Ghost Knife eating other fish

[Sandman23]

Hi all,

Newbie here but I was wondering if anyone has had experiences of ghost knife fish eating others?

To put this into context, my Ghost knife is only small, about 5cm. I had a 5-6cm blue eyed cichlid that has vanished from my tank. Honestly, I can't find any trace of it. I've lifted every ornament and looked everywhere but nope, he's gone...
I have had a few people tell me that the GK will actively seek out other fish at night and feed on them...is this a possible explanation to my missing cichlid situation? I might add, I have 4 serpae tetras in this tank as well as a female betta and a small pleco...aside from my angel fish, the GK would have taken out the biggest fish in the tank. I would have thought he would go for something smaller?

I love my GK and I really don't want to rehome unless I have to...any advice is appreciated

 

[FrancisFloe]

Are you referring to the Black Ghost Knife? If so I had kept two and in my experience, they never ate any of their tankmates, I had a 10 inch BGK with some eels and bichirs half or like 1/4 its size but never ate them or anything. I kept this fish in community tanks and they do great but sometimes they're a bit territorial, but it might just be for the individual fish itself. I might have got lucky to have timid fish or your referring to a totally different species.

 

[Deadeye]

Welcome to the forum!
A bgk could be capable of preying on much smaller fish, but I couldn’t imagine one being able to take on a similarly sized (or larger) fish. Does the tank have a cover? If there is a large enough opening, the cichlid could have jumped.

 

[Supergeorge123]

It most likely jumped out and is in an area that you can't easily see or get to. I think almost everyone here has had that experience at least once.

 

[tlindsey]

Hi all,

Newbie here but I was wondering if anyone has had experiences of ghost knife fish eating others?

To put this into context, my Ghost knife is only small, about 5cm. I had a 5-6cm blue eyed cichlid that has vanished from my tank. Honestly, I can't find any trace of it. I've lifted every ornament and looked everywhere but nope, he's gone...
I have had a few people tell me that the GK will actively seek out other fish at night and feed on them...is this a possible explanation to my missing cichlid situation? I might add, I have 4 serpae tetras in this tank as well as a female betta and a small pleco...aside from my angel fish, the GK would have taken out the biggest fish in the tank. I would have thought he would go for something smaller?

I love my GK and I really don't want to rehome unless I have to...any advice is appreciated

Welcome aboard

 

[Sandman23]

Are you referring to the Black Ghost Knife? If so I had kept two and in my experience, they never ate any of their tankmates, I had a 10 inch BGK with some eels and bichirs half or like 1/4 its size but never ate them or anything. I kept this fish in community tanks and they do great but sometimes they're a bit territorial, but it might just be for the individual fish itself. I might have got lucky to have timid fish or your referring to a totally different species.

Yes a black ghost knife

 

[Sandman23]

There's a full glass lid on it so I don't see any way of it jumping out there is just nowhere for it to go.

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

There's a full glass lid on it so I don't see any way of it jumping out there is just nowhere for it to go.

Does your lid have a feeding hole/ door
I had one of my butterfly koi jump out of a feeding door TWICE and both times he survived
Could you send a pic of lid (if possible)
Did you look in the substrate? Perhaps it died and got buried

 

[Sandman23]

Does your lid have a feeding hole/ door
I had one of my butterfly koi jump out of a feeding door TWICE and both times he survived
Could you send a pic of lid (if possible)
Did you look in the substrate? Perhaps it died and got buried

The feeding hole is right in the corner, I don't think it would be able to get through it. I've checked the substrate I did a vacuum and water change and he was definitely there then. A couple of hours later, gone without a trace

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

The feeding hole is right in the corner, I don't think it would be able to get through it. I've checked the substrate I did a vacuum and water change and he was definitely there then. A couple of hours later, gone without a trace

Maybe it died and the pleco ate it? Did it seem off and have you looked on the floor, a 2-3 inch fish could easily jump out of the feeding hole of it wanted to