BGK in a bare tank

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Nov 19, 2008
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Bichir Alley
Right now I am experimenting with keeping my BGK in a completely bare tank.

For the last year he has always had a place to go to that was "his". Right now I am slowly removing the pieces of slate that make up his current house. I'm hoping doing it slowly will make him a little more comfortable than just taking it all out at once. That slate, and the rocks propping it up are the only things in the tank besides the other fish.

My question is, have any of you had any experience with keeping a BGK in a barebottom tank with nothing to hide in or behind?
 
I think it'll try to find anything to hide behind. I mean...you can't remove your filter intake or heater (unless you have an overflow box and a sump) and I had a BGK that would hide behind that all the time.
 
It's probably not going to work out... lol

Without the slate there, he still thinks he "owns" that spot. It's confusing my sens because they'll swim over there like it's just another part of the tank and he'll start headbutting and pushing them away. :grinno:


Oh well. If I want to go completely bare-bottom again, i'll have to put him and his 'house' back into the 40 Breeder.
 
i have my 2 with only sand, for an experiment, and till my rays go to a diff. tank...i have noticed they try to hide by the filter and heater...also the fights between them have increased though only headbutts, they are still fighting daily, but not serious...if they get serious i will stop the exoeriment...
 
I had bare bottom but didnt like the look, besides the fact that the reflection was spooking him and the sens. So I use Silica sand for mine and he has caves and stuff to hide in and now he is coming out more than before. I think because he feels more secure with the hiding spots.
 
moonchild1970;3757762; said:
I had bare bottom but didnt like the look, besides the fact that the reflection was spooking him and the sens. So I use Silica sand for mine and he has caves and stuff to hide in and now he is coming out more than before. I think because he feels more secure with the hiding spots.
Click to expand...

glad you got your fish happy, but the fish saw no reflection...reflection is what we see looking at angeled pains of glass...that is why you can look through with no backround and from the side...with a barebottom you can see the stand below...from the inside of the tank no panels of glass are angeled to see a reflection...
 
my computer is retarted it had you putting the same post agian so i responded bad like you called me a lier(incase you see it before the change, and if you did sorry)...bgks get braver with age...alot of the feelings on bare bottom tanks are in our heads...we think the fish is sad due to the lack of sand or rock...so in that we think they are freaking out, when we see the same things over sand or rock it becomes playing...
 
The one thing about bare I did love was how easy it was to keep clean but if there was any leftover food on the bottom or poop it just drove me crazy...lol.

Easier with the sand as it sits on top and the filter's output stir it up so it is sucked up by the filters.
 
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