Some General Questions About Bgk And Some Others

[nInfan1990]

me and my girlfriend (mewmew42) have recently bought a tank (about 4 weeks ago, we cycled it with fish for about 2 weeks) the fish we cycled using were silver-tipped tetras and theyre still doing brilliantly to this day! very energetic, now we have just bought a black ghost knifefish and an albino redfinned shark (these are our personal ones mainly, the redfinned is hers and the black ghost is mine), the red-finned seems to love the environment (at least i think so) but the black ghost is having trouble feeding at the moment, now i do exhibit a grave error on my part, as the girl in the shop told us they would work well with tropical flakes, til i got home and realised they eat meat, i also didnt realise they would need a seperate living space because we already have quite a lot of hiding places really.

Here are some details from my observations:

BGK (Nickname: Plox) Day: usual signs for a nocturnal fish, doesnt move much and wont feed, but thats for obvious reasons as im getting bloodworms later today so that should be sorted, it doesnt have a hidey hole yet, so i shall be buying it a tube like structure for it to hide in.

Night: comes out to explore a little bit more but otherwise stays (and heres the weird part...) behind the filter, this is also where it stays during the day, (is this normal, I'd have thought it was because it is giving off a weak electrical current and it likes the vibrations or something)

Albino redfin shark: day and night: moves around the tanks glass edge a lot, kind of like its racing about the aquarium, eats fish flakes with no problem and doesnt cause much of a disturbance really. I have been noticing it has been sharing the BGK's hiding place behind the filter and they seem to get along fine in there little space, although this particular fish has taken up residence in a little castle that we have (It even takes the ramp to get into it! XD, very good etiquette!) and it is in there right now, i think, but if it isnt its darting about the glass edge in the middle zone of the tank and the bottom.

Silverfin tetras (6 of them): these are exhibiting no problematic behaviour whatsoever!

Now we do have a 48 litre/10 gallon aquarium, and im perfectly aware that i will soon need to move my black ghost to its own tank (which i will definitely be doing as i love it to bits!) but for now it seems fine where it is (bar food and hiding places which is going to be sorted within the day)

I'm just wondering, is all of this behaviour normal?

 

[Colin_T]

Yep, black ghost knife fish are nocturnal and will hide during the day and come out at night. If the tank is heavily planted and has lots of hiding places, then they will sometimes come out during the day.
They will eat anything when they have become used to it but normally they are fed meat based foods like brineshrimp, bloodworms, prawn fish, earthworms, etc.

Rainbow sharks become territorial as they mature. One in a tank should be fine but they often fight if you have two.

Filters take about a month to develop properly and by adding new fish (Black Ghost and shark) you will be adding more load to the tank. Monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels closely and if they go above 1ppm then do a water change each day until they have come back down.
Black Ghosts are sensitive to chemicals and will suffer badly if you overdose with medications or if there is an ammonia or nitrite reading.

 

[nInfan1990]

Yep, black ghost knife fish are nocturnal and will hide during the day and come out at night. If the tank is heavily planted and has lots of hiding places, then they will sometimes come out during the day.
They will eat anything when they have become used to it but normally they are fed meat based foods like brineshrimp, bloodworms, prawn fish, earthworms, etc.

Rainbow sharks become territorial as they mature. One in a tank should be fine but they often fight if you have two.

Filters take about a month to develop properly and by adding new fish (Black Ghost and shark) you will be adding more load to the tank. Monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels closely and if they go above 1ppm then do a water change each day until they have come back down.
Black Ghosts are sensitive to chemicals and will suffer badly if you overdose with medications or if there is an ammonia or nitrite reading.

Great! thanks a lot i woke up this morning and found plox with a new daytime hiding place underneath the novelty castle because its darkest in there, it also ate flakes at about 4 this morning, i guess it just wanted to eat at night... lol

 

[minxfishy]

Mine is pretty active during the day, especially if he hears/feels any vibrations around the tank, he pops out to make sure no food has been put in

To feed your ghost, try to put the bloodworm, prawn etc near to his hidey hole to ensure the other fish dont eat it first, as they cant see, he wont stand a chance otherwise until he recognises the food you are putting in. The more he gets used to your hands being in the tank the better as slowly he will come to associate your hand with food, so as he does this, you can move you hand with the food in further to the surface, until he eventually hand feeds and will come up as soon as you open the top of the tank to feed.