Couple Of Qs About Elephant Nose's

[J.H]

Heloo

I've been thinking of getting some for a while now and have been slowly preparing my tank i.e up grading the filtration changing to peat and sand and making some caves. anyhow for the Qs I'm not sure which to get campylo mormyrus (double trunk) or gnathonemus petersii (common) any thoughts?

second my tank is 190l well planted and plenty of caves i was originally going to get 3 but was speaking to a guy at my lfs who said to get a bigger group i.e 6 and if they are young they will be fine together theres so many different views on the internet though so I don't no who to believe...

third there are a pair of angels in my tank which I'm planning on keeping there along with some shrimps do you think they'll get on ok? am wondering weather the shrimps will become dinner? was thinking of getting a pair of kribs but am thinking that may over crowd things a bit?

think thats about it any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[BHornsey]

Hi,

Elephants are territorial. You either need to get single or a group. Most people find six works so that any agression is shared out.
I did have a pair that I bought together and they were OK. When one died, I bought a replacement and the incumbent, having claimed the territory, hounded it ceaselessly. After two days I took it back to the LFS.

Now that I have a 6' tank set up I've bought a group of six and so far they're fine.

Personally, I prefer the St Peters variety. My new ones are still nocturnal, soon as a light comes on they dive for cover. However, my first one, in my Trigon 190, comes out all day long, particularly at feed times.

I don't have Angels but I have some Discus and plenty of shrimps and they are no problem. Elephant's mouths are quite small; they wont take other fish. At feed time it's quite comical as the oldest elephant will happily barge Discus out of his way to get at the food. I normally give bloodworm, live or frozen, or dried tubifex or small garden worms.

 

[J.H]

Thanks for your reply think I'm gonna go with the double trunk's as I like them better haven't seen them in any of my lfs's though so may get commons in the end lol.

Think what I might do is get a pair and see if they get on or not if they don't ill take one back. So if all goes well the tank (190 l) will have:
2 double trunks
2 angels
a clown plec
shrimps
think I'd then maybe add one other species maybe a group of hatchet or some livebears to keep the live food flowing or a pair of any of these not sure which lol not sure though any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[J.H]

anybody got any opinions on the list above?

 

[BHornsey]

Sorry, I've no experience of double trunks, just St Peter's.
If double trunks are similar then you need to be careful of 'turf wars' though I found if I bought two from the same tank at the LFS they were normally OK. Just ask your LFS if they would be happy to take one back if you have trouble.