Maintaining a Black ghost knife

Question
Hi my name is John i have always loved black ghost knife fish and i am thinking of sitting up a tank as suitable as possible for these fish could you give me your best advice on maintaining them and what tank mates are the most friendly towards ghost knifes and what set up my tank should have thanks

Answer
Hi John;

Ghost Knife fish need at least a 50 gallon tank, but they grow out of that too eventually. They get very large, over a foot long, and need plenty of space to swim in order to be happy. Make sure the lid is completely sealed with no openings. Ghosts are jumpers. I recommend a canister filter instead of the hang-on-the-back types for that reason.

The water temperature should be about 78f and should have a reasonably strong current. Air stones hooked to an air pump and a strong flow canister filter will help him be more active and healthy. Add driftwood or bogwood to the tank if the pH tends to be above 7.4 or so. Ghosts like softer and a lower pH water. The driftwood provides that and looks cool too. ;-)

Ghosts eat live food such as worms and shrimp. Some will eat frozen foods too but not all will do that. Feed him after the lights go out until he gets used to you. Many ghosts will eat during the day once they get comfy in their new home after a few weeks. Provide plenty of plants and rock caves for him too. He is a very shy nocturnal fish that doesn't like bright light so he will be active and hunting for food at night and hide during the day. Some people use the clear tubes called "ghost houses" so they can still see the fish and it thinks it's hiding, but not all ghosts like them. Especially if there are other places to hide, as should be.

Good tankmates could be several types of schooling fish; cory cats, silver dollars, larger types of tetras such as Bleeding Heart, Buenos Aires, Congo, Skirted, Blind Cave Tetras. Other possibilities are Synodontis cats also called "upside-down" catfish, African Butterfly fish, Angelfish, and dwarf cichlids such as rams.

Once your ghost begins to grow too big for his tank you could leave the other smaller fish in there and get him a 90 gallon or larger. Severums, Angels, large silver dollars, Geophagus, Bala Sharks, are all good tank mates for larger Ghosts.

Here is a good web page with more info;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile66.html

You also need to know about new tank syndrome. Here is a link to my own article about it;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

Have fun! BGK are really cool fish....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins