Elephant Noses in planted tanks

I was also thinking of setting up a West African Biotope, to my knoledge plants such as Crinium natans and Bolbitus heudolti are present in these regions. If you're going to keep the common, peters elephant nose, I would suggest keeping them either on their own or in a group of 10 or more. In small groups of 3's and 4's there will be aggresion and bullying towards the smaller species.

Cheers,
Mike

 

I agree with the last post and want to second the suggestion that these fish should be kept by them selves or in a large group. My preference would be for the group - i imagine this is preferable for the fish and will make for a more interesting display.

cheers
Neil

 

Yes, I totally agree with you, when kept in groups they can be the most fascinating fish-displaying different behaviour and interesting antics, some will become more dominant and there can be disputes of territories between different fish, you can't see this behaviour unless they're in groups. I am thinking of setting up a 75 gallon just for them so I can see them at their best.

Cheers,
Mike

 

I love these fish
I have one in my 30G.

I've set up my new 6ft tank and it been running about 6 weeks now. My LFS is keeping a lookout for me and is gonna get me half a dozen to put in it. He thinks it might be a few weeks as they are a seasonal fish.

I've gotta couple of nice pieces of bogwood with niches that form nice hidey holes and some lava rock caves.

 

mark at anubiasdesign@yahoogroups.com is thinking of getting these. You may want to email your interest.

 

I love these fish too, In fact they're one of my favourite fish (possibly my very favourite). They have they largest brain to body size of any veterbrate apparently and they have a light electrical impulse, check out Chapter 8: Biology this website, if you connect it up to a certain ear phone it will amplify the electrical pulses so you can hear.

Lets not forget their strange shape with a protruding jaw, which appears to be a nose, they have a strange body shape too, with the dorsal fin being almost a mirror image of the anal fin and their extended caudal peduncle, they also have interesting characteristics when in groups, they are very clever, especially when in very large groups, some people have got them to play football with their Jaws using mini balls.

Despite all this, you must remember they are a specialist fish, probably the fish most sucseptibal to suffer from bad water quality, infact they used to use Elephantnoses to test water quality. They are tricky feeders too, some people mention that they'll only accept live foods, you can't keep them with some fish as they might compete them for the food, Elephants are slow, they also have a strange feeding method, and require a sandy, fined-grained substrate.

Therefore I'll only keep this magnificent fish if I can supply them with more than adequate conditions, eventually I'll soon get them.

Cheers,
Mike