I bought a new knife yesterday.I think that it is a clow/royal knife it has stripes like a royal but also has the exact same spot pattern as a clown. I will get a pic. as soon as he comes out of hiding.Suprisingly enough he has already made friends with my other knifes. They kind of protect him cause he is still small. I would have never expected to see this happen.They killed all smaller clowns I bought.So he was the last try.Allthough I'm not exactally sure if one of the others died because of attacks. I think that he was ill when I bought him.I lost my fav kife a few months ago during the big change. He was 14" long. :banghead: I didn't get to take any pictures of him, he died before I bought my digi cam.So anyway the question is has anyone seen hybrids like this?I'll get a picture in the morning he's sleeping right now.

thats weird I have never heard of this I cant wait for a pic.

ok couldn't wait till morning here it is.

sorry crappy pic had to use flash.

How big is he??? Some clowns don't lose their baby patterns until much later in their growth. Mine had his baby stripes until he was 4 inches, then he lost em form one week to the next.

Very nice! Try taking the pic parallel, or from directly above, not on an angel!
Just some advice! :P What a nice looking fish though!

ive never seen a knife like that before....

Young chitala blanci! Nice young royal knife indeed.

When younger these knives have a series of stripes and spots to help them hide in dappled light patches in weeds so that they can avoid the attention of predators. As they grow older these fish lose much of their patterning except on the edge of their anal fin. There is no set patterning for these fish, some have only stripes, others have massive numbers of spots with relatively few stripes.

Knives are patriachal for the most part so males fight like cat and dog where as females and male or female groups are fine.

Also this knife may as yet be too small to pose a threat to the dominate male so it is ignored for the most part until he does become a threat, just be prepared to move him if need be.

That would be a nice looking knifefish if he kept his stripes o.o

He's about 5" now.Here is a better picture.

hopefully he'll keep his stripes.

WOW i havent seen one like that either! I prefer the black ones look heaps better but that still looks gorgeous. That obiously has to be crossed with some other fish. :unsure:

Nice fish. It deffinatley does look like a royal/clown cross.

I highly doubt that it is a hybrid fish, most knives can't be bred in the home aquarium at all, and i've never heard of a hybrid knife before.

Most royal knives have numerous spots on them especially when younger to help them camoflague themselves, but anyway im not gonna go into that as ive already covered that section.....

ditto oddball...he is correct.

Sweet didnt know that.

Where do they breed them??

Adult knives are bred in farms after they have been injected with hormones, this is a common practice, even with more common fish ssuch as the red tail black shark. Most of the rarer knives are simply caught and shipped from the wild.