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i bought a clown knife about a week ago and put him into a tank with a young arowana, black ghost knife, and sun catfish. i've tried feeding him a variety of foods (hikari carnivore pellets, wardley cichlid pellets, wardley shrimp pellets, bloodworms, tropical flakes, and frozen brine shrimp) but he won't eat any of them. all the other fish in the tank are feeding very actively (especially when it's dark), and i've spoken to the lfs people who say he was feeding really well before i bought him (and he was really fat when i got him too...)
could he just be stressed from the move?
water conditions:
ph - 7.2
ammonia - 0
nitrIte - 0
nitrAte - less than 0.1

how big is the tank?

they are in a 55gal right now, but i will be upgrading that to at least a 180 within about 4 months (saving money up right now...) all told - the arowana is about 10", the bgk about 6", suncat 4" and clown knife 4" so size isn't an issue at this point (yes, i realize they will get much bigger) there are lots of hiding spots and everyone pretty much keeps to themselves. in fact - the suncat and bgk stick exclusively to the right 1/3rd of the tank, and the clown never ventures out of the left 1/3rd (note nobody ever goes into the middle)

The real trick when purchasing a new Knife fish is to take a test of the store water that the trop was doing well in and duplicate your tank water to that environment...

The Clown Knife can be real fussy when transferred to a different tank with different water quality even though the trop was acclimated carefully.

If I were you I'd take a trip to the store and test the same water that your Knife fish came from to get an idea how far off your water quality is from the tank that the fish was in.

There's also a chance the Arowana may be posing a problem if the Arowana tends to be aggressive. Remember, the last trop in the tank is almost always picked on by the already established trops.

A trop that will not eat is e to all kinds of problems so a remedy, if water quality is a problem, must be accomplished soon.

--garyroland.

surprisingly, my arowana is really gentle. she 'hovers' at the top all day long minding her own business (i know cause i spend lots of time watching the tank in the day and when it's dark and she's never showed any aggressive behaviour). water quality is almost the same between my place and the lfs (only real difference is my ph is 7.2 and the lfs has 7.0) the water there may be a bit softer, i'm not sure, but they use city water and i only live a short way away from the store. when i introduced my bgk he started eating within the first day and i got him from the same place as the clown.
i dont' know... guess i'll just have to keep trying - i dont' have anywhere else i can put him till he starts eating either, so hopefully he'll smarten up

4 months may be pushing it for your arrowanna, even now at 10" a 55 gallon is probably not ideal. Depending on the type of arrowanna you have, they can reach up to 4 feet in length. 180 gallons is NOT enough, a lot of sources suggest 500 gallons for keeping them permanently. The clown knife will also reach close to 1 metre in length, so 180 gallons is not nearly enough long term for it either. The sun catfish and BGK both reach about 18" as well, so they're not small fishies either. If you keep all of them in the 55, even for 4 months until you can get the 180, they will stunt.

Like gary said a lot of fish can go off of food if they get stressed out for any reason. Your arrowana may not be a real threat to the clown knife, but if you were 4" fish and there was a big 10" predator hovering over your head all the time you'd probably get stressed out too.

Did you ask the LFS what they were feeding him? Sometimes they won't take anything but live food when they're purchased.

i'm aware of the size that all the fish can get.

about food - the lfs i buy from only feeds tropical flakes and pellets to their fish - very rarely feeder fish (and then only guppies to their polypterus and oscars and other carnivores) i know that they were feeding flakes to the clown.

If you took the time to acclimate the Knife correctly, the fish should start to eat again...

Most trops will eventually feed when hungry enough if internal parasites are not a problem.

--garyroland.

I would suggest you try to feed it some live foods. It may be the only chance you get for it to eat. Also, while many of the clown knifes eat prepared or frozen foods while young, they usually will stop eating it as they grow larger. I have never seen or heard of a full grown over 2 foot clown knife that would take anything other than live foods. Just letting you know in advance, so you are prepared.

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There is always a bigger fish...

if there is nothing wrong with the fish (internal paracites) it will eat when it gets hungry enough.

Actually Vic, many times fish will not eat for many different reasons, other than illness. Stress is one of the biggest factors. And, some fish will not eat anything but live foods, no matter how hungry they get.

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There is always a bigger fish...

I would be rather skeptical about the store feeding flakes/pellets and being accepted by the Knife...

Live foods, as the Rainman points out, is real tempting to the Knives and many of their species and may indeed be the remedy.

--garyroland.

SUCCESS!!! i took acidrain's advice and picked up about a dozen feeder guppies and he started to eat immediately!!! YAY!!! (is it a bad thing that he ate all of them?? oh well - now i have to invest in some guppies to breed feeders.... the kribs aren't cooperating...
i went back to the lfs and talked to the fish guy again and he confirmed that they were successfully feeding the tank (which included at various times: arowana, bala and irridescent sharks, bgk, clown knifes and raphaels) a selection of dried and frozen foods - primarily frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, and tropical flakes and pellets

Most fish stores can supply all the feeder gups you need at a reasonable price...

You may wish to limit the number of gups you feed until you find a good balance and proper growth of the Knife.

--garyroland.

the only place that has feeder guppies sells them for $0.40 each. cheap, sure - but like everyone says - you dont' know where they come from, what diseases they carry... etc... and it'll be cheaper and better for me to just breed my own i think. besides - i have lots of fish that will enjoy a live treat!