New Clown Knife and Feeding

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MetronomeJ

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 15, 2006
9
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51
Sharon, PA
Couple of questions about feeding.

Brought mine home a week ago, at about 6".. the largest i've seen at my lfs.
In the past week, i've tried feeding him flakes, with no result.. though he's eaten two "rosy red" feeder fish, and a couple of helpings of about a dozen frozen bloodworms each time.

Question is, i bought about ten feeders which are kept in an isolation chamber in his 10-gal quarantine tank, and he pays an awful lot of attention to them, often looking up and "drooling" at the 8 feeders left in there.... how often can i feed them to him?

Also, i've read in a few spots on this forum that goldfish aren't recommended, but i've seen other sites on the CK show photos of them eating goldfish. What's the drawback? What type of feeders do you guys give them and how often?
 
MetronomeJ said:
Couple of questions about feeding.

Brought mine home a week ago, at about 6".. the largest i've seen at my lfs.
In the past week, i've tried feeding him flakes, with no result.. though he's eaten two "rosy red" feeder fish, and a couple of helpings of about a dozen frozen bloodworms each time.

Question is, i bought about ten feeders which are kept in an isolation chamber in his 10-gal quarantine tank, and he pays an awful lot of attention to them, often looking up and "drooling" at the 8 feeders left in there.... how often can i feed them to him?

Also, i've read in a few spots on this forum that goldfish aren't recommended, but i've seen other sites on the CK show photos of them eating goldfish. What's the drawback? What type of feeders do you guys give them and how often?
Click to expand...

Goldfish have very little in the way of nutrients. I fed my CK frozen bloodworms, and he loved that. You can also use raw shrimp, cut up and remove the spine, frozen beefheart, frozen brineshrimp, or freeze dried krill. There is a lot you can offer these guys that they will eat.
 
Mine eats beef heart, shrimp, bloodworms, and brine shrimp. It's favorite is beef heart.
 
Try some of the Frozen foods from your LFS, like Mysis Shrimp, Bloodworms, and you can even find prepared beefheart.


I think it's funny that people expect Clown Knives to be these big predators.. Just because people see them when they are HUGE and just happen to be eating goldfish.. Likely because people house them with other large preds like Oscars and Gars, which they feed goldfish and the clown knives learn to join in. If any fish is big enough, they will eat a feeder.. I have seen XXL Comet goldfish eat small comet feeders.. When CKs are small they aren't very good preds and are quite clumsy. Either way, prepared foods are much more nutritious and will be better for your CK in the long run.
 
Just made some for the first time yesterday. I got the recipe from a guy named Tony on another site. His didn't have the baby cereal or wheat germ. His called for peas which I skipped. I also think I made the mix too fine. (puree) It froze great, and the fish love it!! I only made 1/4 recipe and have too large bags and 1 tupperware container full. Full recipe = Lots of food! The other recipe had you spread it out over wax paper and fridge till set up. Then score it with a knife, then freeze. After frozen, break apart pieces and bag em up. Next time I'll try the wheat germ and baby food for vitamins.

Dave
 
Oh yeah. I have 4 small clowns right now. Probably settle on just one, maybe 2. Anyway, they eat, crushed pellet, flake, worms, beefheart recipe, couple rosie reds once a month.

Dave
 
MetronomeJ said:
not knowing what beef heart really was... i just looked it up and found this recipe... does this sound ok, like something good for my first carnivorous fish?

http://www.gregwatson.com/HowToMakeBeefHeart.htm
Click to expand...

That's exactly how I do it without all the ingrediants other than the heart. I should try that when I have an entire weekend to devote to it. In about 18 years!

If this is how you decide to do it, don't waste your money on a week proccesor. It will burn up!!!! I don't only give them the heart, though. I also give them bloodworms, brine shrimp, shrimp pellets, grocery store shrimp, and special flakes from LFS.
 
I know my variety is big, but if I keep them diverse, I can feed them many different nutrients and they are open to new things I might try out. And it's nice when I'm late for work!!!!! I can just throw in a chunk of ground heart or a cube of Emerald Entre and run.
 
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