Rare Adult Elephant Fish, Or So I Was Told.

[karin15]

I bought a 10 inch long elephant nose, he was in a tank with 2 wierd looking long silver eel type things that swam at the top and looked like they had a toung sticking from there chins, and a big red tail catfish (2 feet or so), now he is siting in my 55 gallon long tank with comunity fish such as (the usaul nooby fish, angles gormai's corrys and what not. (full list on profile)

so basicaly i know 4 things about her
there nocturnal
there hudge! (at least to me)
they eat blood worms
they change color alot
there super cute!!!!

he seems ok, he was like brown with white stripes, but now hes like completly black with faint white stripes i cant tell if hes eating or not, i added 2 blocks of frozen blood worms into the tank then turned off the light, i saw a very active shadow swiming around, he spent most of his time underneth a pice of drift wood when the light was on ocasionaly swiming freely, i just pointed my screen towards the tank and he still is swiming around like he was an hour ago.

is he behaveing normaly? are my heading for disaster? he seems fine to me... but then again i am a noob, ive only been in this hoby for about 5 mounths(i had a 20 gallon 2 days ago, so the tank is very new i moved all the fish and the gravel and the plants and filter parts over to the new tank so there shouldnt be a runng period(or should there...) half of the tanks gravel is from an 25 gallon tank basicaly.

he was a well looked after pet, I realy dont want her to die she is the coolest fish in my tank.

(also this thursday a buterfly fish will also be movine into the tank.)

did i mention i keep hearing him trying to jump out *i was told to seal all the holes even with rags if i had to temperaraly i know why now*

i'm so exited ive only had this tank 2 days and its 1:30 am and ive only had the fish for about 9 hours or so

 

[karin15]

I bought a 10 inch long elephant nose, he was in a tank with 2 wierd looking long silver eel type things that swam at the top and looked like they had a toung sticking from there chins, and a big red tail catfish (2 feet or so), now he is siting in my 55 gallon long tank with comunity fish such as (the usaul nooby fish, angles gormai's corrys and what not. (full list on profile)

so basicaly i know 4 things about her
there nocturnal
there hudge! (at least to me)
they eat blood worms
they change color alot
there super cute!!!!

he seems ok, he was like brown with white stripes, but now hes like completly black with faint white stripes i cant tell if hes eating or not, i added 2 blocks of frozen blood worms into the tank then turned off the light, i saw a very active shadow swiming around, he spent most of his time underneth a pice of drift wood when the light was on ocasionaly swiming freely, i just pointed my screen towards the tank and he still is swiming around like he was an hour ago.

is he behaveing normaly? are my heading for disaster? he seems fine to me... but then again i am a noob, ive only been in this hoby for about 5 mounths(i had a 20 gallon 2 days ago, so the tank is very new i moved all the fish and the gravel and the plants and filter parts over to the new tank so there shouldnt be a runng period(or should there...) half of the tanks gravel is from an 25 gallon tank basicaly.

he was a well looked after pet, I realy dont want her to die she is the coolest fish in my tank.

(also this thursday a buterfly fish will also be movine into the tank.)

did i mention i keep hearing him trying to jump out *i was told to seal all the holes even with rags if i had to temperaraly i know why now*

i'm so exited ive only had this tank 2 days and its 1:30 am and ive only had the fish for about 9 hours or so

ps: thanks for the info CFC!

 

[CFC]

Colour changes are assosiated with stress, the black is the natural non stressed colouring so it sounds like things are going well, watch for colour changes as these can be an indication of poor water quality or harrassment from another tankmate, if you get colour changes that last longer than a few minutes then test the water parameters and keep an eye out for bullying.

 

[karin15]

Colour changes are assosiated with stress, the black is the natural non stressed colouring so it sounds like things are going well, watch for colour changes as these can be an indication of poor water quality or harrassment from another tankmate, if you get colour changes that last longer than a few minutes then test the water parameters and keep an eye out for bullying.

none of the fish are bullying him there sort of scared of him, do you know any good toys, because i heard things like there realy smart and they like to play with balls of tin foil and stuff like that

 

[CFC]

You could try getting some of those moss ball plants for them to push around, plastic tubes are always good.

