i recently bought my BGK, he is a bit reclusive. I have him in my 20 gallon until i am done with school which is in two weeks then i will be moving him back home with me. i've been trying to teach him to hand feed with carnivor pellets but its been tough. would pulling out the hiding spots out of the tank over stress him especially with the move coming up? should I just let him be reclusive throw some food in and let him be until then? what should i do?
quick couple questions on a BGK
- Thread starter zpetrichko
- Start date
well i haven't seen him eat yet, i smushed up a hikari cichlid gold pellet but it was too big for him. he nibbled a little bit and then kinda went back into hiding. i'm putting him into a 55 with a senegal and a rapheal cat. it has rock caves and a triceratops skull, however the raphael has already laid claim to it should i make a smaller cave for him to hide in? the cave i have currently is pretty big.
zpetrichko;3677424; said:
Are you feeding him any real meat-based foods, like bloodworms or brine shrimp? Knifefish need actual meat in their diets.
I don't know about Raphael cats, but my elephant nose, my hoplo cat, and my plecostomus all share a cave. It really depends on whether or not your BGK is aggressive.
yes i have been feeding freezedried blood worms but i haven't seen him coming out of his shipwreck to eat it. i have tried as many foods as i have available.
zpetrichko;3678555; said:
continue to try worms. mine love frozen bloods and freeze-dried tubifex worms. they won't touch a pellet.
Being as you did recently buy him, he might just be still adjusting to the environment. My gar refused to eat for a week.
i recently got my first BGK, about a month ago, so heres what i did. I got him two ghost hides, partially cover the sides in gravel, put a copule small stone flakes on top so i can still see him, but hes covered and feels secure. To get food directlly to him i use my gravel cleaner oddly enough, disconnect it from the tubing, leaving a big end and a small end. I take frozen bloodworms and drop them in the tube while it is in the water. they then slowlly disolve as i position the small end right near his hide, or wherever he is. at first he didnt know what i was doing but within just three days, he now waits for the bloodworms to thaw and sucks at the end like its a nipple delivering the bloodworms, he now eats like a champ, awsome little guy, love him. so, try what you want, thats just what i did and it worked really really well. ive also seen him criusing all around the tank at night, eating leftover shrimp pieces and pellets from the other fish, so there is a good chance he has eaten at night, when your gone and not watching
I have turned off the filters for a few hours and put blood worms in there, i may try the filter idea though, however i dont have the frozen blood worms i have the freeze dried blood worms. could i put a bunch in there tilt it downwards so the bloodworms don't float out?
i dont use freezedried stuff cause i can never get it to sink so im not sure if it would work or not. you can always try to get em to sink, but i like the frozen so much better. why did you turn off the filters? you should try to keep everything as normal as you can so he can get used to your normal routine, if you worry too much you might prolong the acclimation process by trying to many different things