BK light sensitivity and Chinese Perch buddy?

[sevenspeed]

I just rescued a black knife from LFS that was in a very well lit tank with nothing but gravel, was hiding under the filter intake. Thought he was dead like his brother whom was still in the tank

Anyway, how light sensitive are they? Should I leave the lights off and just let the small amount of natural daylight in? Also, I like the clear pipe idea but does that need to be underneath a rock or something for some shade? Is there a better light like an aqua-glo or something that's not so bright?

Lastly, he's in there with a Chinese Perch. Is that a mistake? Not sure if the Prech is nocturnal also, so does he need lighting during the day? I had lights on for him 14 hours a day until I put the knife in there last night. Oh yeah, any chance of the knife eating Hikari Freeze Dried Bloodworms instead of the Frozen? Less messy but they float.

 

[killerfish]

we'll black ghost knifes are mostly blind they can only really tell night from day but they don't like bright tanks they need cover to hang out in or they will get stressed they love planted tanks and need a place to hide at least the pearch may out grow and eat your knife so watch that and they could eat freeze dried foods you'll have to wait and see you may wan't to starve it a little to get it to eat other foods

 

[sevenspeed]

Right, I've got some slate for him to hide under till I find something better. Just wondering how bright is bright, like a typical flourescent lamp too much? I'll definitely keep an eye on their sizes. I'm just worried about if it is already starved, they don't seem to be too bright, had them in with some neons, who knows if he ate any. He also has brownish orange markings not white.

 

[rallysman]

As far as the perch goes, they do like a normal lighting schedule IME. Mine did nothing at night.

 

[killerfish]

hmm interesting might not be a black ghost knife then but i've heard that flouresant light isn't very good if its a powerfull light but i just use aquarium bulbs from petsmart can't remember the brand name but if it looks bright then it proubly is there isn't really a way to measure it but the knife likes it less bright so try to aim for a less bright then your average house light

 

[Tucc185]

If it's a standard fluorescent, don't worry about it being too bright. More important than the level of light is the availability of suitable hiding places. if you have plenty of those, your knife won't be stressed regardless of how bright you keep the tank. Also, feed him plenty of frozen bloodworms for now, if he eats them, I've noticed once they get up past 6" or so they get easier to train onto freeze dried foods. Don't try starving him where he's new and came from a LFS where he likely wasn't fed properly. Good luck!

 

[sevenspeed]

Thanks again everyone. The light bulb was an aquarium flourescent from wal-mart to fit an incandescent slot. I've got some more hiding places now. I'm not trying to starve him but I don't think he ate the frozen blood worms I put in there either. Dunno what else to try, but I'll keep trying that. FD tubiflex and shrimp pellets were a no go also I think. I'll have to try and get a pic of the coloring later.
Hope to ween the perch on the bloodworms too, then I can get rid of the feeder minnows and put something else in that tank. Save me a bunch of trips to get feeders too, they don't seem to breed for me at all maybe they are all females :\ I've got about 14 left and don't see tubercles or "fatheads" on any of them.