Knife fish acclimation issue? Help!!

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tvbbnumber41

tvbbnumber41

Dovii
MFK Member
Nov 5, 2008
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Over the rainbow
I got a new knife the other day. He's been hyperactive moving all around the tank. Almost to the point where he seemed distressed so I went out to the store and bought a pvc pipe for it to hide in. And still he's swimming everywhere crashing into things. When i bought him yesterday he did seem to have a small amount of fin rot and ammonia burn, but i cant tell if it got worse today. Also, he hasn't eaten anything. Made two attempts with earth worms and live blackworms (both at night with lights off). Is this normal? Any help would be great.
 
If you could post your tank parameters including temp. Last water change and how much was removed. Is the tank new? Is it properly cycled? Please post a pic of the fish and areas in question. These things will help a lot.
 
kno4te said:
If you could post your tank parameters including temp. Last water change and how much was removed. Is the tank new? Is it properly cycled? Please post a pic of the fish and areas in question. These things will help a lot.
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Just as an update, I brought a sample of my water to petco and everything seemed to be fine. But, just in case, I still did about a 20% water change every other day for about a week and the fins are almost healed completely. I bought about 40 feeder guppies as target fish and added a yoyo loach. I had no luck with feeding for a while (tried live blackworms, blood worms, pellets, and even krill) and finally noticed him chomping down on some blood worms. So I guess blood worms are the way to go. Thanks for the help.

I'm trying to get more information on the fish, but there seems to be very limited info on these guys. How big do they get and can I keep them in a community tank?
 
I wish I could offer more help, but I don't know of anyone that is currently keeping these. This fish doesn't even have a common name which should be an indication of how uncommon it is in the hobby.
The largest one I've seen was around 14 inches, but most adults seem to get to about 9 inches. In the wild they eat almost exclusively aquatic insects, but they have a pretty huge mouth, so there's a good chance they'd try to eat smaller fish if they were available. They come from deep water in big rivers (as opposed to BGKs which live in shallow streams and ponds), so I'm not really sure how that should translate to aquarium care. I'd recommend maintaining very clean water (i.e. lots of water changes) and maybe a strong filter/powerhead to get good water circulation and a bit of current. Lastly, these things seem to love submerged trees, so some driftwood would probably be a super welcome addition.
Looking forward to hearing more about this cool fish!
 
tvbbnumber41 said:
I got a new knife the other day. He's been hyperactive moving all around the tank. Almost to the point where he seemed distressed so I went out to the store and bought a pvc pipe for it to hide in. And still he's swimming everywhere crashing into things. When i bought him yesterday he did seem to have a small amount of fin rot and ammonia burn, but i cant tell if it got worse today. Also, he hasn't eaten anything. Made two attempts with earth worms and live blackworms (both at night with lights off). Is this normal? Any help would be great.
Click to expand...

Extactly what specie of Knife fish is it or post a pic, this will make it more easy for someone to help you.
 
blackbullhead said:
I wish I could offer more help, but I don't know of anyone that is currently keeping these. This fish doesn't even have a common name which should be an indication of how uncommon it is in the hobby.
The largest one I've seen was around 14 inches, but most adults seem to get to about 9 inches. In the wild they eat almost exclusively aquatic insects, but they have a pretty huge mouth, so there's a good chance they'd try to eat smaller fish if they were available. They come from deep water in big rivers (as opposed to BGKs which live in shallow streams and ponds), so I'm not really sure how that should translate to aquarium care. I'd recommend maintaining very clean water (i.e. lots of water changes) and maybe a strong filter/powerhead to get good water circulation and a bit of current. Lastly, these things seem to love submerged trees, so some driftwood would probably be a super welcome addition.
Looking forward to hearing more about this cool fish!
Click to expand...
I see. Thank you!! Blood worms has become his staple for now. Hopefully i can get him in pellets. He started to come out with the lights on during feeding. I'll post up a cideo soon. Thanks again
 
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