Elephant Nose Fish!

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sara19

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hi there, below youl see what i have already in my tank, we have a new fish contact that acctually distributes the fish to our local shops and we asked him for these very hard to fish fish... the long nosed elephant fish, we got a messege today saying he has them.
it was either 6pound each or 5 for 25, my tanks isnt the biggest and i know they grow 10 - 12 inches but if a 20inch ghost fish would be okay in my tank would 3 elephant noses do alright instead ? (( dont worry the ghost is in a different tank)
I didnt know quite where to post it, its a strange fish so i thought of you guys, cant wait to hear what you think.
Thanks everyone!
 
Are you talking about Campylomormyrus tamandua or Gnathonemus petersii? The latter is regularly traded, if not exactly common; the former is pretty rare, and I only see it once every few years. They're similar in general terms, though Campylomormyrus tamandua is the bigger of the two species.

Most mormyrids are intolerant of one another* under aquarium conditions, and I'd recommend keeping either a singleton or a group of 5 or 6 specimens. They don't grow especially fast, but as I've mentioned elsewhere on TFF, they aren't easy to keep. They're slow feeders, and should be the only bottom feeders in the tank, certainly the only nocturnal bottom feeders. Soft sand is practically essential, and I wouldn't bother keeping them in a tank with a gravel substrate, no matter how smooth you think it is. As doubtless you know, they won't eat dried or pellet foods, and must be fed either wet-frozen or live foods, and in goodly quantities at that.

Cheers, Neale

*Something to do with the electric fields interfering with one another.
 
thats for the info, really does help, i havent exactly bought them yet im awar there a shoaling fish and should be kept with 3 - 6 of their own species but i just dont want to add too many at a time, and althought the internet is filled with false information thought id let you know of my findings, the long nosed elephant fish use there electric receptors to locate food, find eachother and communicate ... isnt that amazing! mostly feed our fish on live most of the time anyways, we were thinking of putting sand in the tank but havent decided, i guess its a yes, im aware there hard to keep.
People have said Ghost Knife Fish are hard to keep ...... i dont think thats the case.
Dont suppose you know how much these are in the shops do you? were getting them for 6pounds each hehe.
Thanks again!
 
Price obviously depends on size, availability in your area, and so on. But anything between £5-10 is about normal for these mormyrids. When buying them, buy as large a group as you can. Adding additional specimens weeks after the first specimen is added will only lead to fighting.

Apteronotus albifrons is indeed hard to keep; when your specimen is 10 years old and 50 cm long, then tell me you found it easy to keep!

Cheers, Neale
 
LOL
I hope i can, but i love this strange fish and ive wanted them for a while. i understand its hard to care for them but theres nothing more i like now than caring for my tank and playing with them all, im up for hard work!
But im so soft if one dies id be all blubbery haha, but only time will tell i guess!
Thanks alot for the tips :)
i have to buy sand dont i? *huffs*
 
Yep; for mormyrids (and indeed knifefish) plain vanilla smooth silica sand from the garden centre is fine. A 25 kg bag costs around £3, so it's not expensive. Do clean it well though! Garden centre sand is notoriously silty, and if you don't clean it well, your tank will be quite murky for a week or two!

Cheers, Neale
i have to buy sand dont i? *huffs*
 
I had a single Gnathonemus petersii as i didnt have room for a group and found it to be quite aggressive as it grew. I had it in with Geo's , kissing gouramis and a senegal bichir . It had harrased the bicher the most but wasnt scared about attacking the cichlids or the gourami's so i sold it on . For the first few weeks of having it i didnt see it but after that it was constantly mooching around . Intresting looking fish , check the pic of the one i had in the species index shows the mouth which is really wierd.
 
I have two Black Ghost Knife Fish breeding pair 12" long with one Elephant Nose Fish 10" long with two Severums and pleco. And they been together for about 4 years.
 
I wouldn't house them with ghost knife I mean if it works for you congratulations, but they don't always get along so be careful with that. And ghost knife are actually very easy as long as you have proper tank size for their growth.
 

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