 

[Breeze7050]

Did you fully cycle your new tank? I would hold off on putting any more fish in it for now. Also, I think a 10" elephant fish is a little too big for your aquarium. Especially with other fish in it. What else do you have?
Be sure to keep doing your water changes, especially if you aren't fully cycled!
Congrats on the new "oddball"

 

[karin15]

You could try getting some of those moss ball plants for them to push around, plastic tubes are always good.

cool! thats a good idea moss balls are realy strange looking too so they would be a good adition to my planted tank.


this is sorta weird news, i think i'm guna acedently cross breeding gorami's, i bought a gold gorami, and it seems to be courting with my 3 dot gorami! its so weird and there trying to make a bubble nest, theres to much water circulation though. (power head and 2 hang on filters)

oh and my amonia is staying the same for now (zero or at least so clear that i cant tell the difference between the test result and clear water), its been about 3 days since ive set up the tank and shocked the envirement with a good stock of fish, however there was a nirite spike this morning before i did a 20percent water change useing a gravel vacume.

all my fish look much happyer in the new thank, the elephant nose is just sorta staying a dark black color with a faint white strip

i put in a big krill maby half a centemeter long, and now its gone perhaps the elepant nose got it, unfortunatly no way to be sure, however i know that the last time i tryed to feed my fish krill none of them could swolow them and i found them generateing nitrite on the botom of the tank the next day.

- Thanks for your suport!
karin

 

[karin15]

Did you fully cycle your new tank? I would hold off on putting any more fish in it for now. Also, I think a 10" elephant fish is a little too big for your aquarium. Especially with other fish in it. What else do you have?
Be sure to keep doing your water changes, especially if you aren't fully cycled!
Congrats on the new "oddball"

thanks!
Well the pet store owner told me that if i was only getting a tank twice as big as the old one, adding in all the water gravel and runing both filters together would dodge the runing period completly, however ive had some people that say that isnt true, test results are showing at least no amonia runing period has started, and it has already been 3 days since the shock of adding all the new fish and plants (tecknicaly old because the only new fish is the elephant nose.)

10 cm is including tail, he is realy big though but the tank is probably 4 or 5 times his lenght and twice his length aross, it is designed to have lots of surface space (55 gallon)
tank mates incude all the ones on my profile. 1 koy angel
1 red eye angel
1 dwarf gorami
1 bolivain ram
2 shred fin rainbows
5 neon tetra's
4 corrys
1 blue paradise fish.
2 wonder gold killifish.
1 leaperd weather loach.
1 very small yoyo loach.
1 tiny little algy eater thingy, not realy shure what it is, i found it a pond behind my house and i think its sorta cute looking

( he could easily swollow the neons thats the only fish i am worried about)

do you think the tank is too small then? its not over crowded swiming space wise at least


gosh... i'm starting to doubt everything i know about fish, i hope the guy was right about the runing period thing, when i cycled my tank it spiked with amonia in the first few days, this tank is having none of those kind of symptoms

 

[Gankutsuou]

when i cycled my tank it spiked with amonia in the first few days, this tank is having none of those kind of symptoms

please explain your cycle. That would help us all out a lot.

And no - and elephant nose is not too big for a 55.
Mine is in a 38, which yes, will get a little cramped as everything gets full sized, but I'd say mine is a good 8 inches, and does fine if you do live plants for them to hide around and in. Space wise he looks like he's "having a good time", a fine rescue mission. I've made 2 slave caves which pretty much house the False flying fox, Vampire shrimp, and candy pleco.
The Senegal is all over the tank, but usually the top more often than the bottom in the day....

The peacock eels once in a while intrude into the caves, more often than not now, but generally lace themselves in the top layer of wisteria, and my elephant nose hands around the bottom.

 

[karin15]

when i cycled my tank it spiked with amonia in the first few days, this tank is having none of those kind of symptoms

please explain your cycle. That would help us all out a lot.

And no - and elephant nose is not too big for a 55.
Mine is in a 38, which yes, will get a little cramped as everything gets full sized, but I'd say mine is a good 8 inches, and does fine if you do live plants for them to hide around and in. Space wise he looks like he's "having a good time", a fine rescue mission. I've made 2 slave caves which pretty much house the False flying fox, Vampire shrimp, and candy pleco.
The Senegal is all over the tank, but usually the top more often than the bottom in the day....

