Finally!

[nmonks]

Thanks for this, very kind!

You seem to be aware of the main problems with keeping Gnathonemus. Provided you keep the fish singly in a large tank with a sandy substrate, you should be fine. Quarantining is really something to be recommended though. The whitespot issue is serious -- these fish simply don't tolerate many medications, and using any of them is a risk. Skin infections are another problem, most common when people keep them in tanks with gravel instead of sand. The chin barbel gets scratched. I personally consider these fish *incompatible* with gravel.

In the long term, you're going to need more than 100 litres. These are highly territorial fish, and their electric field probably irritates many fish when they are crammed together. Adult Gnathonemus are quite large, and need very good water quality. On the plus side, pH and hardness aren't much of an issue. So big (50%) water changes on a weekly basis are essential.

Nice fish they are. We kept them at university, complete with the oscilloscope set-up to "see" and "hear" the electric signals. Very cool.

Cheers, Neale

Theres a good 4 page spread in this months PFK about these fish writen by n monks. It is very good

 

[mlawson]

Theres a good 4 page spread in this months PFK about these fish writen by n monks. It is very good

Indeed, I found it very interesting and learnt a lot as Mormyrids are one of my favourite family of fish, I also found it strange that they are most related to Arowanas.

 

[penguin22]

After having "peter" for just over a month he has died. I have been decorating my living room for the last week (the living room is 3 rooms away from where "peter" is kept). Thursday night I discovered a light film on the tanks water surface, this was dust as the carpet had been taken up but it also had tiny paint particles in it. I could not believe this had got into my tank as its kept so far away. I did a 30 per cent water change but a tiny film still remained. The fish all seemed fine then when I got home from work Friday I did another water change and water seemed to be much better but during the night "peter" didnt seem himself he didnt eat as much as usual and seemed lethargic. This morning I found him dead he had a white shade to him. There is no dought in my mind it was the decorating which has killed this fish because everthing was going so well and he had really settled in. Thankyou everyone who has replyed to this post and im gutted that it has ended like this. I will keep elephant noses again but not for a very long time people who are keeping them or plan to good luck they are amazing fish but as this post proves the slightest mishap in their water quality will probably be fatal.

 

[demonmagus]

oh no! that's awful