My setup and a few questions....

[CajunTech]

Let me give my tank setup and a little background before I get to the good part:

32 Gallon tank, normal lighting, natural looking gravel, a few small rocks scattered on ground and 2 medium rocks (one has a small cave) with fake plants coming out of them. I don't have a testing kit, have to add a gallon of water about once every other week (evaporates I guess), and change out about 25% of the water every month. I keep my heater set on about 76F and change filters once a month. The small rocks and the plants all have green algae growing on them and there is sometimes a green film on the glass.

Current residents:

2 x Algae Eaters - pleco (think thats the term). Both under 6"
2 x Cory Cats - both around 1-2"
2 x Blue Gouramis - 3-4" (different markings, so guessing M/F pair)
1 x Yellow Gourami - 3-4"
1 x Lavendar Gourami - 4-5"
6 x Neon Tetras (was 7 when I went to bed last night)
5 x Zebra Danios

and the newest addition to the family is a 5-6" clown knife fish (wife thought it looked cute at the local Wal-Mart yesterday).

All of the fish have been living in the aquarium since early March of this year. The pair of blue gouramis and the zebra danios are my favorites. Was fun to see the zebra danios start out smaller than my neons and watch them grow to about double thier size. One of the blue gouramis was smaller too, but now thy are about the same size.

Well.. Here's my dilemma. What should I do witht he clown knife? It has already claimed one victim. I can't really afford to buy a bigger tank right now and the only other tank I have access to is a 10 gallon. Anyone have any suggestions?

Also curious as to if fish can actually recognize people (sounds silly hehe) or is this just coincedence? - My two blue gouramis always watch and follow me as I pass the tank and come up to the top everytime I feed them. They pretty much ignore my wife and daughter even when they feed them.

 

[Miss Wiplash]

i may be wrong but those clown knives get big. Too big for the 32 gallon. Oh and they will eat any fish small enough to fit in their mouths

 

[CajunTech]

Unfortunately that is what I have been reading too... They get about the size of my daughter hehe (36" average).. Wondering if I should try to bring him to a lfs and try to trade him in for something else, move some of the smaller fish to the 10 gallon, leave it as is, or just flush the clown knife and get it over with. It seems to be in pretty good condition and tends to hide behind the fake plants until I turn the aquarium light off. Never saw a fish go from looking nice to mean that quick..

 

[Miss Wiplash]

Dont flush it PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEE

Ive allways wanted one but cant fit too many more tanks in my house at present. Take it back to your LFS and say that u brought this under miss guidance on size. Worst case scenario just give it back to them.

 

[Alex]

Clown knifefish do get much too big for your tank, they can get up to nearly a metre and they are predators, but none of it is their fault. So I hope you are joking about flushing a healthy fish (beautiful in its own right), because you made a mistake and bought it. I'm sure your IFs will be more than happy to take it back, especially if you tell them the reasons.

 

[CajunTech]

Flushing it was going to be a last resort, but bringing it to a lfs gives me a reason to go see if they have anything new

Wife bought it from local supermarket, not a fish store. The guy couldn't give her any information about it saying they had never had one there before. I figured the give away should have been that it was in a tank with cichlids

 

[Miss Wiplash]

i wouldnt of had in a tank of them either

 

[CajunTech]

Could anyone approx. how long before it would outgrow the 32 gallon? Maybe I could keep it for a while and save up for a larger aquarium.

 

[CajunTech]

Miss Wiplash.. I've got a lot to learn..

I started with what I consider easy fish to keep up with - gouramis, tetras, danios.. I eventually want to add more tanks and more variety... I think eventually I would have been interested in a clown knife, but not until I had an aquarium the size of a small pool

 

[Miss Wiplash]

TBH i would with what u have in there already you are pretty much full. And with theat knife fish you will end up with very little left if u keep it in there. Oh and the knife fish that u have grows to aprox 50 cm.

 

[impur]

If you want to keep it, start looking in the classifieds and garage sales for ppl selling used tanks. You can usually score a 55 or 75 gal tank here for around 50 bucks. And they often come with everything you need except the stand. Occasionally you can get it all. This fish, unfortunately, will need about a 125 gal at minimum when full grown. I imagine it will out grow you tank in a few months. Best bet is to take it to a LFS and trade it for credit. Most good stores do this.

 

[mostanks]

Could anyone approx. how long before it would outgrow the 32 gallon? Maybe I could keep it for a while and save up for a larger aquarium

well lets see

once it's done eating-Current residents:

2 x Algae Eaters - pleco (think thats the term). Both under 6"
2 x Cory Cats - both around 1-2"
2 x Blue Gouramis - 3-4" (different markings, so guessing M/F pair)
1 x Yellow Gourami - 3-4"
1 x Lavendar Gourami - 4-5"
6 x Neon Tetras (was 7 when I went to bed last night)
5 x Zebra Danios

i say about 8 months to a yr depending on how big he is now