Peter's Elephant Nose Fish

birdsandbats

birdsandbats

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I bought one of these from a pet store and added it to my fish tank. I am curious if anyone else has this species, and how well it is doing in their aquarium.
 
I have kept them in the past. In my experience they are quite a timid species, and semi-nocturnal, fond of hiding until after the aquarium lights turn off. I used to spend hours watching the night time antics of mine,'bouncing' around the tank kind of like a wrasse, long after the cichlids it was housed with had stopped being active. With this in mind, providing plenty of cover is important, as is avoiding keeping it with particularly boisterous tankmates. They can also injure their snouts very easily if not kept on a soft substrate such as sand.
 
They're easy but they do have special requirements like a soft substrate and no sharp decor. Aquarium leaves are ideal, wood is good, as are substrates such as aquarium soil, soft sand and rounded gravel. It is very important it does not abrade the trunk as they forage.

Feed them with fresh or frozen foods if you can - at night. They don't like copper or other metals in the water, so that rules out using normal fish meds. They prefer neutral to slightly acidic pHs, and low to medium hardness, like many other tropical fishes. Nothing out of the ordinary because naked skinned fishes hate metals in the water.
 
Very interesting species. They should not be kept alone, so try finding a few more of equal size. They have a very strict hierarchy and distinct personalities.
 
I have never kept a mormyrid, but I would try to provide one or two darkened hiding places. I have read that that they may play with a small ball of aluminium foil, which they can sense with their electrical organs, but I would not leave one in the tank for more than an hour or so.
 
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