What You Should Know Before Adding The Elephant Nose Fish To Your Aquarium

When you see or hear the words Elephant Nose Fish, do you think of fish with Elephant like noses, if so, you are correct. These fish have a long nose-like extension of their mouths on their face. These fish are generally dark brown in color and prefer muddy, slow moving water with underwater branches. The Elephant Nose Fish averages of 23 to 25 cm in length. The tail fin is generally forked and there are two stripes on the lower side.

The long snout-like tip on the head of the fish is not only an extension of the mouth but is also used for defense, communication, navigation, and finding food. This trunk-like extension is covered in electroreceptors that can also be found on the rest of the body, as well.

This fish, unfortunately, has very bad eyesight and uses the receptors along with a short electrical pulse to find its food, move around in the dark, and, not too mention, finding its mate. The average life span of an Elephant Nose Fish can be as long as 6 to 10 years. Making these fish a serious investment in your aquarium.

When deciding how many of these exotic looking fish you are going to have, you need to remember that they do not do well alone or only a few of them. Anything less than six is really asking for fights for domination and tormenting of other fish. However, if you have six or more in your aquarium you will not have any problems.

The fish is native to West and Central Africa, closer to the Niger River basin, the Ogun River Basin, and the upper Chari River. In Aquarium habitat, you want to be sure there is at least 200 liters of water, plenty of hiding places with lots of underwater plants and low lighting. When it comes to the hiding places, you can use just about anything you want from plastic piping to caves. The bottom of the tank should have soft sand for the fish to use its trunk-like mouth to sift through to find food with. It prefers to dine on bloodworms, and mosquito larvae, but in your aquarium flake or frozen food will do.

As with many fish, you can get aggressive ones, while others are more reserved. You can keep them with other fish, but be sure to have a 400 liter tank or larger as they can and will become aggressive with other species of fish.

When setting up their tank, use these guidelines; pH of 6.8 to 7.2, the temperature between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius, with water hardness at medium. Remember - these fish will be with you for a long time, so you need to spend a little extra time preparing for them to come home.