Mormyrinae Fish

[mells]

Does anyone keep Mormyrinae fish?

I am interested to know if anyone keeps any other type of fish from the same family as the elephant nose.

I keep one common elephant nose, three Longnose Elephants & a Freshwater dolphin.

I have only came across four different fish from the same family......

Apparently there is around 200 species of different types of fish from the Mormyrinae family, and yet there is not a lot of information about them that is out there.

Mells

 

[annka5]

Hi Mells,

Nope, i don't keep them but really like elephant noses and keep wondering if I could fit a second tank somewhere without it leading to divorce so's I could keep them... I think you'll find info /keepers in the oddballs section.

 

[nmonks]

Mormyrids are usually tackled in the Oddballs section.

They aren't easy fish to keep. Some species tend to be quite aggressive (territorial), and most are picky about their food, preferring live worms and such but also taking frozen bloodworms. Be careful there are no fish with them that will steal the food first (like catfish). Not all species will take dry foods. They need a soft substrate such as sand, and should not be kept in tanks with gravel. The species with barbels (the "nose") use it to hunt for food, and if forced to root about in gravel the barbel gets damaged, leading to infections. Mormyrids are sensitive to (i.e., are killed by) copper-based medications such as whitespot and fungus treatment, so if they do get sick, treating them is very difficult. Mormyrids prefer soft water, but more important is water quality; they respond poorly (i.e., get sick) in tanks with immature filters or too-infrequent water changes. Finally, they are completely nocturnal, and some species never become active during the day, however settled in they are.

When I was at university we kept Marcusenius spp. in aquaria rigged up with oscilloscopes so we could "see" the electric signals. Very cool.

There is an excellent book about them and other ancient fishes called "Jurassic Fishes". I bought a copy years ago when keeping bichirs, and have never regretted it. It's a first rate book, but can sometimes be expensive to obtain because it is out of print.

Cheers,

Neale