# New addition to the tank!



## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

So me and my girlfriend stopped by the LFS today, and picked up this guy! 






































We haven't measured him and neither had the LFS because they had gotten him only 4 days ago as a donation from a guy who had him for over 2 years. But our guess is that he is around 9 to 10 inches. He is huge! Anyways, we've already researched a lot about the BGK but of course any tips or info you might have would be helpful.


Enjoy the pics! (Dont know why the last pic is tiny)

oh, and Happy New Year says the girlfriend lol


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> So me and my girlfriend stopped by the LFS today, and picked up this guy!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


He looks good. Probably somewhere around 2-3 years old. The main thing to remember is that they need somewhere to hide. Floating plants will make them want to come up more as well as they block out light. Make sure your temperature is between 77-80 degrees and that your ph is between 6.5 and 7.5. If you have any other questions just let me know. Also, if you ever treat the tank make sure to use everything at half strength since Black Ghost Knives are scaleless fish.


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## lmb (Nov 1, 2011)

Nice looking Knife!

What size tank is it in??


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

lmb said:


> Nice looking Knife!
> 
> What size tank is it in??


I forgot to ask that. The minimum tank size for life is 75 gallons, but 100 or larger is better.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> He looks good. Probably somewhere around 2-3 years old. The main thing to remember is that they need somewhere to hide. Floating plants will make them want to come up more as well as they block out light. Make sure your temperature is between 77-80 degrees and that your ph is between 6.5 and 7.5. If you have any other questions just let me know. Also, if you ever treat the tank make sure to use everything at half strength since Black Ghost Knives are scaleless fish.





lmb said:


> Nice looking Knife!
> 
> What size tank is it in??


Ok cool. Yeah they said he was probably around that age.

Water is at 79 right now. ph is good, and he is currently in a 75 gallon.

Right now we have a few rocks stacked up making a "homemade cave" and he seems to like it. What are some good floating plants?


We plan to get a bigger aquarium soon. Almost bought a 240g yesterday lol but we are moving in the summer so were gonna wait a bit on a bigger tank.

Thanks for the tips!


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## DeborahP (Nov 8, 2011)

Beautiful ghost knife! We had one almost that big last year..he outgrew the tank, so we donated him back to the LFS where he found an immediate home! Love watching them swim..the ripple movement. Enjoy!


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> Ok cool. Yeah they said he was probably around that age.
> 
> Water is at 79 right now. ph is good, and he is currently in a 75 gallon.
> 
> ...


Any plastic plant will do since they all float and this is what I use. If you feed properly (flakes, tubifex worms, bloodworms, and beef heart) he'll grow 1/4" to 3/4" a month.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

DeborahP said:


> Beautiful ghost knife! We had one almost that big last year..he outgrew the tank, so we donated him back to the LFS where he found an immediate home! Love watching them swim..the ripple movement. Enjoy!


The poor thing was sharing a 20 gallon with a tiger shovelnose catfish that was about 9 inches as well. Poor things were cramped up in there! I was more than happy to get him out of there, he seems much happier now that he can swim around freely.



Ghost Knife said:


> Any plastic plant will do since they all float and this is what I use. If you feed properly (flakes, tubifex worms, bloodworms, and beef heart) he'll grow 1/4" to 3/4" a month.




Alright cool. Right now we have him on bloodworms, but ill probably get more stuff to change up his variety.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> The poor thing was sharing a 20 gallon with a tiger shovelnose catfish that was about 9 inches as well. Poor things were cramped up in there! I was more than happy to get him out of there, he seems much happier now that he can swim around freely.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you get the frozen beef heart cubes you can teach them to eat from your hand. I was able to do this with my first two Ghost Knives, but I haven't tried with my present as he is only about 3.5", but he was less than 2" when I got him.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> If you get the frozen beef heart cubes you can teach them to eat from your hand. I was able to do this with my first two Ghost Knives, but I haven't tried with my present as he is only about 3.5", but he was less than 2" when I got him.


Yea im hoping I can get him to eat from my hand! Cant wait!


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

awesome fish! you should start uploading more pics of your tank. especially with your new co2 system. tracking growth, ect...


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

grogan said:


> awesome fish! you should start uploading more pics of your tank. especially with your new co2 system. tracking growth, ect...


I will soon, im still making alot of changes! About the co2, I finally got it at a steady rate lol thanks again for the help with that btw. 


But as far as plants go, a few I had were overrun by bba and were dying. So I trashed them and im gonna try and battle the small amount of bba left. Once I get control of it im gonna purchase more plants. Oh and im gonna probably try a DIY light hanger to raise my light higher to help control the algae growth.


I think im getting the hang of the plant thing though.


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## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

thats awesome! Glad I could help. Bba is a royal PITA. Im sure you will be able to beat it.


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## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

That's a really nice looking BGK. I used to have one when I was a kid in a 20g. I didn't know any better. It was really fun to watch. Maybe one day when I get a bigger tank I'll get one. I used to have a plastic tube and it would hide in there. You can probably paint one up to look like a rock or find a rock or wood type of tunnel. Maybe even a pleco cage with both ends opened up. 

Would also love to see more pics of your tank.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

So the BGK has been shy for the past week since he has been moved into our aquarium. But he is definitely opening up a lot!

