Black ghost knife feeding

Hopefully I’m in the right sub

I worry my BGK doesn’t get enough food.
he’s in there with 4 blue rams 15 tetras and some not so fast fish. As you can imagine, I drop my bloodworms(1 thawed out cube) in next to him and by the time he’s worked out dinner is here the fish have swarmed the area and cleaned up nearly every bloodworm leaving him one or two of the not so juicy looking ones. I have tried hand feeding him but hes not used to me yet.

I’m now adding frozen bloodworms every day to get him fed but this can’t be good for my ecosystem. From what I have read, bloodworms are a treat 1-2 times a week for the usual community tank.


Does the BGK need feeding once a day?

How many bloodworms or how much of a cube they should be eating?

Can anybody recommend other foods to vary his diet a little bit. (I do feed some Miskito larvae too but it dirties the water a lot).

Thanks gang.

 

Get some feeding tongs and live worms. Not sure how big your ghost knife is but worms are generally well accepted by predatory fish. Blood worms will simply not cut it for a knife fish long term.

I hope you understand that black ghost knife fish are not going to stay small. They’ll need a big tank and are very capable of eating little schooling fish if they want to.

 

ya know hes gonna get to 18-20" long right? Just saying I hope ya got a big tank and don't like your GBRs and tetras too much.
they are nocturnal, and more active in the dark,

should really be eating something once or twice a day like any other fish really but carnivores mostly.

I'd probably turn out the lights, let everyone else take a nap and feed him in the dark. a varied diet of meaty things is best for the BGK. they need a lot more proteins than other fish do. if he's eating the Bloodworms, It's Ok, Bloodworms, black worms, insects and insect larvae, brine shrimp, small fish, larger fish when he gets bigger,

the bloodworm recommendation is mostly for community tanks and omnivores that don't need all the proteins. think of him more like a catfish, than a tetra.

the BGK, isn't a good fit for what you are doing, he's a total opposite of a community tank fish,. he's a nocturnal carnivore predator, No idea about the tank size, that's another issue for a later day.

 

ya know hes gonna get to 18-20" long right? Just saying I hope ya got a big tank and don't like your GBRs and tetras too much.
they are nocturnal, and more active in the dark,

should really be eating something once or twice a day like any other fish really but carnivores mostly.

I'd probably turn out the lights, let everyone else take a nap and feed him in the dark. a varied diet of meaty things is best for the BGK. they need a lot more proteins than other fish do. if he's eating the Bloodworms, It's Ok, Bloodworms, black worms, insects and insect larvae, brine shrimp, small fish, larger fish when he gets bigger,

the bloodworm recommendation is mostly for community tanks and omnivores that don't need all the proteins. think of him more like a catfish, than a tetra.

the BGK, isn't a good fit for what you are doing, he's a total opposite of a community tank fish,. he's a nocturnal carnivore predator, No idea about the tank size, that's another issue for a later day.

Thanks.

I have a 55G planted with lots of caves. I’m fully aware how big they get. I’m hoping to keep for 12 months before having to re home but we’ll see how it goes.

What would be the issue with the Rams? They only have scuffles between themselves.
The tetras are what’s left from a bigger school so the knife is welcome to them once he’s big enough.

while writing this I realised my light have turned off so just dropped in a couple of shrimp pellets and he swam over right away. Must just be too bright for him in the day.

Get some feeding tongs and live worms. Not sure how big your ghost knife is but worms are generally well accepted by predatory fish. Blood worms will simply not cut it for a knife fish long term.

I hope you understand that black ghost knife fish are not going to stay small. They’ll need a big tank and are very capable of eating little schooling fish if they want to.

Are we talking compost worms?

 

I have 4 BGK. there were abt 3inch long a year ago. now slightly doubled at 6to7 inches! dont think my BGK have any probems getting food. i feed them frozen boodworms 3 times a week and the rest of the days pellet food. they are always frantically moving around to eat as much as they can once i threw the food in. push the blood worms so that they sink as there are gouramis too in the tank and the will come to the surface and clear out the food on the top. so i push the worms in then at least the bottom dwellers have a bite too.

also instead of 2 feedings a day. i usually feed more per session so that the all get to eat. the ghost will continue to move around for food at the bottom.

 

Thanks.

I have a 55G planted with lots of caves. I’m fully aware how big they get. I’m hoping to keep for 12 months before having to re home but we’ll see how it goes.

What would be the issue with the Rams? They only have scuffles between themselves.
The tetras are what’s left from a bigger school so the knife is welcome to them once he’s big enough.

while writing this I realised my light have turned off so just dropped in a couple of shrimp pellets and he swam over right away. Must just be too bright for him in the day.

Are we talking compost worms?

He will eventually get big enough to eat the rams in the night just like the tetras, I suppose though the tetras would be the first to disappear so that's down the road some and you'll have that warning first it's coming.

Yeah, Feed as normal for the other fish, after the lights go out and everyone settles then feed the BGK and he should eat plenty.

naturally they rest during the day, and are active at night. You can break them of their normal cycle through hunger and stress to just eat whenever there's food available light on or off, but Ideally, If you feed him with the lights off, he'll eat like a pig in comfort and be happy.
If you start from about 2" size, they will take roughly 2 years with good feedings to reach maximum size of 18-20" or a little more. expect about 7" -10" in about a year unless he slows growth from not eating, or gets stunted from other issues along the way,

 

side question abt these BGK...is it true that if the tank they are in are small, they wont grow very big. meaning the max size is relative to the tank size?

 

side question abt these BGK...is it true that if the tank they are in are small, they wont grow very big. meaning the max size is relative to the tank size?

Technically, sometimes yes. But it’s due to something called stunting; growth impeded by a poor diet, poor living conditions, or they physically don’t have the room to grow. It’s horrible for any animal, it can cause their organs to not function right, their eyes can bulge because they don’t stop growing, they can develop crooked spines or jaws, and generally it’s painful and shortens their lifespan quite a lot. Also, it doesn’t happen every time.
Fortunately it can be fixable if they haven’t been stunted for very long…