New Clown Knife

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
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wgmc3

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 2, 2007
84
0
0
Texas
I made a spontaneous purchase yesterday.
I came across a clown knife on sale at LFS, he was the last one and I had never owned one so I thought it would be cool. I purchased the 5" Clown Knife for 4 dollars and change. Now I have some question?????? He is by him self in a 30long. I have not been able to get him to eat yet, what is a guaranteed meal for him? Should I add any other fish all he has done is hide? How fast will he grow? Please Help, I hope I did not make a mistake.
 
Well I hope you have plans on upgradeing this guy-he will grow huge to say the least-You can expect somewhere in the ballpark of around 1.5 to 2 inches a month for growth if given the right care-No less than a 6 foot by 4 foot tank to be housed for life-

An easy meal would be just about ne thing live that would fit into his mouth-Although i highly suggest you get him started on something prepared rather than live-Most of the time if one gets started on live feedings-it is next to impossible to get them off-Might be the case here-Seeing how it came from a LFS-

Ne how I have had mine less than 2 years now-he is pushing the 22 inch mark now-And next week will be upgraded to his new 500 gal tank
 
akskirmish;796531; said:
Well I hope you have plans on upgradeing this guy-he will grow huge to say the least-You can expect somewhere in the ballpark of around 1.5 to 2 inches a month for growth if given the right care-No less than a 6 foot by 4 foot tank to be housed for life-

An easy meal would be just about ne thing live that would fit into his mouth-Although i highly suggest you get him started on something prepared rather than live-Most of the time if one gets started on live feedings-it is next to impossible to get them off-Might be the case here-Seeing how it came from a LFS-

Ne how I have had mine less than 2 years now-he is pushing the 22 inch mark now-And next week will be upgraded to his new 500 gal tank
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congradulations on giving yours the best home possible.. he is going to be sooooooo happy
 
wgmc3;796494; said:
I made a spontaneous purchase yesterday.
I came across a clown knife on sale at LFS, he was the last one and I had never owned one so I thought it would be cool. I purchased the 5" Clown Knife for 4 dollars and change. Now I have some question?????? He is by him self in a 30long. I have not been able to get him to eat yet, what is a guaranteed meal for him? Should I add any other fish all he has done is hide? How fast will he grow? Please Help, I hope I did not make a mistake.
Click to expand...

what i would do is let him settle in for a couple of days.. try some frozen krill or frozen blood worms or frozen silversides .. once he is eating i would try different small pelleted foods and give him the frozen every other day.. if all else fails and he is not eating anything in days then maybe try to put in a couple of small feeder guppies.. in between guppies i would keep trying to get him to eat the other food you offer.. don't let him over eat on live food, give him just one or two so he still has a little hunger.. but most important to me is that he be eating something because eventually you can get him to eat other food.once he is settled in he should want to eat all the times you offer.. you will eventually love and enjoy your CK but they do grow fast so be prepared to keep changing his home to a bigger size.. .
 
Give it a few days to let it settle down in it's new home. Hiding is what they do until they feel comfortable and big enough to feel secure about itself. Frozen Bloodworms always works great. I gave mine a few feeders as well on occassion.
 
wgmc3;796494; said:
I made a spontaneous purchase yesterday.
I came across a clown knife on sale at LFS, he was the last one and I had never owned one so I thought it would be cool.
Click to expand...

I usually don't pick on people for overstocking but I would say based on your signature, yes, you made a mistake. You have more fish than your tanks can accommodate as is. It's easy to get bored with the fish you have but I'd recommend you research them a bit more and start putting together a plan for accommodating them into the future. I would return the CK and focus on your Flower Horn, 50+ African Cichlids, 6 Cats, 6 Fire Mouths, 4 Jack Dempseys, 5 Jaguars and Oscar.

To respond to your specific questions about your CK, they're nearly blind and mostly nocturnal so you may not see much activity in the light. In a couple of months he'll be anywhere from 7 to 10 inches and capable of eating 5 to 20 feeders a day. In a year or two when he's well over a foot long and has outgrown your 125 gallon he could be putting down several hundred feeders a week. That means you'll be spending money on unhealthy feeders or spending money on breeding feeders. To reinforce what akskirmish said, it's no easy task to acclimate CKs to other types of food. I have one CK that refuses to eat anything but live food and I've seen others choose death over pellets. Heck, if you simply plan on keeping him with that Oscar he'll likely starve trying to compete for food.

In my view you've got some awesome fish... but you've also got some thinking to do. If you need help finding any of your fish a good home and you're near the DFW area PM me.
 
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