He has been swimming around a lot, I purchased one of those terrarium plants and trashed the plant, cleaned up the plastic tubing it was in and used it as a cave for him and he LOVES it! He is in it most of the day, I can tell he feels safe in it. He definitely made it his own because a few fish have tried swimming through and he will quickly shove them out. 


Besides him swimming around a lot, the most exciting thing (for me at least) happened today. Feeding time!! 

Usually he was shy and would wait for the worms to drop and scatter, then he would come out and pick at them one by one taking his time.


Until today, I thawed some out and threw a cube in. Before the worms could even untwine..... GULP!!! He just ate that thing up NOM NOM NOM NOM!!! lol it was so cool!!


Yea, I feel like a kid right now 


Oh yea, forgot to mention. About his new home, I laid a piece of rock over his tube to darken things up a bit for him as well as some plants in-between the rock and tube, so not only does he feel secure, but the rock and plant keeps the light at a minimum just for him!


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> So the BGK has been shy for the past week since he has been moved into our aquarium. But he is definitely opening up a lot!
> 
> He has been swimming around a lot, I purchased one of those terrarium plants and trashed the plant, cleaned up the plastic tubing it was in and used it as a cave for him and he LOVES it! He is in it most of the day, I can tell he feels safe in it. He definitely made it his own because a few fish have tried swimming through and he will quickly shove them out.
> 
> ...


Sounds good. I bought my third one about 2 months ago and he was not quite 2" and now he's already over 4". I've also started hand feeding him beefheart every few days by hand. I did this with my first two and they ate out of hands until the day they died. If you were curious my first one died when the tank busted and my second one died after it quickly contracted some type of disease. I am hoping keep this one alive for more than a couple years.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> Sounds good. I bought my third one about 2 months ago and he was not quite 2" and now he's already over 4". I've also started hand feeding him beefheart every few days by hand. I did this with my first two and they ate out of hands until the day they died. If you were curious my first one died when the tank busted and my second one died after it quickly contracted some type of disease. I am hoping keep this one alive for more than a couple years.


oh no how sad, how did it bust?? Were hoping to keep ours alive for awhile too!


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2012)

Nice looking BGK. I saw one just like it at Farmland and it was sitting there but it was moving like rippling. It was cool to see.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> oh no how sad, how did it bust?? Were hoping to keep ours alive for awhile too!


It was a used 135 gallon tank and one day while I was at work it split diagonally across the middle of the glass and this was after it has been up and running for a few months. My wife was at home pregnant and actually saved about 80% of the fish in the tank, but I lost my 12" Ghost Knife and my 10" Rope Fish when that happened. The worst part is that the water went across my house and ruined my carpet in my bedroom, but I hate carpet anyway and used the insurance money to put down wood floors.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> It was a used 135 gallon tank and one day while I was at work it split diagonally across the middle of the glass and this was after it has been up and running for a few months. My wife was at home pregnant and actually saved about 80% of the fish in the tank, but I lost my 12" Ghost Knife and my 10" Rope Fish when that happened. The worst part is that the water went across my house and ruined my carpet in my bedroom, but I hate carpet anyway and used the insurance money to put down wood floors.



Dam, thats sucky! Well hopefully your current BGK lives its full life!


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> Dam, thats sucky! Well hopefully your current BGK lives its full life!


I hope so too.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Sorry if you've already said this, but do you feed your BGK every day?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> Sorry if you've already said this, but do you feed your BGK every day?


I feed all of my fish twice a day in both tanks, but he only gets the beefheart during the 2nd feeding in the evening.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> I feed all of my fish twice a day in both tanks, but he only gets the beefheart during the 2nd feeding in the evening.




What else does he eat other than the beefheart?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> What else does he eat other than the beefheart?


Whatever else I throw in like tubifex worms or bloodworms.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

hmmm, so im guessing its good to switch it up every once in awhile?

Because right now I have him on Bloodworms only. And I'm actually only feeding him once a day, should I feed him twice a day?

Sorry for so many questions lol


My fish only get fed every other day.

I was told by my LFS that the reason my nitrates were way up one time was because my fish were producing too much waste.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

giggitygiggity said:


> hmmm, so im guessing its good to switch it up every once in awhile?
> 
> Because right now I have him on Bloodworms only. And I'm actually only feeding him once a day, should I feed him twice a day?
> 
> ...


I feed twice a day because I have so many fish, but when I first start a tank up I usually just feed once a day to the nitrate factor. As far as the Ghost Knife just make sure he gets some exclusive food once a day whether that's bloodworms, beefheart, or tubifex worms. They'll also eat those Emerald Entree frozen cubes.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

It's good to vary the diet of any fish.


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## giggitygiggity (Sep 14, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> I feed twice a day because I have so many fish, but when I first start a tank up I usually just feed once a day to the nitrate factor. As far as the Ghost Knife just make sure he gets some exclusive food once a day whether that's bloodworms, beefheart, or tubifex worms. They'll also eat those Emerald Entree frozen cubes.



Oh ok. Well yea, he is the only one who gets fed everyday and he gets the bloodworms, ill probably go buy some other stuff for him to change it up.



Fishpunk said:


> It's good to vary the diet of any fish.




My fish are on pellets and every few days I feed them bloodworms as well, they seem to like them alot.


Thanks for the info guys, greatly appreciated!!


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