Elephant Noses

[RipSlider]

Hi,

I wonder if anyone has owned/researched elephant noses. I'm interested in getting a couple for my new tank, and will have to order them, bit can't find much about them. Not willing to make the under until I've fully researched them.

Looking for things like how peaceful they are, are they sholers, preffered diet, easy of keeping etc, water preferences etc.

Many thanks

Steve

 

[geo7x]

ha! thats a coincidence, i just read a thread that mentioned them

elephant fish are very timid, and fussy fish. and its hard to get them to feed properly, as they are developed for sifting through sand for small inverts and insects.

not very easy to keep by the sounds of things

 

[jayjay]

not easy i used to have 1, i belive they are shoalers and need to be fed bloodworm mine lived about 6 months.....

 

[BHornsey]

Hi,

I've had a few Elephant Nose and I think they're interesting fish.

However, they're finicky eaters. Mine only eat live bloodworm or daphnia or frozen bloodworm and everything else seems to be ignored so you have to be careful or they can become emaciated.

As for temprement I find it varies. A friend of mine kept half a dozen in a group with no trouble.
I bought two together and they were no problem. However, when one died, I bought another to replace it and the first one bullied the newcomer mercilessly. I finally persuaded the LFS to take it back. Others have reported mixed results with them.

They also prefer softer water. Have a browse through the 'oddballs' page

Brian

 

[rusty]

Not very easy i know someone who had 2 for about 5 months when they died

 

[BHornsey]

I've had mine since about November & it's quite healthy. My second one only died because the dopey b*gger got itself wedged under a piece of bogwood during the night. By the time I found him he was a goner <sob!>

What's your water like? Local Sth Yorkshire is a little on the hard side so I invested in an RO unit a little while back. Elephants tend to like softer, slightly acid water. I tend to give live daphnia and bloodworm twice a week, frozen bloodworm otherwise. I also rout out some small earthworms from the garden which he goes nuts for!

I couldn't find an info page on this Forum but here is link to a site off this forum (apologies if there is one - I couldn't find it)

http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/elephnos.htm

Brian

 

[The-Wolf]

This months PFK has an article on them, in short they advise against buying them, as most people can not keep them in "ideal" conditions

 

[ringham]

ha! thats a coincidence, i just read a thread that mentioned them

elephant fish are very timid, and fussy fish. and its hard to get them to feed properly, as they are developed for sifting through sand for small inverts and insects.

not very easy to keep by the sounds of things

I have kept an elephant nose before and it was happily feeding on bloodworm. I seemed to be perfectly happy but then I had to take it back to my LFs because it kept harrasing my other fish, so much for being timid lol. I do't recommend keeing in a community tank. You might want to buy a few because I only kept 1. Buying more than 1 may spread out the aggresion or what ever.

 

[mells]

Hi

I have 1 normal elephant nose, 3 double barrelled elephant nose & elephant nose dolphin.
They all live together and get on fine, they also live with plecs & Ghost Knife & 1 african butterfly.

They are not recommended to be kept with Discus, and thats from my expeirence.

Very few of the elephant noses grow larger than eight inches, many top out at six.

Elephant noses prefer soft water. Adding a teaspoon of salt per gallon always helps.

They are very jumpy, so make sure you have a lid on the tank at all times.

You need some sort of cover for them as they are nocturnal, and yes they prefer live frozen food, I feed mine bloodworm, daphnia, brineshrimp, krill & white worm there favorite is krill & bloodworms.

you need to be carefull with feeding, most elephant noses die of starvation imo they get very thin, I tend to feed mine twice a day whilst keeping a watch full eye on my tank/ water parameters.


Hope the above helps, have you made a decision as to getting one?

I think they are a fantastic fish to keep & watch.

Mells