Worried About My Black Ghost Knife..

[sven_sol]

I'm a bit worried about my Ghostie, and I'm needing some help!

I've had my tank for 4 months and my BGK for about 2 months. I aquired the tank and quite a few fish (some of them 4 years old) and all the bits I could possibly need: food, treatments, filter, heater - all the price of a beer!

In the last week or so the BGK has grown.. and I mean grown!! It must have grown an inch (about 6 inched now) In the previos 2 months its been quite happy, swimming, eating and hiding... and I know that in about a year I'll have to upgrade the tank from the 70ltr I have now probably up to 70 Gallon.

So as you can tell, I'm a bit of a newbie so I'll probably be asking quite a few daft questions until I've finally got everything sorted

Anyway, back to the problem

1. The front fins look like they have become ruffled. (s)he has gaps in the fins and from what I have read myself it sounds like fin rott. Am I going to have to seperate him or is it safe treating it with the rest of my other fish? Do I need to remove the carbon filter too??

2. How quickly do these mature? Just read that 18" when mature - are we talking months or years?

Thanks everyone, all comments/help/flames are very much appreciated!

Sven

 

[loachylover]

Hi Sven_Sol

if i read your post right you have a 70 litre tank with a 6" BGK in it, that is far too small a tank for a fish that size,

1. The ripped/ruffeled fins can be caused by other tank mates (what other fish do you have in there?) or by rough edeges I.E rocks, unless the fins are a cloudy white where they are rotting away which could then be fin rot.

2. BGK's do get to 18" but that will take a good few years, right now there is every chance your BGK will become stunted due to living in such a small tank, that in turn can cause alot of suffering and premature death.

IMHO you really need to get the BGK into a much larger tank, and ensure it has no fin nipping tank mates

Hope this helps

 

[sven_sol]

Thanks LoachyLover

Yea, I know.. the tank is far too small but I hope to be getting a lot bigger one soon - just needed to know if it would be a problem for the next few months. ) Christmas is coming up and the bank account is straining. Need to wait up until about Feb/March before I could afford a new tank of the size that I need.

But, in answer to your points:

1. I have 2 Red Eye Tetra, 1 Silver Tiped Tetra, 4 Neons, a plec (don't know which one)(doenst eat much and is only about 3 or 4 inches long) and my BKG. I don't have any stones in there, sharp or otherwise, and they don't appear to have any cloudyness on them at all. The only fish that would even think about nipping is the Silver Tip. he chases the neons and the red eyes, but never the BGK, just too big for him I think.

2. So would you say I have got a few months then before I get a new tank or should I get the credit card out now and sell my soul to Mr Visa?!?

Cheers everyone!

 

[loachylover]

your BGK at 6" could make a snack of you neons. If you can i would advise getting a larger tank ASAP, you could go down the second hand route and pick up a nice 5 footer for really good money even that would be a bare minimum for a adult BGK, you have to remember if you were to get a new tank you will have to cycle it for over a month so it matures and is safe for fish, so if you waited till march it would be april or there abouts before you could add any fish. At the end of the day it is totally up to you, but you dont want the fish to suffer. If you have to keep the BGK in that tank please look at investing in a tube for it to hide/rest in. If you check through the oddball section you will see a post by "maryjason" showing her big BGK resting in it tube.

With regards to the fin problem, my BGK was fine untill i added a 1.5" jack dempsy, even at that size i found out it terrorized my 6" BGK (it had ripped fins also) so i quickly got rid of the jack dempsy. It most likely is one of your fin nipping tetra that is causing the problem.