ghost knife companions

As owner of several black ghosts for years, I would say the round body Silver Dollars will be fine. The rosy barbs would also be fine if they are big enough. Small, slender tetras are definitely in danger. The rams have mixed personalities that may trigger a fatal attack by the ghost.

Small loaches or cat fish may "hit" the ghost accidentally at night and may get cut in half by the ghost, even if the ghost won't eat it! One thing I had observed was that if they know/recognize each others after a few days, "accidents" like that won't happen, and after that period, they can even share the same cave for years without incidents.

My Ghost
 
it looks as if they do not have very large mouths so how would a young one be able to kill and eat a 2" blue ram? I really want one, but not if it would kill them... the clown loaches are almost 3"
 
You can also try an African Black Knife (not as black as a black ghost, but still cool). They'll reach about eight inches in a home aquarium, a little over a foot in the wild.
 
I'm not concerning about ghost trying to eat the ram, but the rams getting killed by the jaw of the ghost fish at night accidentally, or if the rams happen to annoy the ghost during the day at his hiding place.

Don't be fool by the shape of black/brown ghost head. They have very large mouth. I have seen picture/video of lived brown ghost with mouth open nearly 180 degree in a threat display. For black ghost with open jaw, some pictures can be found here (about middle of the page):

Black Ghost Info

The way black ghost hunting prey is very fun to watch: they would swim past the small fish, and when the small fish thinks that the danger is already passed, the ghost would suddenly swim backward at amazing speed and angle that positions its mouth right on the "target"...

Cheers,
 
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Other large peaceful fish would be good tank mates. Even though they can take out fish when they get larger you if to be careful about other fish abusing it. Avoid aggressive Cichlids and other known nippers.

I have my BGK with the fish below. He is still very small but things are going ok so far. -- Very interesting fish to have.
 
I have mine with large angels, large goby and they've been together for a long time without problem. Any largeer fish, not so aggressive, and not fin-nipper would be fine.

One thing to be careful is to make sure the ghost having enough food in the beginning, when it's still timid. So fast bottom feeder such as loaches and catfishes may take all the foods before the ghost having a chance to get them. To solve this you may have to use "precision feeding" method where you put the food directly in front of the ghost hiding place. I used PVC tube (for frozen bloodworm) and long stick (for freezed dried tubifex) to feed the ghost in the beginning. After awihile, the ghost will come out (and up) to get the food by itself, and bullying others for "good" feeding spot.

They need DARK cave for hiding. Don't waste your money on transparent "ghost house". The fish has bad eyesight but is not blind! It will notice bright and dark, and will much perfer dark place.
 
I have decided Im going to risk it with the rams... if I start to notice problems, I'll put the rams in a different tank. I have heard that its good to put a piece of slate up against the front of your tank. It tricks them every time and it would be a lot darker... but I am also going to put clay flower pots in the tank tilted on their side for the Rams because I would like for them to breed just for fun. thank you for all of the input. If I kept a supply of feeder guppies in the tank at any given time I bet the knife would have even less chances of killing the rams because it would never be hungry. Plus the Rams tend to stay towards their own territory so I'll create a territory for the knifes on the total opposite side. Now the problem is finding one that is smaller in size.
 
As in the private message I replied to you. It will be pretty hard for the ram not to get stressed out at night guarding the eggs or babies with the ghost constantly scanning the bottom like a...vacuum cleanner.

BTW, my rams seem to prefer flat slate for breeding and would ignore the flower pot (which is the favorite among convicts)
 
Although I have always loved ghosts I am not going to get one... thanks a lot everyone esp aquaghost... we must have similar interest in fish huh. I dont really care if my rams breed but it just would kind of be an added bonus but im not going to strive for it. But I do love my rams none the less so I dont want to risk them getting eaten so I think now maybe an elephant nose? I just want to have a "weird" fish that is not common
 
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