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Common name: Clown Knife-fish

Scientific name: Notopterus chitala

 

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

 Class: Osteichthyes

Order: Osteoglossiformes

Family: Notopteruidea

Genus: Notopterus

Species: N. chitala

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The clown knife fish grows up to about 40’(I meter) but also can grow up to about 24’(60 cm). The homopterous eats a lot of stuff like cocktails, shrimp, bologna and a lot more. It prefers to eat living animals. Notopterus chitala has a long knife-like body and has six to seven dorsal fin rays to support the dorsal fin which is located in the middle.

 

The notpterus chitala can grow up to two feet long. Notopterus are found in a lot of places such as Asia, India, Thailand, Borneo Malaysia, and Sumatra. When notopterus are young they live in large numbers among submerged roots and water plants. They like the more peaceful parts of rivers and can be found in large areas of standing water. The aquarium for the knife-like should be large with a small grained substrate. It should be fairly densely planted with many floating plants.

 

The clown knife-fish is a nocturnal predator, it stays up during the night and kind of sleep during the day. Notopterus should look out for Oscars and most cichlids. Scientists say that knife-fish are the most aggressive fish ever seen. The Mayan Cichlid is his competition for its food, I thought it was weird because I thought that the Mayan cichlid eats notopterus too but it said that it eats shrimp and insects just like notopterus.

 

The thing that stood out and sounded interesting was that there were so many different colors, I thought that was amazing. I learned a lot about clown knife-fish, like about there breeding, how big they are, and how they survive in the ocean or in the tank. I’ am glad I picked a fish because when I grow up I would like to be a marine biologist so I can learn more about fish. It would be also cool if I would get to see it have babies.

 

Author: Jackie C.

Published: 02/2007

 

Bibliography: www.google.com www.ask.com www.aquahobby.com

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