Black Ghost Knife Diet

[nc_nutcase]

I just brought home a 4 inch Black Ghost Knife. He is in with two small (2 inch) Severums. They are in a 29 Gal with several options to move up into bigger tanks. The Sevs have/will have a base diet of cichlid pellets with frozen or live treats every 2nd or 3rd day. So far I’ve yet to see the BGK eat. What is a good base diet for him?

 

[FishHottieWithaBody]

Hey i too just bought a BGK today of about the same size and have the same question about their diet. Mine is in my 55 gal with just a small fire eel. And also mine will not seem to leave from the side of the heater i was wondering if anyone knows what to do ass we do have a cave for him. Any suggestions will help. thanks.

 

[Eelzor]

I have made an index about them here.

Concerning foods, they will thoughroughly accept bloodoworms, however in my experiences some can be outgoing, aggressive and easy to feed, however some can be reclusive, hide a lot and you have to put bloodworms in there cave.

Test around and see what your BGK personality is. With foods - bloodworms/blackworms are premium and flakes can sometimes be accepted.


FishHottie, concerning your bgk hanging around the heater - mine used to do that and they usually do that when there is not enough areas to hide. Although you have said to put a cave in the tank, sometimes one is not enough to find and settle in. Perhaps put plants fake/real and ornaments around the tank and I have found that this boosts their confidence greatly. If you see my tank in my gallery, (in my sig) you will find that I have used bogwood, plants, java moss and floating surface plants all to keep my bgk's feeling safe.

HTH

 

[nc_nutcase]

I've had them before years ago but forget what to do regarding food (plus chances are I didn't educate myself on them at the time).

As far as hiding goes... many people put PVC pipe or something equivalent. Personally I don’t want a piece of pipe in my tank. I have 25% of my tanks floor space planted with one plant stem in each square inch. Last night he had a blast swooping around the plants. During the day he sits in a piece of lava rock that has a hole in it. As long as your has cover available, I wouldn't worry if he doesn't use it.

I would double check your aquariums temperature though. He may be lingering by the heater because he's cold. I read up on them pretty good before I bought mine. I read they prefer temps in the high 70s to 80F. I keep all my tropical tanks at 80.5

Most profiles I see have pretty generic foods listed usually consisting of all live food. I have no problem feeding them live foods as a ‘treat’ but I want something practical such as pellets or flakes or something comparable for his base diet.

 

[FishHottieWithaBody]

Actually im sitting there watchin a movie with all the lights off and he has finally left the heater, he moved over to a cave i have made out of two pieces of slate rainbow rock, and yes i also have another cave in there and multiple plants. I again tried to put some bloodworms (frozen) in the cave he went to, since the danios and ghost shrimp had already devoured the other ones from earlier but im not sure he is eating them, the shrimp and fish most certainly are though, and my tank is 78 degrees so i think that would be ok if he continues to hang there perhaps i shall go up to 80. thanks for all the help and anyone more is always welcome.

 

[FishHottieWithaBody]

hey to all BGK owners i have discovered again that mine really seems to enjoy eating the ghost shrimp that are supposed to clean my tank, but for some reason he wont eat the tails, luckily my fire eel handles those. Hope that helps, he only seems to eat them at night of course.

 

[BlueRam22]

I've had my BGK for a little over a month now. He absolutely loves frozen blood worms. I also feed him brine shrimp. Maybe some of you could try greens such as cabbage and lettuce mine loves to eat those, they are like treats for him. As far as the hiding goes mine use to hide in a hole at the base of the driftwood. Now, he is always out in the open even during the day. It will take them a while to get use to the light and their surrondings until then they will hide.

 

[nc_nutcase]

Just an update for anyone else who has the same question I had a week ago.

My BGK has established a home in a piece of lava rock with a hole through it. He is currently about 4.5 inches long, justa baby. He spends all day in one rock and at night switches to a different lava rock on the other side of the tank. Naturally at night he also searches the aquarium for food.

So what I started doing is when it's time to turn the lights off, I sink a cube of frozen brine shrimp (will rotate to offer variety) near his evening dwelling rock. For the last couple nights this has worked excellent. The Severums get a treat as it's on it's way down, and the BGK always finds the pile of shrimp and pigs out. Even after just a few days of this method I can see him starting to get a little pug in his belly.

Also, it's worth mentioning... I have about 2 dozen guppies in the tank and several of them have had fry since I got the BGK & Sevs. Mysteriously there aren’t any fry left in the tank...

Toby

 

[troutfly]

I have had 3 BGK's in the past, right now I have a 5" BGK in a 55gal. and "it" seems very happy to hide inside one of the castle that i have in my tank, after I turn out one of the light banks, "it" pokes "it's" head out looking to see what is going on. I then feed "it" half a cube of freeze dried tube worms, "it" quickly gobbles it up leaving the scrapes for my 2 Congo Tetras to pick up.

So, having 2 BGK's isn't a problem in a 55gal. ? I heard that unless you had over 125gal., 2 of them would be unwise, does anyone have any idea if this is true or not?

 

[nc_nutcase]

I mixed two in a 55 Gal years ago and one was pretty quickly killed. It was housed with other cichlids so who killed 'it' remains unanswered. Although it's worth mentioning that the other BGK, which was the same size, lived with the cichlids for at least a year...

 

[troutfly]

Thanks NC - I will look into that, cichlids usually dispatch other tank mates anyway. I used to breed Jacks and Firemouths. I would house one male and two feamles in a 29gal.(US) by them selves. They usually produced about 200 fry for each pair.