Flower horn, tin foil barbs, and a clown knifefish

[luckyboy]

I recently acquired/rescued two 6" tin foil barbs, one 5" clown knifefish, and one 8" flowerhorn. Right now they are all in separate smaller tanks. If I set up a really large tank, could they all get along?

How about a large pleco in the mix?

Thanks.

[BrianNY]

It's actually a very good mix. Were they all in the same tank at one time? What size tank are you thinking of getting?

[WaterPond]

for those fish you will proably need 150gal+
Nice mix though if you like big fish. Good luck

[Stephen]

That setup will work fine, given their current sizes. If you add a pleco though, make sure it gets to eat. Those tinfoils are bottomless pits. Eventually, you'll need a really big tank to house all of them together.

[Idealconcepts]

Depending on the individual personality of each fish you could have problems, but the larger the tank the less likely their will be problems. The problem will more than likely come from your Flowerhorn and your Clown Knife. Flowerhorns have a strong tendency to be very aggressive to its tank mates. I had a little 4-5 inch one destroy a thermometer. In the wild the Clown Knife can get larger than 3ft, but in a home aquarium my guess is probably around 2.0-2.5 feet. You would probably need to get at least an 180gal (6x2x2) size tank to house all three together for life. You could get a smaller tank say a 125 or 135 and keep all three until the Clown Knife gets to about 18-20 inches at that point you would need to trade it into your LFS if they take trades or find another aquarist that would take it for you. You have the chance of putting them all in one tank and one day finding two dead fish and one greedily swimming around by himself. You are dealing with one fish that gets very large and one that can have the potential to be murder. My suggestion is get a 125 or 135, keep all three of them in there, but keep an eye on them and when problems arise or when the Clown Knife gets to 18 inches remove the Clown Knife and get a few more large tinfoil barbs.

[Toirtis]

Originally Posted by Idealconcepts

In the wild the Clown Knife can get larger than 3ft, but in a home aquarium my guess is probably around 2.0-2.5 feet.

No, easily 36" in home aquarium (seen it multiple times, done it twice personally), up to 48" in the wild....and at 28", they can easily swallow a 6" fish.

[Idealconcepts]

Toirtis - don't different species of clown knifes hit different max lengths? Like Aro's Silver will get to 48in but you won't see a Jardini Aro come close to that, maybe 36-40 inch.

[Toirtis]

Originally Posted by Idealconcepts

Toirtis - don't different species of clown knifes hit different max lengths?

Although there is only one 'clown knife', there are a few species within the genus, and they all have differing, although similar, adult sizes...

Chitala blanci 48"

Chitala chitala (clown knife): 48"

Chitala ornata: 40"

Chitala lopis: 50"

Chitala hypselonotus: 30"

Chitala borneensis: 15"

**note that the last three species are never seen in the aquarium hobby**