A few questions

[Jramatized]

I have a 55 gal. tank with 1 black fin shark, 1 bala, 1 Black Ghost Knife, 2 Silver dollars, and 1 peacock eel

1st question
None of my fish really feed at the top most feed in the middle and bottom.
I mainly feed flakes, and sometimes frzen bloodworms for the eel and BGK. I was wanting to get some food that would sink to the bottom for teh eel and the black ghost b/c my silver dollars gobble everything up pretty quick and if it gets to the bottom my black fin shark will gobble it up. I was wondering if Betta pellets would be ok for the bottom feeders, or of they would even eat it? My eel stays hidden most of teh time and I never see him eat, but Ive had him for awhile so he must be eating some. My BGk only eats what falls around his cave. But I usually turn tha lights out and feed just for him.

2nd Question
I have 2 lights that go to my tank. They are the reg lights that came with it. One of them burned out in a few months. I ahvent got another one yet casue my BGK dont like the light too much anyway.
Instead last night I placed a black (NEON) light where the burnt out bulb was. Do you think this will bother the fish in anyway? And what kind of light should I get to replace the missing one. Like how dim?

3rd Question
I was told to get some floating plants since the BGK and Back Fin dont like the light too much. I put salt in my tank every water change. Not much a couple small handfulls. Will the salt kill the floating plans? And would it block enough light to even matter? B/C as stated above I had one bulb gone and he still stayed hidden. And his place is where the light aint.

4th Question
Im wanting to add some live plants for decoration and just for the fish to enjoy. As stated I have an eel who hides in teh rocks. Would it do me anygood to have plants on the bottom casue he will be going in the rocks all the time which will casue the plants to become disturbed.
And where can I get these tank plants? PetsMart has them I know, but I dont think Ive ever seen the floating plants.

Wew OK I think Im done now
Thanks in advance for any feed

 

[Tostada]

The betta pellets I've used don't sink any better than flakes. They actually seem to stay on the surface a little longer. I don't have any experience with BGKs or eels, but I would think something like a regular sinking wafer or maybe New Life Spectrum All Purpose sinking pellets would be more what you're looking for.

What do you mean by "black (NEON) light"? Is "neon" a brand? A standard blacklight is just a fluorescent UV light. There's nothing neon about it. Anyway, I don't think a blacklight is bad for the fish, but it's a very limited spectrum, so it's not like it's doing you much good. If you like the way it looks (I doubt it does much to bring out colors when you have a regular light right next to it) I don't see how it could be a problem, seeing as you have no live plants.

It doesn't sound like you're going overboard with the salt, and I think in most cases you'd hurt the fish before you'd hurt the plants. Of course, it all depends on which fish/plants. I've just never seen anything about freshwater plants that are sensitive to aquarium salt. I'm a little confused by the floating plant recommendation, though. You're concerned about your BGK not coming out, but you're talking about a fish which is considered both noctournal and shy. I would think the more normal thing to do would be get some moonlighting, then adjust your main lighting timer so that you have plenty time with just the moonlight where you can see the BGK. You could try constructing areas of shade with objects in the tank and/or by getting a hood that doesn't cover the whole tank leaving a darker area, but frorm what you said that was already the case with your burnt out light leaving a dark area, and it didn't help. I don't think floating plants by themselves are going to do much to perk up your BGK.

I'm pretty sure you could come up with a layout that included plants where your eel wasn't always screwing them up. You probably just have to anchor them well and leave some open areas for the eel.

The real conflict you have here is that you're looking for some kind of a dim replacement bulb to keep your BGK from hiding, and you're also talking about getting live plants. The only real solution I see to that is letting the plants grow half the day and letting the BGK do its noctournal thing the other half of the day. That's the way it works in nature. You just need a moonlight bright enough to see him. Then you can get some decent planted tank lighting. I mean, your only other real option is to make it a really dark tank, and your other fish probably wouldn't be too happy about that. Light diffuses pretty well in an aquarium, so you're probably not going to be able to make a good dark area for one fish while leaving a light area for plants and the other fish ... at least not in anything under 150 gal.

 

[Jramatized]

Thanks for the feed. Also I didnt mean that I left the black light on with the other light. I only turn it on by itself at night.
Would PetsMart, or a PetCo have this moonlight? And will it go in my hood like the reg lights?

 

[BrianNY]

1. Tetramin Color Bits are fast sinking pellets. They work great for me.

3. Unless you have a problem with parasites (such as ich), there is no reason to add salt to your tank. It's a waste of time and money. Your fish will prefer water without it.

4. Live plants do look terrific in a tank. The problem is the silver dollars. They are voracious plant eaters and will chow down on any plants you put in. That being said, some veggies should be fed to them on a regular basis.

 

[Guest]

Would PetsMart, or a PetCo have this moonlight? And will it go in my hood like the reg lights?

autozone has a 12" blue neon light that works good(i have one.) it's 12 volt so i use a computer power supply to run it. newegg has the same thing for cheaper, its a 12" cathode tube(blue) but it also is 12 volt and needs a power supply. they both mount easy.

 

[rkilling1]

I hand feed my BGK live earthworms and freeze dried bloodworms.

3. Unless you have a problem with parasites (such as ich), there is no reason to add salt to your tank. It's a waste of time and money. Your fish will prefer water without it.

unless he has a black fined shark/White Tip Shark Catfish that perfer/require salt to be added to the aquarium. Adult White Tip Shark Catfish require full salt water to reach their full age.

 

[Jramatized]

right^
And I keep it in there as an extra precaution too. Its supposed to be pretty good for the fish from what I hear and have read. As long as you dont over do it. All my fish have been fine

 

[coldmachineUK]

And where can I get these tank plants? PetsMart has them I know, but I dont think Ive ever seen the floating plants

Try an online store. There's plenty of suppliers out there, I use http://www.tropical-aquarium-plants.co.uk to get the more unusual things which my local LFSs don't stock but I don't know about US-based sites. There must be some out there

Moonlighting is optimal, as I suggested in my other post. However, the problem is you will need to run one light half the time and the other the remainder (as someone pointed out). A timer could help with that, but I just prefer providing more natural settings for my fish using plants, and aquascaping in general. Lighting would be on my list of options, but further down if plants didn't work (and there's nothing to suggest that a cover of floating plants, which will help provide some shade, won't be any use - it's the cheaper option too).
But with both plants and lighting there's still no guarantee it will definitely make your already shy fish any less shy since that's the way knife fish are. I know of people using those 'knife fish tubes' (not just DIY ones but ones you can buy) and tbh they were pretty pointless as I think I remember you already saying after trying them