"Redrum! Redrum!! Redrum!!!!!!"

[shaunman]

Greetings and rage from my tank,

My Clown Knifefish has hit the terrible 10 inch, fish puberity period and his former personality is melting away. All in all, he's pretty tame. He eats sinking carn. pellets, frozen krill and beef heart. About a month ago, he bit my 8 inch bichir to death, so he's been a loner, social retard ever since. Last night, I decided to put him in the 125 tank with my 12inch Oscar, 9inch Tinfoil, 13inch Sailfin Pleco, 8inch Jaguar, & X2 8inch Blue Sevriums. I know the Sevriums will be featherback dinner in about 4 months, so if I keep the Knife, I'll need to shuffle my stock into other tanks. I already had to move the Jaguar out because he wouldn't stop biting the Knife in the face.
With all that blah said... I would like to ask of YOUR opinions and experiences with keeping large Knifes, for this one has been my first in twenty some years of keeping fish.
What are the chances of the Ocsar, Tinfoil and Pleco getting along, (surviving the Knife) with the featherback as he pushes 18+ inches? Are well fed Knives still mindless killing machines? Will death pass over my 125 if I keep the Knife?
(With all due respect: "If your advice stems from a Knifefish, a 45 gal. tank, and your favorite Tetra's vanishing, please keep it to your self. I would like to hear from someone who has had a Knife(s) for years and got them large with the company of other large fish.")

 

[WhiteLineRacer]

Sorry to say it depends on the fish in speaking. I kept a 14"BGK with a 16" Pearl 7/8" Red Tailed Black shark and 2" indian glass fish (with only 3 out of 21 getting eaten) so anythings possible.

With risky tanks like these you have to be extra vigilant and provide good ground cover, my large SD's did wonders as dither fish, meaning they just annoyed the Pearl but kept a lot of it's attention. I don't know enough about your Tin foil in their nature to evade the odd nip but I hear they get pretty big.

Risky but not impossible. Although with 125g for them to play in, if it's for life, they will be a bit crowded when the clown starts putting on weight.


Good luck fella

 

[benzjamin13]

Most Asian Knife Species I've encountered have been relatively mellow with other fish and with each other for the most part. I've read a lot of books saying that they are highly aggressive and should be kept alone, but in my experience, the CKs would be the one getting picked on. Those fish should get along, but like it was mentioned before...it depends on your fish. I've had a CK with an Oscar, Jag, JD, Walking Catfish, and a RTC x TSN. The CK had some pretty bad scarring from the cichlids.

 

[faststang1]

My CK is highly aggressive,He fights with my Arro and scares all my cichlids.

 

[Daniel Machado]

Well...

I have two CK's in my 200 g tank, and no real problems so far. They are a 11-inch long normal and a 15-inch long golden, and live with my SA/CA cichlids (synspillum, urophtalmus, a couple p-bass, jd x texas, BP, tetramerus, gold sev, Geophagus and temporalis), a couple Hoplosternum cats, a couple "golden trahiras" (Hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus), my SAL and several plecos. There was some fighting when I put the bigger golden in and the normal didn't liked it, but it lasted only about a week. :biggrin:

Oh, I have to mention... I got the normal from a friend, because it was terrorizing all its tankmates. Well, I believe it changed its mind, or thought that it's not a smart move to fight some big cichlids, even if they are not REAL THUGS.

Best regards.

Daniel.