How often should I feed my baby BGK

[jwong1024]

I just picked up a BGK 3 days ago. He is 2 inches long and has already found his designated hiding spot. I feed him everyday, at night witht he lights off in the tank and room. He only seems to eat every other day. I don't know there eating habits and I feed him a whole square of brine shrimp. Is that too much? will he over eat? When he does eat, he is very agressive and will tear up the food.

BTW water temp is at 78F and PH is 7.0

Any info or discuss away please.

 

[killarbb]

sounds about like my 5 incher.........might try some variety in his diet......frozen bloodworms, finely chopped up nightcrawlers/red wigglers. mine loves worms. trying to train it and a Pbass into market shrimp.

 

[cmartin]

My baby Ghosties are fed twice a day.

Mornings feedings are a bit of flake - gives them something to do - looking for all the little bits on the bottom can take a long time... but they take this job very seriously

Then in the evenings they get frozen bloodworm, frozen brineshrimp, frozen beefheart, etc. but only about 1/2 a cube between the 4 of them.

They are about 3 inches long now - one seems to be really outgrowing the other 3 now... it is getting much more noticable. This is not due to getting more/less of the food - there are only the 4 baby Ghosties in the tank and I love to watch them eat... especially when I am hand feeding - so I know that they are all eating. Another sure sign is the round little bellies just after a feeding.

Everyone is different in how they think we should care for/feed our fish. Watch your fish - if it seems happy and is growing at a normal pace - then do it however you want. I have always tended to 'overfeed' and now I watch the size of the tummies and how dirty the tank is at regular vacs... and I adjust accordingly.

 

[benzjamin13]

If you're feeding it a block of frozen brine shrimp, it might be much for a little 2" Knife in one serving. At such a small size, they would be better off with multiple feedings with smaller portions. Once it gets to about 4", a whole block will be taken without a problem. And if you switch to frozen bloodworms, it might like it better. My Knives loves bloodworms more than brine shrimp.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

I'd try feeding at least twice a day with high quality food, especially since it is a new fish that probably wasn't in the best shape after all the stress

 

[Valkyrie]

I raised my BGK with Discus so he was fed the same as the them at least 4 - 6 times a day by hand just small amounts and he grew very fast he is 5 years old and 14". When I got him he was only 1 1/2 to 2 " long. I feed sinking pellets, frozen blood worm and his favourite beef heart. Good luck they are great fish to raise.

 

[killarbb]

i hav a problem trying to feed frozen(thawed in tank water) beefheart. how do you keep it out of the HOB intake? seriously just about everytime i try to feed it i have to ttear apart a filter.

 

[dark_knights_99]

i hav a problem trying to feed frozen(thawed in tank water) beefheart. how do you keep it out of the HOB intake? seriously just about everytime i try to feed it i have to ttear apart a filter.

Try starving the bgk for 1 week or dip the beef heart in garlic juice (blend cloves of garlic).

 

[Valkyrie]

i hav a problem trying to feed frozen(thawed in tank water) beefheart. how do you keep it out of the HOB intake? seriously just about everytime i try to feed it i have to ttear apart a filter.

As I hand feed my BGK his beef heart I don't have the problem and if by some chance any small bits do make the substrate my clown loaches and cory's take care of it. As a matter of fact the cory's and clowns wait under him while he feeds at the top of the tank just in case. As suggested starve him and try and tempt him with garlic juice or if you want just hold the beef heart in front of him to take from your hand. Good luck,

 

[Diamond Discus]

I must be overfeeding my BGK...when I got him 4 weeks ago he was around 6 inches...he eats twice a day. He gets a large chunk of frozen blood worms in the morning (equaling maybe 2 cubes, but he has to share it with the 40 cardinals and 7 dwarf rainbows). At night he can down 2 cubes of mysis or brine shrimp by himself plus I drop in some sinking carnivore pellets when I feed the bristlenose after dark to keep him going throughout the night. He is always starving and hunting shrimp and snails. He has grown a ton. I imagine he is a good 7+ inches. The biggest change is that his body has gotten a lot taller and really thick, He looks fantastic, like a black velvet curtain. He isn't too shy either, he'll come out during the day anytime there is food around. I used to have several thousand red cherry shrimp in the tank when I got him and I'm down in the 100's now. His poo is very red. LOL I must have gotten a good one. I have saved about 50 Red Cherry shrimp to another tank so I can keep him stocked with live shrimp. Otherwise he'd wipe them all out!