradually get darker as they get older. Juvenile CK's will only he stripes.
So it does look like it's just a Clown Knife, and I assume the other posted above are not aware of the juvi color pattern based on their answers.
(Although some have the right idea... just not everyone, lol)
The only way to tell FOR SURE is to just wait.
And it shouldn't take long, seems how Clowns grow fairly quick.
Good luck with the little guy!
So it does look like it's just a Clown Knife, and I assume the other posted above are not aware of the juvi color pattern based on their answers.
(Although some have the right idea... just not everyone, lol)The only way to tell FOR SURE is to just wait.
And it shouldn't take long, seems how Clowns grow fairly quick.
Good luck with the little guy!
I posted a thread a couple of days ago about getting help IDing a two inch knife i obtained recently. My knife's dark vertical stripes looked very much like the markings of an adult royal, but I wasn't sure because I had never seen any knife fish this small.
I know pic is not great, but you can kinda see what I am talking about.
Anyway, a couple of days before posting origial thread, I had ordered some books online. Those books arrived today, and one of them seems to hold the answer to my knife fish's mysterious markings. The book is The Freshwater Fishes of Siam, or Thailand by Hugh M. Smith, copyright 1945, reprinted in 1965 for the Smithsonian Institution by TFH Publicatios, Inc. Part of the entry for Notopterus chitala reads:
By the time the young have reached a length of 3 to 3.5 cm., 10 to 15 blackish or dark gray cross bands appear; at a length of 7 to 8 cm., when the fishes are about 70 days old, a dark brown rounded or elliptical spot appears at the lower part of each of the posterior cross bands; with further growth the cross bands begin to grow faint and finally disappear, while the spots become more intense and persist throughout adult life.
This was enlightening in a couple of ways. First of all, I feel confident that I have a Clown Knife, and secondly, my fish is VERY young. I am somewhat surprised that a supplier would risk sending such young specimens of nonlivebearers or nonfeederfish. (Probably a little naive too.) Books rock. Reading is fun-to-mentals. Knowing is half the battle...
I know pic is not great, but you can kinda see what I am talking about.
Anyway, a couple of days before posting origial thread, I had ordered some books online. Those books arrived today, and one of them seems to hold the answer to my knife fish's mysterious markings. The book is The Freshwater Fishes of Siam, or Thailand by Hugh M. Smith, copyright 1945, reprinted in 1965 for the Smithsonian Institution by TFH Publicatios, Inc. Part of the entry for Notopterus chitala reads:
By the time the young have reached a length of 3 to 3.5 cm., 10 to 15 blackish or dark gray cross bands appear; at a length of 7 to 8 cm., when the fishes are about 70 days old, a dark brown rounded or elliptical spot appears at the lower part of each of the posterior cross bands; with further growth the cross bands begin to grow faint and finally disappear, while the spots become more intense and persist throughout adult life.
This was enlightening in a couple of ways. First of all, I feel confident that I have a Clown Knife, and secondly, my fish is VERY young. I am somewhat surprised that a supplier would risk sending such young specimens of nonlivebearers or nonfeederfish. (Probably a little naive too.) Books rock. Reading is fun-to-mentals. Knowing is half the battle...
Definitely a CK. Strips are normal at that size. RCKs aren't really imported at that small size. I haven't seen one available that small...yet. I've heard that RCKs are the opposite of a regular CK whereas they will have spotting instead of strips.
