Elephant Nose

[Gankutsuou]

Elephant noses are quite the oddball in my opinion. So what is there to know?

Correct me if I'm wrong... but....

A: They take their time getting to food and people worry about them not getting enough
B: They eat tubiflex and bloodworms
C: They need a fairly planted tank with some sort of cave hiding
D: Super sensitive to water conditioning

So what else is there to know about them? I'm trying to set my tank up to the point where I can save one from petco, as we know nothing like that could ever last there.

I've set up an aquaclear that does filtration up to 5.28x total gallons per hour on my tank, gotten it planted, dug out under slate to make a cave big enough....

I've made sure my water is good on ph and ammonia.

It's not that competitive an enviornment, with a senegal I can hand feed and peacock eels, whom people also worry about not eating. I've moved things into my 10 in order to help with the bioload. I've researched on them quite a bit.

what else is there?

 

[4ftguppy]

You can set up a blue marine tube (weak light though) to turn on after lights out. This simulates moonlight sort of, so you can see the fish, but its still sort of dark. Feed when this is on.

Try whiteworms (easier to culture in large numbers, free from aquatic diseases) as a food source - especially if you have a shallow sandy substrate. If they wriggle too far under gravel, the elephant nose may not be able to dig them out, and they only survive underwater for a few days. They have good electric field sensitvity, and will find live food underground as long as they can dig it out. They are incredibly intelligent (brain to body mass ratio is greater than a humans) and would probably enjoy hunting for their food in the same way zoo animals prefer to.

If you have gravel substrate consider swapping some or all for sand - or put a plastic barrier down (that worms can't wriggle through) cover with sand, and feed live worms there only

One thing about rescuing fish though - if it sells they will probably get in more, which kind of defeats the object.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

I've set up an aquaclear that does filtration up to 5.28x total gallons per hour on my tank, gotten it planted, dug out under slate to make a cave big enough....

I've made sure my water is good on ph and ammonia.

It's not that competitive an enviornment, with a senegal I can hand feed and peacock eels, whom people also worry about not eating. I've moved things into my 10 in order to help with the bioload.

(1) 5x filtration is adequate not exceptional

(2) you have a single cave in that tank; the vast majority of territorial fish that like to hide in caves don't like to share. you'd need as many caves as you have fish plus at least one extra.

(3) what do you mean "good on pH and ammonia"? its really best not to fiddle with pH using additives and you really shouldn't have to even worry about ammonia levels once your tank is cycled. what you really need to make certain that you have under control are the nitrAte levels--that's the end product of the waste cycle and what you are trying to remove via water changes and plantings.

(4) you have too many fish in the 10 gallon. fixing the stocking of one tank by overstocking another really isn't solving anything. its just creating a different problem. you need to stop buying fish until you have more tank space available.

 

[Gankutsuou]

Actually - it's not a matter of taking off VS the cave...

the terriory that they're all taking up is in the forest of wisteria I've made.....

and to me, 5x Is great. I didn't say acceptional. I know a lot of people here do so much more.

and by good ph and ammonia, I mean that they both tested out to be 7.0 and 0. I know that Elephant noses are sensitive. Any additive other than stress coats would probably annoy them.

And honestly, I don't see how that's too many in the 10. The khuli was another beginner mistake I need to get out, the glowlite is there as a 3 year remnant, and then there's an african butterfly and ram. Rams are argued on as 10 VS 15. As are african butterflys. There are extreem views on them from both sides to be set.

yes- as the sig says, it's sand substrate.

and sigh, they had 2... one was about to die from disease.... the other one was perfectly healthy, which I got after a long discussion in the chat with some experinced people, even from my local area.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

if one of them was sick, then you should definitely quarantine the other one. otherwise you risk introducing additional diseases to your tanks.

 

[Gankutsuou]

The two were kept in completly different tanks, with completly different fish. (thank god)

and for good reason, I might add ,as unless there are 5+ elephant noses in a tank, they abuse each other without making a pecking order.

