Knife fish not eating

[Turk1509]

Hi, long time observer of MFK, first time posting - i tried searching but I can’t find answers relevant as most of the answers seem to be around initial settling of fish

I have two albino clown knife fish around 35cm, I have had them for a bout 6 month's they have been together since they were young. They have even excellent eaters on thawed prawns for me

Of late, last 3-4 weeks, they have slowed down in eating, going from around half a large prawn each a day regardless if the lights were on to 1/4 of a prawn each.. but of the last 3 days they haven’t eaten at all

I’ve checked water, ph is 6.8, temp is 28, kh of 2 deg, gh of 5 deg, ammonia 0, nitrites 0

Everyone else in the tank is eating - silver Arowana, ID catfish, Senegalese bichir, small Adonis. I had some pacus that were stressing out everyone in the tank but they have been gone for a couple of weeks now

The clown knives look fine, they come out of their hide when ever it’s dark, and even were low level sparring with each other while I watched the other day

I have different pellets tried pellets from hikari to otohime, feeding with the lights off at night but still haven’t had them eat any suggestions would be great

thanks in advance

 

[RyanScanner]

Are you supplementing with vitachem? Thawed prawn only have a lot thiminase which is a vitamin B anti nutrient. It leads to a slow death via vitamin B deficiency.

 

[Turk1509]

Oh wow I had no idea 🥲

I can get some, any suggestions on what to do for now going forward?

 

[RyanScanner]

I only have one ghost knife but I make my own food using a blender. Blanched spinach, algae and carnivore pellets, dried krill, dried black worms, vitachem, frozen prawns and mussels, and gelatine to bind it. I put it in old blood worm packets to portion it and just put it in frozen. They go wild for it and doesn’t make much mess.

 

[RyanScanner]

You can put paprika and turmeric powder to enhance colours too.

One afternoon of purchasing & prep and 20mins to make. Now you have months of nutritional varied food they have no choice but to eat it all instead of being picky if you feed all those things individually.

 

[Turk1509]

Thank for that, I will look at making that.. is is all equal parts?
Are mussels and scallop the same as the prawns?

 

[RyanScanner]

It’s up to you honestly I just throw it altogether. The more gelatine you use the less chance it will break apart plus its protein. I didn’t really look up optimal percentages but it was like 60-70% protein (prawn, mussels and dehydrated black worms). Rest spinach, algae, spirulina. I also put garlic guard, Boyd’s Vitachem freshwater, paprika, turmeric. I made a very thick gelatine mix warmed up with water from cold, and just poured it into the blender as it was going until it became semi gelatinous so it would be solid once fully cooled but still pourable. Left in fridge to set then wrapped it and froze it.

 

[RyanScanner]

I also feed frozen blood worms soaked in garlic guard and vitachem every few days and live compost worms (I live in a desert so no garden worms) once every week.