Just got a gorgeous Black Ghost Knife Fish...questions

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timcanplant

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
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I've had him for about three days. He is 2 1/2" long in my moderately planted 65 gallon tall. I understand he is carnivorous, and somewhat nocturnal. At night, I have carefully placed some freeze dried brine shrimp close to his hideout. I also placed a tiny piece of my shrimp cocktail (I ate most of them with spicey cocktail sauce myself...lol)

I notice he seems to do a lot of foraging and general scavenging, nibbling on plants, etc.

My question is, is this nibbling providing him with nutrients?

Thanks for any advice on giving this guy a good start in my aquarium.:fish2:
 
I've had him for about three days. He is 2 1/2" long in my moderately planted 65 gallon tall. I understand he is carnivorous, and somewhat nocturnal. At night, I have carefully placed some freeze dried brine shrimp close to his hideout. I also placed a tiny piece of my shrimp cocktail (I ate most of them with spicey cocktail sauce myself...lol)



I notice he seems to do a lot of foraging and general scavenging, nibbling on plants, etc.



My question is, is this nibbling providing him with nutrients?



Thanks for any advice on giving this guy a good start in my aquarium.:fish2:


Ive never owned one but know they are passive electric fish. They produce a kind of echolocation using electricity to find prey. Not sure if this makes them less likely to eat prepared foods or not but might have more luck with live foods at first.
In general a lot of fish do not eat their first few days in a tank. Can help ease this by dimming the tank or going a full day without the light on.

I do know they get very large 1.5' long if i remember correctly, and minimum tank size for adult being a 125 gallon.
 
I always made sure they have a smooth cave or tube to hide in.

I fed frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. Thawed in a little tank water and then distributed using a turkey baster. Spot feeding works well. I feed new knife fish after lights out. You can use your red lights if needed so you can see what you're doing and it doesn't disturb the fish.
 
Thanks everybody...

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try some tubifex worms, tweezer placement after lights out. :thanks:
 
The best results come with the foods they are equipped to hunt like feeder guppys and ghost shrimp. Put in a dozen ghost shrimp and he will eat and grow quickly. Once large enough a cleaned out earth worm works very well.
 
he is just nibbling the leaves to test out his environment. he is nearly completely blind and has nearly no idea what he is touching or biting. mine goes straight up into my massive oscars gills and mouth... he doesnt seem to mind at all. being an electric fish, he uses an electronic pulse to detect objects and prey. obviuosly some things produce a larger feedback to his sense organs, and leaves produce nearly no rebound from the electronic waves that are sent out. since he cant really detect these leaves to well, he is curious in finding out what they are. unfortunately this behaviour often gets the better of them... my ghost knife got a little too personal with my barramundi and paid the price. (no more ghost knife)
 
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