My elephant nose has no sign of sickness, and in the 10 gallon would be hurting itself on the gravle, as well as the ceramic buildings I have set. I exaimed the nose carefully before emmiting him in, and he showed no signs.

I probably should be quarnteening... but where will I get a 10 gallon with perfect water for that, as the 10 in use is barely stable due to cloning?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

as the 10 in use is barely stable due to cloning?

...which i would cite as a reason to not get more fish, but we have widely disparate attitudes towards stocking.

here's a topic that I've made in the past about using a bucket as a quarantine set-up. while in the topic I suggest using an airstone and a Whisper internal filter insert, I now think that it's just as easy to go on ahead and purchase the smallest size Whisper internal filter and just keep it off to the side somewhere. the insert should still be kept in your main filter, however.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=98545&hl=

FYI: it only takes a couple of days' exposure for a bacterial colony to begin forming in proper aerobic conditions. if you do daily water changes and limit feeding (both of which I would advocate anyways for the quarantine period), then not having a fully colonized filtration system shouldn't be an issue because there just shouldn't be that much waste in the water column.

--EDIT--
also, Petco keeps their tanks in blocks of 6 or 8 which share filtration. plus they use the same nets/bagging equipment for all of their tanks--a minor source of cross-contimination, but potentially significant. unless your elephant nose was in a different block of tanks from the sickie, there's a decent chance of him being ill as well.

 

[Gankutsuou]

That is true.

It was sickeningly horrid how the other looked... but I think there were other issues such as the agressive tankmates it was kept with compared to the one I got. The other one had open wounds where the diseases had begun using openwounds, either that, or caused them, because there was bleeding where there was white.

Unfortunatly, it was in the same block....

Thank you for making me aware of this. But with such a super sensitive fish, it would probably require much more stable water conditions.... I'm just usure right now... but honestly, you have very good points I did not consider, espeically with petco's pet keeping.

 

[fishfantastic]

In my opinion your tank is to small for elaphant noses.I have one in a 150 gal and one in a 55gal.Neither one is shy at feeding time and are doing very well. I feed mlne bloodworms and shrimp.The one in the 55 is active all day and enjoys teasing everything in the tank I think he believes he is acory cat because he swims with them costantly. The other one is not quit as active during the day but still holds its own at feeding time.

 

[Gankutsuou]

If mine turns out to get to big, I'll gladly give him to a better home that takes great care of their fish, namely my best LFS I'm sure he;'d work in the peaceful display tanks.

And are you talking brine shrimp? Thawed cubes? Because if that works, I'll wana test it, as I've got both, but have just been using bloodworms since I got him.

 

[fishfantastic]

The shrimp i use is called MYSIS. It is a fresh water shrimp.Brine shrimp should work.I didnt relize it was in a 38gal i thought you were putting it in the 10gal.

 

[Gankutsuou]

oh dear god no! Only for quarntein if needed! and my german ram is unfortunatly showing that the water quality in that would be far too poor.... he's not taking the adjustment well... sigh

stupid unstable cloning.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

when did you get the ram, anyways?

 

[Gankutsuou]

About a week and a half ago, before I ever saw the elephant nose. I was thinking of trying to get a male/female pair as the centerpieces, which would have also been easier on the biload, and use the african butterfly to top it off. But they had males only... and the new african butterflys were nowhere near draguun's cool black/gold coloration, but still pretty cool.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

centerpiece for the 38g or the 10g? if the 38g, then you're a braver soul than i! one ram should be ok in the 10g with the tetra/khuli, but a candystripe pleco and the ABF would be pushing it in my estimation. candystripes are little panaques, right? then that's one messy carnivore in that tank! and ABF get a bit big, but that would be a great grow-out tank for him.

i know that you pulled the candystripe out of the 38g so that he'd stop beating up the syno, but have you given any further thought to how you might could re-integrate him? i know that my plecs have always preferred the caves that are significantly wider than they are tall; maybe adding a long, low cave to the 38g would persuade the candystripe to keep out of the slate cave.

when you gonna post some pics?!? i wanna see this wisteria you keep bragging on