Black ghost... hlth, sys., gen.   -07/18/08
Hello.
<Hello,>
I found your cool site accidentally and have learned a lot from reading on it mainly about Black Ghosts (great job keep it up). I have gotten into the hobby on an unfortunate account that my dad had gotten cancer and I was taking care of his fish 2 tanks until he passed away.
<Sorry to hear that.>
Because of getting back to a regular work schedule I was not able to get there regularly anymore to help my step mom take care of the tank, so she asked if I wanted it. I took it to my place using same water transported in buckets did partial water change and so on when I got it to my place. I guess the move was too much for them and the fish got ich and died off after several weeks. ANYWAY, after letting the take "I hope" get healthy so to speak.. as per advice of my LFS put some food in it with no fish said it would keep cycle somewhat going.
<You can indeed cycle a tank by adding a pinch of flake, though you need to also do water changes, and also keep adding portions of food every 2-3 days. As the food rots, it produces ammonia, and that kick-starts the cycle. It will still take the usual 4-6 weeks to fully cycle, and you need to be measuring the nitrite level to see when the cycle is finished. If you just add one pinch of food and leave it at that, then all that happens is that one portion of food decays, the ammonia goes up, goes down, and then nothing much happens. You MUST keep adding food so that the bacteria have a constant source of ammonia. Essentially you're keeping fish, without the fish!>
I turned up the heat to in 90's for couple weeks to hopefully kill off any ich that might of still been in there. Finally getting to the BGK they are such a great fish.
<Yes they are, but also extremely difficult to maintain. Being very sensitive to water quality, under no circumstances would you put one in a tank less than 3 months old. You want the filter to not only cycle, but also "settle down". The problem is that a new aquarium goes through a period where the filter sometimes misbehaves, and you get small nitrite or ammonia spikes. Exposing Apteronotus albifrons to this phase would be a disaster. There's also a period where the fishkeeper needs to get the hang of cleaning the filter without harming the bacteria, and also doing things like siphoning out detritus from the substrate, learning how much food to use, and performing water changes.>
He seems to go against a lot of things I was reading about them. and I guess its on a fish to fish basis.. he is almost always out even with the light on (as matter of fact I am watching him swim around tank now and the light is on, he started eating out of my hand after at first time trying one week after I got him, he eats flakes when I put them in tank for my Kribensis. and he eats frozen bloodworms that I put in tank at lights out.
<All quite normal for well-adjusted, happy animal.>
This brings me to a question. I noticed today that the bottom fin has a couple splits in it What are the usual causes of this?
<Not "usual" but may be either rough handling (netting, transport); biting (by other fish); scratching (check for sharp ornaments or gravel); or early stages of Finrot (check ammonia/nitrite ASAP). You mention Kribensis, and all Pelvicachromis spp. are territorial and quite prone to biting even substantially larger fish. I have a small female Pelvicachromis taeniatus that quite happily charges and chases pufferfish. So while basically good community fish, their feistiness is out of all proportion to their size, as is often the case with that family we call the Cichlidae.>
There doesn't seem to be any discoloration he seems to be aggressive towards my Kribensis that I just put in about 4 days ago though that has become less frequent. Kribensis doesn't seem to like to be around him and swims away when BGK swims near him, so I don't know if Kribensis got brave and did something when lights were out, but as I watch him he still constantly swims away from BGK.
<They are competing for the same resources, namely caves, and will view each other as potential rivals. It is absolutely normal for Pelvicachromis to be utterly peaceful towards midwater fish but total terrors with regard to bottom living species. Does obviously depend on the size of the tank; Apteronotus albifrons will need a big aquarium, something upwards of 220 litres/60 gallons. Anything less and you WILL be asking for trouble. They are fish of fast-flowing rivers, so also need a very strong water current to burn off all their energy. I'd be looking at canister filters providing not less than 6 times the volume of the tank in turnover per hour. Forget about using anything hang-on-the-back or air-powered!>
So was wondering if you had any thoughts on what might cause the splitting of the fin and what I should do so it doesn't get worse. Thank you MUCH... and again thanks for this great site.
<Hope this helps, Neale.>