Can I Add Elephant Noses To My Discus Tank
- Thread starter simonas
- Start date
wastegate
New Member
Should be fine with Discus they are only aggressive with each other, They are mainly nocternal and very timid, most say to feed them at night. Really interesting fish, i have been tempted to get one my self.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
I've heard mixed reviews about Elephantnose Fish being kept in aquariums altogether.
When kept right while most aquarium fish live longer in captivity than they would in the wild, but Elephantnose fish are one of the exceptions to this. Sometimes they die for seemingly no reason at all- some people have theorised this is because;
1. In the wild Elephantnose fish live in deep freshwater tropical rivers where the water is muddy and has poor visibility. The fish lives right at the bottom of the river where it hunts small critters in the mud & murky depths. As a consequence of the poor visibility conditions the Elephantnose has poor eye sight and relies on special electric sensory organs to detect things in its environment. It is very sensitive to electricity. When running tank equipment like filtration & heating in an aquarium the equipment not only generates vibrations & noses which the fish is highly sensitive to, but i have heard this equipment can give off stray electricity which the fish is also sensitive to.
The stress of the noise/vibrations/electricity given off by the tank equipment is one reason people have theorised responsible for Elephantnose fishes shorter life expectancies in captivity.
2. The other is general habitat. In the bottom of these deep murky slow moving muddy rivers that the Elephantnose fish lives in, there is almost no light in the water and the fish lives under a lot of water pressure in a habitat that is free of plants and has a very fine soft silty mud substrate.
Living an aquarium though, the lighting is often very bright and the substrate often tends to be too rough for the Elephantnose fishes delicate mouth to feed off. People often stock the tank with lots of bustling fish which the Elephantnose fish gets easily stressed out by. Basically being in an aquarium for the fish is like living in blindingly bright shallow water in a small space full of decor & fish, in comparison to its more natural habitat which is deeply muddy river water where it lives a pretty solitary life etc.
We still don't know a lot about the lives of Elephantnose fish in their natural habitats but a lot of people already believe that their generally shorter captive life expectancies are due to the difficulties of replicating the Mormyrid's natural habitat. Mormyridae fish (Elephantnose fishes family) are also very sensitive to copper and can be killed by it, but unfortunately Ich medications (and a lot of other anti-parasite medications) contain copper and so sometimes they is very little that can treat the fish if it gets parasites without killing it through the medication.
I once looked into keeping Elephantnose fish a long time ago but after this findings i decided to avoid them as it doesn't look like they can easily be happily kept in aquariums (if at all). They might survive buts its questionable whether they can thrive.
If one was to create a good Elephantnose fish habitat i guess the best habitat would be a deep tank (2-3ft deep) which was long and wide and had a very soft fine freshwater sand substrate, minimal decor, minimal internal tank equipment and no lighting (or very dim lighting at best). Stocking-wise i wouldn't keep them with other bottom dwelling fish (mostly to avoid the other fish out-competing the Elephant nose for food & space) and keep them only with the most peaceful/least boisterous fish in general.
When kept right while most aquarium fish live longer in captivity than they would in the wild, but Elephantnose fish are one of the exceptions to this. Sometimes they die for seemingly no reason at all- some people have theorised this is because;
1. In the wild Elephantnose fish live in deep freshwater tropical rivers where the water is muddy and has poor visibility. The fish lives right at the bottom of the river where it hunts small critters in the mud & murky depths. As a consequence of the poor visibility conditions the Elephantnose has poor eye sight and relies on special electric sensory organs to detect things in its environment. It is very sensitive to electricity. When running tank equipment like filtration & heating in an aquarium the equipment not only generates vibrations & noses which the fish is highly sensitive to, but i have heard this equipment can give off stray electricity which the fish is also sensitive to.
The stress of the noise/vibrations/electricity given off by the tank equipment is one reason people have theorised responsible for Elephantnose fishes shorter life expectancies in captivity.
2. The other is general habitat. In the bottom of these deep murky slow moving muddy rivers that the Elephantnose fish lives in, there is almost no light in the water and the fish lives under a lot of water pressure in a habitat that is free of plants and has a very fine soft silty mud substrate.
Living an aquarium though, the lighting is often very bright and the substrate often tends to be too rough for the Elephantnose fishes delicate mouth to feed off. People often stock the tank with lots of bustling fish which the Elephantnose fish gets easily stressed out by. Basically being in an aquarium for the fish is like living in blindingly bright shallow water in a small space full of decor & fish, in comparison to its more natural habitat which is deeply muddy river water where it lives a pretty solitary life etc.
We still don't know a lot about the lives of Elephantnose fish in their natural habitats but a lot of people already believe that their generally shorter captive life expectancies are due to the difficulties of replicating the Mormyrid's natural habitat. Mormyridae fish (Elephantnose fishes family) are also very sensitive to copper and can be killed by it, but unfortunately Ich medications (and a lot of other anti-parasite medications) contain copper and so sometimes they is very little that can treat the fish if it gets parasites without killing it through the medication.
I once looked into keeping Elephantnose fish a long time ago but after this findings i decided to avoid them as it doesn't look like they can easily be happily kept in aquariums (if at all). They might survive buts its questionable whether they can thrive.
If one was to create a good Elephantnose fish habitat i guess the best habitat would be a deep tank (2-3ft deep) which was long and wide and had a very soft fine freshwater sand substrate, minimal decor, minimal internal tank equipment and no lighting (or very dim lighting at best). Stocking-wise i wouldn't keep them with other bottom dwelling fish (mostly to avoid the other fish out-competing the Elephant nose for food & space) and keep them only with the most peaceful/least boisterous fish in general.
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