Ghsot knife fish!

[Shoto^Guy]

Okay, i i just bought some of this amazing fishes...im keeping them with my clown laoches, as well as tiger and rosy barbs..so far doing quite fine...but i heard they prefer live foods...i cant seem to find any live food that is smalle enuff to fee dhim though...coz my knifes fishes are kinda small size...abit longer than my tiger barbs...same size as my rosy and clown loaches....the tiger barbs did try to nip them, but after a while they dun bother since i have 10 of the tiger barbs, so after some time they just ignore them as well...just wondering how big can they get when full grown?

 

[Eelzor]

I have a ghost knife too. Amazing fish aren't they? But it says in your sig you have 5 ghost knives! The rule is only one per tank, because the weak electrical organ they use to find food can be interrupted by other ghost knives electric signals. As for your questions they get pretty big! And fast too! They get up to 24inches fully in the wild with good water conditions, but usually 12-18 inches in an aquarium. You said your ghost knifes are small - with live food expect them to be 8 inches each within a year. They don't need the live food although they like it better, I just use frozen ones. Any more questions or comments just post

 

[Shoto^Guy]

One per tank??? Oh man i have 5 of them...haha...I hope it wun affect their growth or whatsoever....maybe i can feed some live bloodworms or so...do they feed at other fishes as well???

 

[Eelzor]

It wont affect growth, just that the electrical signal gets interrupted. Just feed them bloodworms frozen or live.

do they feed at other fishes as well???

I didn't exactly get that question, did you mean do they eat other fish? Not really, if they are small enough to fit in the mouth I would say yes.

 

[Cian McLiam]

OMG! 5....
This is not a good plan, how big is the tank?? I would agree one per tank is best, and as pointed out, these fish get HUGE.
Here is a caution from a BGK owners web page:

CAUTION!!! Do not keep more than one of these in a tank at any one time, also do not mix with other electric fishes such as Elephant Noses. Their ability to emit a small electrical field aids these nearly blind fish in hunting for food, but can get confused if another electric generating fish is in the same tank. Also since this is a scaleless fish standard fish treatments for illness may not work and cause death of the Knife fish.

I hope the cowboy who sold them to you will take four of them back!

Ken

 

[Eelzor]

Point Prooven

 

[Shoto^Guy]

Eh there's no way i can retunr my fishes...hah...so i guess i just see how the 5 ghost fishes works in my tank...hah...but they dun stay toegther most of the time anyway...i have quite anumber of plants and they tend to hide in their respective locations, occasionally swim here and there, and hide again...the tiger barbs dun seem to bother about them also

 

[Eelzor]

Well, i suppose they won't die together, but if yu really can't change them, then you should get a big tank for them! and I mean big! When the time comes that it.

 

[Shoto^Guy]

Oh ???Does it take them fast or long to get big....was wondering if they will get big enough to actually eat my tiger barbs..haha..my tiger barbs are about the same size as them for now...

 

[Eelzor]

Soon enough the black ghost knifes will get so big, that they should only live with other big invertibrates (i.e -plecostumus's, black sharks, etc)

Edit: but im not exactly sure on the growth speed. Let just say until there mouths are big enough to engulf the other fish. Just think obviously. BGK's have big mouths too! Take them out when you think they are too big.

 

[Shoto^Guy]

Oh man...do they feed on shrimps as well?

 

[Eelzor]

Yes, they eat brine shrimp, frozen or live.

 

[CFC]

They will eat bigger shrimp than just brine shrimp, anything under 3" will make a tastey snack for a 8" BGK

Not that you need worry, with 5 in the tank (unless its 300 gallons plus) the fish wont survive long anyway, as already mentioned they use a electrical organ to find food and navigate around objects in the tank, if this is disturbed the fish become stressed and will probably die. Also live foods are a must until you can train tour bgk to take non live foods, they require their food to be moving to be able to locate it and since these fish have most likely been taken from the wild they will not have seen many pellet and flake foods

 

[Eelzor]

Uhh, well what I do is I put the food right in front of them so they find it immediatly. Works a charm . And If I put live food other fish get it before my bgk does, so yeah.

 

[Shoto^Guy]

They will get stressed? So far they are doing fine...they dun group together anyway.....and they do feed on my flakes and such...just wondering when will they get big...