BGK question

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qtrhorse89

qtrhorse89

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 13, 2009
219
1
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North Carolina
My mother who lives two hours away from me picked up a 6 inch BGK about a month ago. He's in her 55 gallon. I've told her he'll get too big for that so when he outgrows it he'll be moving to my 120. Anyway, I got a call from her last night saying that she thought Slick was sick. He's still eating fine, his activity levels are fine, but she says his coloring has turned a dull black from his snout to midway his body. He was a nice shiny black whe she got him hence his name. His tank mates include a blue acara, a 2.5inch ctenopoma and some type of regular gourami (wasn't there when she bought it *sigh*). He eats blood worms, mysis shrimp, and apparently he loves algae disks. According to her there has been no aggression and everyone else in the tank is doing perfect. I cycled the tank myself two or three months ago but I can't tell you the levels as of right now. I've been hounding her about it but she hasn't bought a test kit yet and I don't feel like driving two hours just to be there long enough to test her water.

I know absolutely nothing about knife fish. I like them but I haven't had a chance to research any ailments that might befall them. Do you guys have any ideas as to what may be going on with this guy?
 
Two thoughts come to my mind immediately, one of which you covered - water quality. Is he constantly like this, or only sometimes? Sometimes when you startle a BGK (turning the lights on when it's night and the tank is dark, running into the room suddenly) the BGK will change from black to like this blueish/purple-like black color. It just means you scared the crap out of him and he's about to go hide. It fades eventually though once the shock is over.
The only other thing it sounds like is some sort of fungus. BGK are scaleless, meaning they can be susceptible to that sort of thing - it also makes medicating them hard.
I think the best thing for her to do is to take a photo of what's happening and have her send it to you.
 
i agree, get her to send you a photo so you can post it on here, then you'll get some good answers
 
Well I winded up coming home anyway for another reason. I couldn't get a picture of the little bugger, he wouldn't give me a good view. I did get a good look at him. It is not a fungus that much I can tell. The color looks bluish black as mentioned above so I'm thinking stress. and I'm pretty sure I know why.

I tested the water and that pH is 8.4!!! I had to test it twice before I believed it. It's 8.8 out of the tap! I'm not sure what to do. I'm pretty sure the pH is the culprit on this one. Ammonia was 0, nitrite was 0, and nitrate was 5. My mother is not the most fish knowledgeable but from looking at the tank, everyone but the gourami is showing signs of stress. How on earth do I lower this pH to where it needs to be with out stressing the crap out of these fish?

Oh and he does have a cave and ton of plants to hide in. He loves the sword tail.
 
Reverse Osmosis kit. Lots of chemicals. The water where I am is really hard, so I don't have more low cost options. My water also has a high PH - something above 8, I'm sure, but they're fine. I think to some extent they adapt - it's possible the BGK will too? Regular Water changes and a good filter are your mothers best bet. How long has she had the other fish - are they accustomed to the high PH?
 
The Gourami is the only one who was used to the pH. Although the BGK was bought locally but I bet that store uses RO water. The acara and ctenopoma came from me in Raleigh. I've told her to get an RO unit and for now she's using Ph decreaser. They have city water so it should be "soft", from what I could gather the resevoir is loaded with limestone so that's the reason for the high pH. I treated once before I came home and one treatment dropped the pH in the tank by .1 so I've told her to keep treating every 12 hours. I reckon a decrease of .1 every 12 hours ought not to be too hard on them. I also dosed with melafix for stress which seems to help. I winded up leaving her my liquid pH tester and she's supposed to keep me updated so we'll see how it goes. Thanks for all your help.
 
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