Elephant nose fish...does anyone know about them

Fishman1995

Superstar Fish
May 11, 2010
1,341
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North Carolina
#1
Id like some Firsthand info from anybody here on how to care for Elephant Nose Fish. I havent gotten many responses on that on Fishlore so i thought id ask here. What can i feed them, cause ive heard they only eat live foods?
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#2
I kept mine (5) in a 280 gallon tank, lots of rockwork and plants (fake back then), sand substrate, and very dim lighting. Tankmakes were 3 adult male oscars and a common pleco.

Feeding: live earthworms when they were over 5" or so, before that, live blackworms and frozen bloodworms.

Care: lots and lots (and lots!) of water changes.
 

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achase

Large Fish
Feb 1, 2010
765
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British Columbia, Canada
#5
Out of curiosity, OC, how many gallons should one of these fish be kept in? I have read that one needs about 200L which I believe is roughly 51 gallons. They are quite strange looking, eh?
 

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Fishman1995

Superstar Fish
May 11, 2010
1,341
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North Carolina
#7
Achase to answer your question they need a minumum of a 55 gallon tank.

Thyra, i didnt find that yaw enjoyed my betta journal so i stopped doing it, thou i will be getting Felix and Romeo some buddys tommorow ;) most likely gonna be ADF's

Jamie, i do not have Elephant noses yet but i do plan to within the next year.

OC, wow you havent commented on my threads in ages SOOOOO happy to have you back ^^
 

misterking

Superstar Fish
Aug 12, 2008
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Manchester, UK
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#8
You're going to try and put an ADF in the 2.5 with your new betta? Not enough space for any buddies in there with him I wouldn't say.. he'd be happier alone.

You mightttt get away with ONE in the 5.. wait to see what Mercedes says though. She's our resident ADF expert as we all know :)
 

Fishman1995

Superstar Fish
May 11, 2010
1,341
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0
North Carolina
#9
I dont wont to sound mean but i didnt ask could i, i said im going to. I have found a new forum site that doesnt base all its stuff off aqadvisor and actually has the same mindset as me, you all seem to not be so "thrilled" with me and my plans so i took them to another forum called Fislore. they will be the ones i ask about stocking :) i of course still will ask questions here to but i like Fishlore
 

Thyra

Superstar Fish
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
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Yelm, WA
#11
I thought at one point you had decided you didn't want the hassle of feeding ADFs.
MK did you get things worked out with your sale? And is the thing I read about the woman in England being under house arrest for selling a goldfish to a 14 yr old true??
 

misterking

Superstar Fish
Aug 12, 2008
1,124
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0
Manchester, UK
www.facebook.com
#12
I thought at one point you had decided you didn't want the hassle of feeding ADFs.
MK did you get things worked out with your sale? And is the thing I read about the woman in England being under house arrest for selling a goldfish to a 14 yr old true??
It would seem fishman has no intention of following any of our advice so I'm personally not going to bother. Insulting someone is not a good way of getting them on side.

And yes it is! Funnily enough it happened in a neighbouring town to me about 5 minutes ago. There's a lot more to the story though, the shop she owns had received countless warnings for the same thing and for cruelty to its stock. I believe the shop was shut down, and rightly so!
 

misterking

Superstar Fish
Aug 12, 2008
1,124
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Manchester, UK
www.facebook.com
#14
i planly told you i meant no offense, secondly you never seem nice with your posts, im ALWAYS wrong
That's because if advice is sugarcoated, people pick out what they want to hear. There's a difference between being succinct and to the point and "not being nice" and I think along with a few others I fit in the former category. I'm a busy man and sometimes I just don't have the time to be all lovely and nice, straight to the point is all I have time for.

And in all honesty some of your ideas have been a bit crazy at times. I don't think your always wrong but I think I'm safe in saying you got off to a bad start with your tanks. You're young, and still fairly new to this, and you actually remind me a LOT of me at that stage in the hobby, and if I could give myself the advice I give you I woulda done. I unfortunately had to learn my experience the hard way without forums like this.

