Other fish too fast for me to feed the knifefish

Ok so I picked up a Black Ghost Knife last week and her new home is my 130gal community tank. As of right now she is far too small to eat any of the other fish (about 4 inches) I know once she gets big the possibility of the Danios becoming food is pretty good but that should be a ways off and if it happens oh well. Like I said though there are quite a few faster fish in the tank and by the time she comes out of hiding at feeding times the food is pretty much all gone. I try to feed the rest of the tank flake and cichlid pellets at one end and drop a pinch of pellets at the end where she hides but I've only seen her get a few pellets and a couple times I stuck half a bloodworm cube under a ledge so it wouldn't float up and left my arm in to try to keep the others away (something she was fine with and ate.) The other thing I've tried is after the lights have been out for about a half hour and everyone is going to sleep, she comes out and hangs out at one end in the current while most of the fish sleep at the other end, dropping food in at that end but for the most part the current pushes the food to toward the center of the tank.

I wanted to see what you guys thought about me possibly getting a pvc tube in the corner where she hangs out at night and using it as a feeding tube to drop food all the way to the bottom (past the Danios who carpet the surface at night) in the corner where she hangs out at night. Has anyone done this? I've seen the ring like in the other recent post but the Danios would have that sucker empty before she even made it out of hiding...

The only picture I have at the moment since somehow I never grab my camera fast enough when she's out while the lights are on...
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Do not let the small size of the ghost fool you. They are night hunters and quite capable of taking out good size fish. They hunt with a low level electrical charge. I had a 5" black ghost that cleaned out most of a tank in a matter of days. It was fine till it hit 5" long.

Best wishes.

 

Do not let the small size of the ghost fool you. They are night hunters and quite capable of taking out good size fish. They hunt with a low level electrical charge. I had a 5" black ghost that cleaned out most of a tank in a matter of days. It was fine till it hit 5" long.

Best wishes.

I'm fairly new to them but it is my understanding that the electrical charge they use is more for navigation (kinda like a type of sonar) and not an actual weapon. Also in general fish don't eat fish that don't fit in their mouth and none of my fish are near small enough.

 

I'm fairly new to them but it is my understanding that the electrical charge they use is more for navigation (kinda like a type of sonar) and not an actual weapon. Also in general fish don't eat fish that don't fit in their mouth and none of my fish are near small enough.

Yes it hunts with it in the dark. The other fish can not see it coming. The idea that fish do not eat fish that do not fit in their mouths if incorrect. A betta will happily kill and eat neon tetras that are nipping its fins. I am not home now but later I will post some old film shots that show the powerful jaws of the ghost that I had.

 

Not to be argumentative but comparing a betta to a the knife is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Yes they're both fish. The difference is the knife is a peaceful fish that is predatory, the betta is an aggressive fish that will kill another fish just to do it. And once a fish is dead most fish will take the free meal. The betta wasn't hunting when it killed the tetra and I'm sure the rest of the tetras came in and finished off their buddy once he was dead. The knife on the other hand only kills what its planning on eating. That's not to say that the knife isn't capable of killing larger fish and that it doesn't happen but most fish won't resort to larger prey than will fit in their mouth until they are desperately hungry...

 

I love black ghost knives!

 

Not to be argumentative but comparing a betta to a the knife is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Yes they're both fish. The difference is the knife is a peaceful fish that is predatory, the betta is an aggressive fish that will kill another fish just to do it. And once a fish is dead most fish will take the free meal. The betta wasn't hunting when it killed the tetra and I'm sure the rest of the tetras came in and finished off their buddy once he was dead. The knife on the other hand only kills what its planning on eating. That's not to say that the knife isn't capable of killing larger fish and that it doesn't happen but most fish won't resort to larger prey than will fit in their mouth until they are desperately hungry...

Ok. I can only tell you what I have seen happen. It is up to to make your own judgement.

 

Alright so back to my original reason for creating the thread...

Here's the tube I took a grand total of 10 mins cutting the pvc and making a little hook to hang it on the tank. I tried it out about a half hour after I turned out the lights I went out and dropped a some blood worms and a couple cichlid pellets down the tube and she chowed down on them.



As long as the others don't realize that food comes out of there it works.

 

That is a very cool idea.

 

Not to be argumentative but comparing a betta to a the knife is kind of like comparing apples to oranges. Yes they're both fish. The difference is the knife is a peaceful fish that is predatory, the betta is an aggressive fish that will kill another fish just to do it. And once a fish is dead most fish will take the free meal. The betta wasn't hunting when it killed the tetra and I'm sure the rest of the tetras came in and finished off their buddy once he was dead. The knife on the other hand only kills what its planning on eating. That's not to say that the knife isn't capable of killing larger fish and that it doesn't happen but most fish won't resort to larger prey than will fit in their mouth until they are desperately hungry...

I don't know where to begin on how wrong you are.

I've seen far too many tails sticking out of fish's mouths because the prey will not physically fit any further into the predator's stomach. Predatory fish do not plan on eating anything. They are opportunistic. That's one of the reasons we don't overfeed fish. They will keep on eating past the point of satiation.

The electric field of BGK's is not just for navigation, it's used in a similar manner to sonar to track prey movements. They are nocturnal predators - and very good ones. While they are peaceful, beautiful fish, I wouldn't want to be in a tank with one if I was less than 2" long. I'd put money on the guppies going first.

As for the tube feeding. It's a great idea but will not stop your BKG from indulging its predatory instincts.

And yes, I have kept BKGs - and suffered the losses.

 

I've read a lot of completely different experiences about bgk's and it appears that they are about as diverse as people are. I've read reports from 12" knives that won't bother tetras to 6" ones that clear out a tank in a matter of days. I guess I'll soon see where my experience lands within those results. At the moment at roughly 4" none of the fish seem too worried about her. The Danios don't bother schooling, something they do more and more when threats are present. They swim right next to her when she's out and about and even in and out of her cave while she's in there. If little ones start to go missing I'll change my plans.