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I have heard of many cases of hand feeding BGK from others too but never try myself before, i believe it should be much more easiler to train when your BGK get bigger. with its bigger size, BGK wouldn't afraid of any fishes or fear of getting near your hand when it get very very hungry.

Although very rarely, i have seen my BGK came up to the surface to feed on my floating pellets before,and the last time i had seen him do this my tank lights was on!

Hope u have better luck in seeing this, but please don't stave your BGK just to see him came up to surface to feed. i feed my BGK with bottom feeding foods like blood worm and shrimp too, the pellets mostly is for my bichirs.

would fear they'd eventually eat my ottos or my Hillstream loaches in my 125 gal community

I highly doubt that girlunderrainbow. The only time that may happen is if you didn't feed him for a while, then he might feel obliged to go searching for food
I've kept my guys with fish alot smaller than ottos and even hillstreams and never had a problem, the only things that ever went missing were a few neon tetras.
As long as the BGK has a home that's not questioned by other fish, that it's comfortable in and feels safe enough to swim about sometimes then your 125gal would be a great home for a BGK if that's what you really wanted girlunderrainbow

The tubes you use for them are CLEAR plastic. That way they feel safe in them and think they are "hiding" but you can still see them.
Haven't had BGK's yet..would fear they'd eventually eat my ottos or my Hillstream loaches in my 125 gal community?
But LFS keeps a few and I love them..their noses look like cow muzzles methinks..

I am 99% sure that BGK have no teeth. If they do they are the tiniest things as when you look at there mouths it is just a gummy lip.

Why cant you keep them with a common pleco??

I keep mine with 2 common plecs and have never had a problem.
If the BGK's have teeth they are so small that you certainly can't feel them, unlike the various bigger type cichlids we have- Oscars and the Chocolates, both of which have drawn blood

Why cant you keep them with a common pleco??

Also, when they "bite" do they have teeth? I remember sticking my finger in, and my anglefish would nip my finger.. is it like that?

I'm lucky enough to have 3 BGK's now, my first one I've had for nearly 2 years and he will eat just about anything but now prefers live food like mealworms and earthworms and gets the sulks on the nights he doesn't get either of those. The other 2 have not learnt to be that fussy as yet Despite what has been written, you can keep more than 1 together(if you have a large enough tank) and the only problem you may have is conflicting personalities.
They'll eat day or night and they are one of the easiest fish to hand feed, some doing it straight away.
Mine bites me because I offer his worms by sticking them between my fingers and it doesn't really hurt and it certainly doesn't draw blood although the bite is quite quick, almost a suck
Offer any of the foods and you'll most likely find that your BGK will eat most of it, spirulina included
Spend time with your BGK and they will reward you with trust and oscar type love

I bought a BGK a couple of weeks ago and the first night I bought him he came up and started eating out of my hand. He likes to rest in the palm of my hand for a couple of secounds after he is done eating! it's pretty cool. He also likes to play a little by swimming through my fingers.

sorry mccabe- i don't have a digital camera to take the pictures

Bayara,

You said above that you made a couple of caves out of lavarock. Would you mind taking a picture of them? I'm sure we'd all love to see what they look like.

thanks for the warning NvForGet. i'll have to keep an eye on the arowana just in case he decides my bgk is lunch. i don't think i've got too much to worry about right now - she's still pretty small, and she couldnt' catch anything swimming if i forced her to (then again, i haven't tried for a while, so she might surprise me...) eitherway - if she decides to attack the knife in the cave, there's a 'secret exit' at the back that the knife can escape through - then guaranteed i'll be finding a different tank for him! and don't worry - i wont be starving the bgk to force him to eat from my hand - wait till he's much more comfortable with me and maybe he'll learn then! thanks

i wouldn't recommend you to put BGK together with any arowana of any kind in the same tank. Your arowana would grown to a bigger size at a much faster pace than your BGK, better find another different tank for your arowana before your BGK get hurt.

