Black Ghost Knife Aquarium

[Supalah17]

if youre going to be running the tank with a sandy substrate how about a school of corys on the bottom, once you get into double digits with them its really an impressive sight, would be like a moving carpet under your knife. as far as other tankmates go what about annostomus, barred silver dollars, discus, dwarf cichlids or hatchetfish?

I would generally worry about the corys getting devoured, a large school might help, but if I'm going to do other bottom dwellers I would probably try for an ornate bichir and/or a pleco of some variety. If I end up with a 300g I may try for the fire eel. Silver dollars will probably happen though to be honest.

 

[Hendre]

Try senegal bichirs, a tad smaller, less aggressive and very busy

Silver dollars will make planting a pain, so I avoid them

 

[thefredpit]

polli or teug would be a good option too. The polli gets bigger than a sen and have great personality. The teug will get long but thin and tend to have less aggression than ornates

 

[Supalah17]

Try senegal bichirs, a tad smaller, less aggressive and very busy

Silver dollars will make planting a pain, so I avoid them

I always forget how much the silver dollars love to snack on plants, so scratch those...

 

[Supalah17]

So right now my final tank stocking/tank setup is looking to be: 300g 96x24x30; 2x Fluval FX6 for filters; a co2 injection system; lighting is up in the air (usually my least planned aspect); a set of large bubble wands; 2x large pieces of driftwood on top of rock caves (possibly held in place with silicone aquarium sealant); moss covering the rocks and wood, along with various anubias species and trident ferns, a carpeting plant covering most of the sand substrate, several species of crypts in the mid/foreground; vale/swords in background; frogbit as a floating plant to provide some shade (not covering the whole water surface, maybe 50-75%). Actual livestock: 1x BGK; 1x Fire Eel; a large colony of shrimp (possibly Amano); 5-6 elephant nose; 1x Senegal bichir or a fancy pleco; 4-6 electric blue acara (I just love them but they're not 100%) Thoughts, opinions, seal of approval?

 

[Hendre]

Okay some thoughts:

Co2 and bubble wands won't mix, you'll gas out all of your co2 pretty quickly.

Lighting and fertilizers need to be good if you're going to grow a good carpet. Also with the waste and activities of polypterus and eating habits of knives it'd be better to leave the bottom open I think. Some medium lighting and not too much co2 will help give good growth, the rest of the plants mentioned don't need crazy. Foreground crypts include the likes of parva and wendtii, midground is stuff like willsii or spiralis then the big ones like ponterderiifolia are really nice for the background

You've got to carefully pick your stock, because all that is a bit much.. Maybe just leave the acaras and you should be good with enough water Changing.

Also amano shrimp = food. Any Shrimp will be food in there unfortunately, I'd leave them out of it.

Hope this helps

 

[Supalah17]

Okay some thoughts:

Co2 and bubble wands won't mix, you'll gas out all of your co2 pretty quickly.

Lighting and fertilizers need to be good if you're going to grow a good carpet. Also with the waste and activities of polypterus and eating habits of knives it'd be better to leave the bottom open I think. Some medium lighting and not too much co2 will help give good growth, the rest of the plants mentioned don't need crazy. Foreground crypts include the likes of parva and wendtii, midground is stuff like willsii or spiralis then the big ones like ponterderiifolia are really nice for the background

You've got to carefully pick your stock, because all that is a bit much.. Maybe just leave the acaras and you should be good with enough water Changing.

Also amano shrimp = food. Any Shrimp will be food in there unfortunately, I'd leave them out of it.

Hope this helps

Didn't realize that about the bubble wands, good to note, thank you! And yea the shrimp colony would be established first to get the plants all healthy and to provide a continuous source of food in the tank as the fish grow, until they're naturally eaten off (suggested by a fish keeper on page one). The acara, yea tbh I probably wasn't going to put those in as soon as I posted it, don't really fit with the other fish tbh... I also generally over stock my tanks and keep up with 40-50% water changes divided up to 2x 25% a week. I have a ton of crypts and dwarf hair grass growing in one of my 125g tanks which is where those were gonna come from, but as I think about it, I realize I don't want to deal with the cleaning of another, larger, tank carpet lol... I also have a ton of stem plants (ludwigia, rotala, etc) but I feel like those massive bottom dwellers would probably just end up knocking them all out of the sand. So I'll definitely stick with crypts and swords. My LFS has this young guy who sets up planted aquariums for a side business so I usually just take his advice when it's time for lighting, that's why I personally don't plan it out as much, just tell the kid what I'm growing and where, and he points out the lights I'll need!

 

[Supalah17]

Didn't realize that about the bubble wands, good to note, thank you! And yea the shrimp colony would be established first to get the plants all healthy and to provide a continuous source of food in the tank as the fish grow, until they're naturally eaten off (suggested by a fish keeper on page one). The acara, yea tbh I probably wasn't going to put those in as soon as I posted it, don't really fit with the other fish tbh... I also generally over stock my tanks and keep up with 40-50% water changes divided up to 2x 25% a week. I have a ton of crypts and dwarf hair grass growing in one of my 125g tanks which is where those were gonna come from, but as I think about it, I realize I don't want to deal with the cleaning of another, larger, tank carpet lol... I also have a ton of stem plants (ludwigia, rotala, etc) but I feel like those massive bottom dwellers would probably just end up knocking them all out of the sand. So I'll definitely stick with crypts and swords. My LFS has this young guy who sets up planted aquariums for a side business so I usually just take his advice when it's time for lighting, that's why I personally don't plan it out as much, just tell the kid what I'm growing and where, and he points out the lights I'll need!

Should be noted: I was medically retired from the US Army after losing an eye and part of a leg in 2011, so being 28 and retired leaves me plenty of time to do ungodly amounts of maintenance on the tanks, so that's usually not a concern as long as it's possible!

 

[Hendre]

Amano shrimp will suffer lol. Get some cherries and let em breed when the tanks growing, then collect as many as possible and sell them. Don't know about US but there's a big market here, and we don't get amanos!

Amanos don't breed in FW so what you put in is what you get... Expensive feeders haha.

Don't forget simple old java ferns, very nice types around! Like windeløv and trident.

 

[Supalah17]

Amano shrimp will suffer lol. Get some cherries and let em breed when the tanks growing, then collect as many as possible and sell them. Don't know about US but there's a big market here, and we don't get amanos!

Amanos don't breed in FW so what you put in is what you get... Expensive feeders haha.

Don't forget simple old java ferns, very nice types around! Like windeløv and trident.

Didn't know they weren't supposed to breed in FW, making me think I got sold some fakes now cause my 20 long is filled to the brim with the things lol. I planned on tridents, but also maybe not, I have terrible luck with java ferns, had way too many just never grow, they won't die, just never grow, and this is across a half dozen tanks of varying size, parameters, stocking, etc... where as my anubias are always flourishing!