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Elephant nose fish

•Cai•

•Cai•

Member
Joined
4 Dec 2015
Messages
218
Location
Hartlepool
Hi all. Ive recently received an elephant nose fish and was wondering what others opinions on these quirky guys are. It makes me laugh everytime i see it swim by.
 
As far as i know they are not the easiest fish to keep.. But never had one, i'm forgot what the downfalls were, to long ago but i decided not to take them because it wouldn't fit in my setup.

What i found realy funny, this fish is found in the Africa in the Nile river. And in norway the have a vacuum cleaner brand called Nilfisk.. Never realy realised till i was once in Norway saw a Nilfisk service car it had the image of this fish on it.. :) I had to laugh, and it finaly got to me.. Nile Fish and indeed if you look at the very early vacuum cleaner models.. There is a striking resemblance.. And who would expect an African Nile Fish beeing a mascote of an Norwegian vacuum cleaner brand. :lol:
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Probably Gnathonemus petersii, i had one a number of years ago and as you say quite comical to look at as it goes about its business:D. They can get quite large , upto 9 inches , so ideally need to be in a suitably large tank. One thing they do require is a soft sandy substrate to nose around in as they look for food, the bottom lip is prone to becoming damaged if the substrate is anything but sandy. mine wasn't fussy about food but really liked the occasional chopped up earth worm:) . The other thing i would say is that being a nocturnal fish they don't like bright lights , so depending on your set up it might be wise to offer food after lights off if it appears to be hiding during the day time.
 
Its 200 litre and well planted. Ive moved my light higher up to dim the tank a littke as most plants in this setup are low energy anyway. I understand they are used to test water quality for certain water companies in germany due to the fussiness of water parameters it requires. I really love it regardless of the challenges it may pose. My substrate is partly samd and part gravel with roots throughout. Hopefully i keep it happy. I like idea of discus with it due to them both requiring impeccable water conditions
 
Fortunately these are no longer as common in the trade as they were some years ago
- they are wild caught & many don't end up well, they are sensitive to most of the dye medications but also susceptible to ich etc
They've been showing up occasionally lately, I've seen both Gnathonemus petersii & another unidentified elephant nose (but reportedly smaller max size ~6in) in a lfs

It's recommended to avoid any metals in the tank so stainless steel filter pipes should be avoided, also grounding probes (these seem to have fallen out of fashion ;)), metal heaters etc

As always Seriously Fish offers some good information
 
Thanks @foxfish i do hope i havent goneband burnt my fingers being so impulsive in the aquarium shop. It was just so unique and quirky i was like a child wanting something. I will try my very best to keep it happy. I was told they liked to be in groups however others have said keep them singularly. I know they are very shy and require/demand very good water parameters. I will be very upset if i fail it. It sounds silly but it looks at me as if it has more behind those eyes than a normal fish. Its as if there is a judgement been made on me lol. Perhaps its the look of the elephant/dolphin it resembles.
 
•Cai• said:
being so impulsive in the aquarium shop.
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•Cai• said:
I will be very upset if i fail it.
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you sound like you'll be a great caretaker :)

•Cai• said:
I was told they liked to be in groups however others have said keep them singularly
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this is the usual conundrum seen with some fish - they do best in groups but also display conspecific aggression :confused:
in other words, keep a group in a large enough tank :D
which is easy enough with chocolate gouramis but not so easy with your elephant nose

Unless you've a large enough tank - I think 20 - 25 "gallons"/elephant nose is suggested which is somewhat about territorial space rather than them simply being "messy" fish (though as adults that 25gal/fish rule would help with water parameters) - I think you'd do best with a single fish re a group should contain at least 5-6 individuals.

Just remember this is a significant sized fish so feed appropriately - at dusk - try to wait for the tetras to "go to bed" as I suspect they will quickly gulp down ellie's share + their own

Some reports have they eating anything, others suggest they are choosy - likely this reflects their general health & well-being; also look at their natural diet & feed appropriately re their digestive tract (especially as wild caught fish) will be set up for this sort of diet.
 
It does look as if the area under the wood & swords should work as a "shaded" area - flow remains good for any fish that may be resting back there.
Next I'd work on extending a shade zone into the sand so that ellie feels comfortable venturing there to sift for food
 
I had one - probably the same species as yours - a long time ago, they were quite common in the hobby back then.
I kept it in a 50 gallon tank with a shoal of cardinals. I seem to remember it lasting a fair while, and seeing it quite a bit during the day.
The tank was heavily planted with a large piece of bog wood; there was a lot of shade. I don't actually think they are nocturnal as such, they just need a sort of perpetual twilight.
I don't think they are fussy about water parameters either, just that they remain stable; easier to do in a larger tank.
Other than that I don't really remember giving it any special treatment although I often fed it live food including, tubifex, bloodworm, and mosquito larvae. It was great watching it rootling around in the gravel pulling the worms out. And I think a live food diet, keeping it well fed and happy, is key to its longevity.
 
Thanks for info @Tim Harrison. Im currently working on light for him/her. It currently likes to hide under main wood piece as its caved under there. My 'sidonisis' made it that way but has recently been evicted by ellie. I struggle to find a dealer this way that sells live food. Ive bought some dried bloodworm and daphnea and have been holding it next to it to try n make sure i know they are feeding. Currently it comes close then dashes off which is understandable. I read an i teresting article on these fish stating its brain is size of a humans in regards to its size. They seem very clever. Nothing like anything ive kept before i have to say. Ive closed my tank off too from hearimg horror stories of them jumping out. I hear you can communicate with them with a pair of electrode rods too. I wont be planning on any football discussions soon however. Haha.
 
I kept a small group in a lfs display for a couple of years. The one food they were nutty about was bloodworm, which was frozen not live (not a huge fan of freeve dred as i found nothing really likes them compared to other juicier stuff). I also used to throw in white worms from a culture I had and worms of all kinds were greedily accepted. My sis would also be gobbled but not as enthusiastically.
I think your tank is pretty well set up with the wood but ideally you'd have a sandy substrate throughout, not that I would change it though. I'd maybe add a few root hugging plants on the right side of the wood to create a little more cover over the sand which would be the best place to feed it. You can also get cheap blue LED lights which extend the viewing hours of the tank and make seeing Ellie easier.
 
Ive ordered some amazon frogbit and intend on fencing it in over the samd with some fishing line and suction cups. Once the java ferns throughout mature il be happier. All sand throughout may be an option at some point if i have to. I only used the gravel as ive ada amazonia under it and didnt want it all mixing and getting messed up in there.
What are they like with remineralising salts like salty shrimp and also fertilisers in form of micro and macro mixes. I havent dosed anything as of yet but would like to know fkr future reference.
 
Sorry I didn't really add anything to the water so hope fully someone more clever than i can help. We had a water softener and I just added a little tap to the RO. The plants were mostly aponogeton bulbs and they were fed with root tabs, so no real dosing either. My guess would be that as long as you didn't over do it then you'd be fine. The group we had seemed to settle down and were pretty good. I think we lost 1 of the 8 at the beginning but the others seemed reasonably hardy when acclimated. Some if the success may be because peat was added when the tank was set up (by an old thinking aquarist not myself) so the water was always heavily covered making them feel secure.

And you gotta love the way a tablet changes what you thought you wrote. In my last post read freeze dried instead of freeve dred (whatever that is) and mysis not my sis.
 
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