Black Ghost Knife Tankmates?

[stang1]

I'm hoping at some point to set up my 5ft (137G) tank into a tropical and would love to create a biotope set around a BGK. I'm struggling to find what type of fish would be suited as I understand that the BGK prefers a fast flow.
I was hoping for a big shoal of Tetras and possibly a Cichlid of some type but can't find many that are in keeping with the BGK requirements.
Any ideas would be much appreciated?
Angie

 

[Davo86]

I'm hoping at some point to set up my 5ft (137G) tank into a tropical and would love to create a biotope set around a BGK. I'm struggling to find what type of fish would be suited as I understand that the BGK prefers a fast flow.
I was hoping for a big shoal of Tetras and possibly a Cichlid of some type but can't find many that are in keeping with the BGK requirements.
Any ideas would be much appreciated?
Angie

Hi Stang

this link may be of some help, it lists all of the freshwater species that are found in the Paraguay rivers in South America including the BGK

most notable species include Silver Dollars, gymnogeophagus sp, acara sp. marbled headstanders as well as a long list of tetras, corys, plecos and larger cats

Edit: there is also a lot of info about different biotopes aswell

 

[minxfishy]

So long as they are not small tetras like neons then tetras will be fine with them. Cichlids tend not to bother with BGKF and the ghost wont take much notice of the cichlids, some have had problems with Oscar sized cichlids though as they tend to grab the ghost by its tail and cause it some damage.

So I would say Severums should be the largest to go with them. Keyholes, rams, acaras would all be good with them, Ive personally kept mine with rams, germans and bolivians and geo's, acaras and for a while a Texas, although eventually my ghost had to be moved when the texas got too territorial.

 

[stang1]

Thanks to you both for your replies.
The problem I'm concerned about is water flow. I have a fast flowing tropical tank which houses mainly Plecs but I've tried a few Cichlids and they don't like the current.
I'm wondering how important the current is to the BGK and whether it would be happy with a normal flow?

 

[minxfishy]

Mine is perfectly happy with a normal flow, never had him in a tank with massive current.

 

[stang1]

Thanks Minx, that's what I'm hoping for.
I'm looking at adding my current pair of Keyhole Cichlids and also my Para Plec. I would love to add my Pristella Tetras but can almost read the "lunch" sign on them!

 

[Davo86]

Thanks to you both for your replies.
The problem I'm concerned about is water flow. I have a fast flowing tropical tank which houses mainly Plecs but I've tried a few Cichlids and they don't like the current.
I'm wondering how important the current is to the BGK and whether it would be happy with a normal flow?

at present My BGK's tank doesn't have much current at all, (filter outlet is fully submerged but with an air curtain running the length of the tank)
I have had it for about 16months now and will be soon upgrading to a 5foot tank

 

[minxfishy]

Thanks Minx, that's what I'm hoping for.
I'm looking at adding my current pair of Keyhole Cichlids and also my Para Plec. I would love to add my Pristella Tetras but can almost read the "lunch" sign on them!

There is a theory, that providing you get the ghost from small, it will be used to the smaller fish and wont ever see them as yum yums, because it maps it tankmates, decor etc with its electrical sense, the problem arises, when you add small fish once the ghost grows larger, because then anything it 'sees' swimming around that isnt familiar to them, has to something edible!

Im not familiar with pristellas, what size do they get to?

 

[stang1]

They only reach 4cm but they fitted in with my Keyhole Cichlids and I'm quite attached to them.

Pristella Tetra

 

[minxfishy]

Well its a risk, when small there is no chance the ghost could eat them, they have pretty small mouths, mine at 6" still has problems with a small piece of prawn, has to take it back to his cave and suck away for a while before it goes down. Obviously the larger the ghost, the larger the mouth. You could try it out and see how it goes, I personally would give it go (depending on the ghost size) and also ghosts are very slow growing, so it will take some time for it to reach the size where it will consider the pristellas food IMO.

 

[stang1]

Thanks again to you both.
The BGK will only be about 4" and I'm hoping to have plenty of plants in the tank. I would like to attempt adding both but wouldn't want the Tetras to get munched somewhere down the line.

 

[minxfishy]

As I said, slow growing and not to sound mean, by the time he reaches the size to consider them food, they probably wont be swimming around anymore

 

[stang1]

Does sound mean but it's a fact of life.
I think I may try it and see how things go.
Hoping to get things moving over the next couple of weeks so I'll let you know how I get on!

 

[Attilauk]

for a good looking fish that loves fast flowing current Denisons barbs are great.

mine pay no attention to the young BGK i have in my tank and fully grown they reach 6" so they are too big to be a snack

they do prefer cooler water but the temperature ranges of denisons barbs and bgk's cross over at 25 degrees, that what i keep my tank at

i also have tiger barbs, khuli loaches, a kribensis and a bn plec in there

 

[stang1]

Thanks Atilla.
I've had Denison Barbs before and they all died within two weeks. We had two filters, two airstones and two powerheads running in the tank but they still kept coming to the top for air. Water quality was perfect and I'm still not sure why we lost them.