I personally find sucker fish and stingray as best compatible tankmate for arowana.

i just purchased a black ghost knife for my 55g. i was hoping someone had had them before and could give me a little more information. i've done a lot of reading about them online, but i'm hoping someone could give me their personal experiences. also any suggestions on what to feed them?? thanks!

hey bgk - do you have any hints on an easy way to train them to eat from my hand?? he wont come near me when i stick my hand in the tank right now

yes they will come to the surface to eat once they get use to it..
mines only eat from the surface now as i hand feed them everything

my bgk was about 5" when i bought him. i don't have any small fish to worry about - it's in there with a 6" sun catfish, a 8" common pleco, and a juvenile 9" arowana (and yes... i will be investing in a much larger tank soon - within about 6 months at least). as for decoration - i'm with you about the tubes in the tank - they're pretty tacky as far as i'm concerned, so in my spare time when i was bored out of my mind, i picked up a bag of lavarock and a tube of silicone and put together a couple caves for my nocturnal fish. took a long time, but at least this way the fish seem to think that they're completely hidden in the shadows, when in fact i can still see them through the 'cave' opening!! and the caves look good too! right now i'm feeding him sinking shrimp pellets. any idea if they will eat off the surface of the tank as well? i'd like to add a bit of variation to the diet by adding flakes, bloodworms, etc to his diet, but i'm afraid he won't come to the surface as i've only ever seen him scoot along the bottom. any ideas?

i have my BGK for about a one year from now in a 200 litres tank, lm quite sure it will take quite a few year before it get to his famous 'big size'length. How big is your BGK when you bought him? i get mine around 5cm long in length and a year from now he has grown to about 10cm.

You should find other tank mate that is similar with BGK, i find my BGK live very well with my 4 bichirs fish. Oh i have a bad experience with Cichlids, he beaten up my BGK quite badly, from my experience i don't think anyone should get Cichlids with any other types of fish other than their own kind in a tank.

Be careful of your small fishes, he will start eating it once he find anything big enough to fit into his mouth !

BGK eat almost anything you feed him,and yes they do
come out at night to find food more often than day time, but its not that rare to see my BGK in action during feeding time in the morning.

BGK is just like my bichirs both species need plenty of space and shelter. If you don't give them, the BGK will most probably hide behind your filter.

i personally never put any tube in my tank, cause u will risk being completely unable to see this beautiful creature ! From the fact that they normally only come out when the lights are out and at the time when you suppose to be in bed

But i replace the tube with lot of draft woods in my tank

Above all is only my personal experience with the fish....overall a beautiful and special fish to have

My Ghost loves to eat out of my hand, he has had a few run ins with the neons but hasnt eaten any. He comes out twice a day, for his morning and afternoon feeds, thats about all i see of him.

I have kept BGK's for just over 12 months
They are a very interesting little creature. I keep mine with a dozen live bearing mollies + swordtails, a school of neons, 2 mid size angels, 2 kuhli loaches, 3 3inch bristlenose cats in a 242 australian litre tank

They tend to be more active at night or when they get into the habit of you feeding them at certain times of the day. I used to have mine eating out of my hand, he'd come right up to the top and munch on flake food, tubifex worms, peas, most things really. Just make sure you keep a variety up for them.

Just be prepared to get a big tank in the next 6 months to a year as they grow extremely quickly, they will do the first 10 inches within 6 months. Some have said they aren't overly active but mine was. But they do like to have a certain spot to hide that is sheltered. Some sort of tubing works well.

Unfortunately mine was beaten up a bit too much by a Jack Dempsey which I hadn't done my research about and was sold as being a Sevrum which I knew were generally peaceful. Also be aware that they will happily eat almost an entire breeding of bristlie fry in a day or so

Good luck with your new friend.

Claire.

Last edited by black.cat at 14-Oct-2004 19:59