The peacock eels once in a while intrude into the caves, more often than not now, but generally lace themselves in the top layer of wisteria, and my elephant nose hands around the bottom.

well i mean a few mounths ago when i got my 20 gallon tank the amonia whent realy high for about a week then the nitrite and then finaly the nitrate, when i tested the water after moving everythnig i got this: amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5. (my 20 gallon conditions were very simular, expt it was 10-15 nitrate)

this morning my 55 gallon tested, 0 amonia, 0.3 nitrte, 10 nitrate, because i over fead the night before to try to make shure that the elepant nose got food, i fead 2 blocks of blood worms flake food and 4 frozen shrimp, about 25 persent of that was still on the botom this morning, so i did a water change syphoned out the gravel and then tested again a few hours ago and i got the same results expt 0 nitrite and 4 nitrate, remeber i'm not starting a new tank or cloneing (whatever that is) i'm just basicaly moving my old comunity to a bigger tank, so basicaly all my plants fish gravel filter parts filter inserts power head sponges, all filled with bacteria and about 20 gallons of water were all from my old tank, the only thing new was the glass and a second filter added on, and fish wise just the elpehant nose... my friend (who has a sucesfull arowanda tank) told me theres no reson to that my tank should have a cycle, its not like i'm seting up a new comunity, just upgradeing my old one, weather he is right or not i am in question because of what you said, but on day 3 the amonia in my water is 0, and the tank conditions are nearly identical to my 20 gallon, i hope your wrong about my water going threw a cycle i know that my elepant nose and bolivian ram would enver survive it.

ps what is cloneing anywais, it dosnt sound like an acurate discription of something that involves a nitrite cycle.

 

[karin15]

just tested water:

0 amonia, 0.1 nitrite, 5 nitrate

 

[Gankutsuou]

seee, these guys are super sensitive. and that's waaaay to much.

Get an eye dropper and aim feed if you're worried. Thaw the food, suck it in, aim from a distance, and fire! repeat!


and please answer- how did you cycle? you may have made the mistake and not actually cycled. please tlel me how you did so/

 

[karin15]

seee, these guys are super sensitive. and that's waaaay to much.

Get an eye dropper and aim feed if you're worried. Thaw the food, suck it in, aim from a distance, and fire! repeat!


and please answer- how did you cycle? you may have made the mistake and not actually cycled. please tlel me how you did so/

well ok i must have misunerstood you or what i wrote above wasnt clear enough i use to many words and english is not my first langague, i didnt cycle the 55 gallon because i was told i didnt have to, i moved everythnig from my cycled 25 gallon (which was cycled by adding in 2 small angle fish and a few neons, took about a mounth)

I don't know what to think any more i'm so confused now... ive got like 5 different opinions and then yours, which is like all your fish are going to die, and i cant just ignor that, i'm so frusterated right now i cant figure out what the heck is going on because now i'm even questioning if i even know what a cycle period is, i thought it was when you add fish in and then the water gets toxic for a wile till colonies of bacteria grow and then your water is fine after that.

 

[Gankutsuou]

not all your fish. But poisioning is likely.


You need constant water changes, probably daily, with a tank like this.
The elephant nose is SUPER sensitive. That's why I'm being like that. It's not a boast. It's not a bluff. these guys die easy.

 

[karin15]

not all your fish. But poisioning is likely.


You need constant water changes, probably daily, with a tank like this.
The elephant nose is SUPER sensitive. That's why I'm being like that. It's not a boast. It's not a bluff. these guys die easy.

the nitrite is going down and as it was much higher this morning and it was only because of the serious mistake of over feeding last night, 9 hours of food just siting there rotting.
nitrite is alwais present in fish tanks and the fish dont even derectly get poisend by it, the side effect is thiner slime coats wich means weaker weaker fish that cant fight off deseases like itch, 20-50 is reaching problematic and 5-10 is just fine, even for delicate fish, delicate fish cant take cycles and requre good water conditions all the time, were as hardy fish can thrive under bad water conditions... theres a difference between delicate fish and unhealthy fish... -john my best friend.

thats from an email i just got, he sais insists that my tank will be fine, and there will not be a runing period.
he also sais that its been 3 days now and if the cycle hasnt started now with all the fish 25 thats in there makeing waiste, its not going to start, the nitrite in any tank would go up if you left food siting there that long THAT was my only mistake, and he whent on to say: if someone just were to replace all the gravel and all the filter inserts, haveing eraticated the bactiera collonies that have developed would trigger a new running period in any tank, i'm doing the reverse of that, he basicaly sais either you dont understand or you are full of it, personaly i think you probably dont understand what i'm doing because your the only person who told me this and you have very established fish tanks, and you obvestly know alot more than me...but proably not more than john.