Personally I'd be a bit more grateful if someone cared as much as me and other forum members do about your fish and getting you on the right track. I don't HAVE to advise you, nor does anyone else. We just know you'll benefit from it.

Apologies for the rant but I do find it quite annoying when I take time out of my day to advise people the best I can and get nothing but bad attitude in return.
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#15
That's a bit harsh.
It would seem fishman has no intention of following any of our advice so I'm personally not going to bother. Insulting someone is not a good way of getting them on side.
Although he didn't ASK for advice specifically about the ADFs, it is hard not to offer it when it seems like a bad plan. Had someone said they were setting up a 'bachelor tank' with male 15 Betta splendens in a 10 gallon tank tank, and wanted to know if sand or gravel was a better substrate, we'd all chime in with 'whoa....dude...!' To JUST say 'sand is better' or 'gravel is better' or 'don't matter, whatever you want' would be irresponsible.

But to your comments I've quoted...I agree. I'm done too.
 

Feb 27, 2009
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#16
Out of curiosity, OC, how many gallons should one of these fish be kept in? I have read that one needs about 200L which I believe is roughly 51 gallons. They are quite strange looking, eh?
Howdy achase!

I had just the group of 6 originally, one died about 2 days after I got them, and had the 5 initially alone in the 280. As they aged, I added the pleco and oscars (all trade-ins at the LFS, 'free' fish that others had tossed out). I had them for maybe 8-9 years, sold the tank as-is set up when I moved across country.

I'm not sure how'd they do as a single. I'd been told by experienced fishkeepers (like those here) to keep them in a shoal, so its what I did.

They are very shy fish if you have normal aquarium lights. I had several 15 watt lights over the 280 GALLON tank, just so I could sorta see them in the shadows lurking around. When the light came on in the living room, they'd dart around like maniacs trying to hide the quickest. They were always together, like one giant fish. On more than one occasion, several jumped out of the tank while doing maintanence. That's when I started putting egg crates over the tank except where I was working on it.

Even tho it is slight, they are an electric fish, so care must be taken when maintaining the tank. They loved to hunt earthworms and blackworms I'd hide in the tank (blackworms are aquatic, but earthworms are not, so careful leaving earthworms in a tank uneaten, they just drown). I'd use an eggcrate section to divide the tank in about half, and hide the worms in the sand in front of a chunk of driftwood. They went CRAZY going hunting worms.
 

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Fishman1995

Superstar Fish
May 11, 2010
1,341
0
0
North Carolina
#17
Well look at it from my point of view, the main part isnt everything i suggest is wrong, its only 5 or 6 members outta the WHOLE dang forum answer my questions, OC gave up on me (which almost made me wanna quit the forum) and only MK has truely been nice to me and not been snobby and not answer my forums. No offense to MK but i dont want 5 regulars telling me everything, i like to know everyones opinion otherwise i cant make a good descion. Thyra, MK, Achase, TAL Paige and Mercedes are the normals i get to talk to, it seems the rest of the forum rejects me and wont even give me the time of day let alone give some info on My questions

In the morning im going to petsmart, im adding 2 Ghost Shrimp to Romeo's tank as i think thats resonable and im adding 2 Dwarf Frogs to Felix's as i feel theres plenty of room and filtration, is that really doing TO MUCH?
 

achase

Large Fish
Feb 1, 2010
765
0
0
British Columbia, Canada
#20
Truthfully Fishman, I don't think that people's answers have to do anything with liking or disliking you and I'm not saying that to sound mean. I think it's really all about the fish! I mean that is how I think of it but others could totally disagree.

I think when getting information from others it important to also do your own research and collect information from various sources. Usually when you have done enough research you will find similarities in information from your resources and to me that is the information I trust. So I think its good that you have other forums you are haunting:cool:....I know I do!