Shape of a healthy Elephant-Nosed ?

[bghost1961]

Hi All,

I've had my E-nosed for a couple months now (this is not my first one, I've kept other E-nosed fish in the past). Any way, the E-nosed always looks pretty thin, viewing directly from the above. This is the same shape that I've alway seen of the E-nose in all the pet stores. Of course, some of them would look extra thin (potato chip!) when they are underfed and about to...pine away.

Unfortunately, in all the reference books and pictures I have, none would show the view of a healthy one from the top, so I have no idea of how it should look. Some posts on newsgroup claimed that the e-nosed suppose to have a "topedo" (or bananas) body shape when fully healthy. Anything other than that means that the speciment has been starve for awhile already (including all the speciments we have seen at pet stores)

Can anyone confirm this? May be someone who live in Africa that catch wild e-nosed daily like we're catching trouts here ? ;-)

[Dragon_Lord_Tia]

what else is in the tank or if its ususually thin move it to a tank on its own(if it isnt already) and just spoil it with nice foods and perfect tank conditions

[agilis]

E noses are all laterally compressed, making them appear much thinner when viewed from above. Starved enoses have an uneven, sunken appearance; well nourished fish have a nice evenly-rounded look, like a cheese burrito.

Most pet store enoses are or soon become too thin, seldom getting the quantity and types of food they need. I bought a very small (2 in.) skinny, weak enose, stressed by being attacked by the other enoses to the point he had wedged himself into the LFS's overflow filter intake. It was the smallest in a group of about 30. A couple of weeks of blackworms and frozen shrimp fattend it up like a puppy, and a year later it has become a big beautiful fish.

[bghost1961]

Thank you for your responses.

My enose is in the tank by itself, with just feeder guppies and a couple of kuhli loaches. I've kept enose in the past so I know about its timid nature, likely can't compete for food with other species and its small/odd mouth. There are tons of baby guppies in the tank with it, but I've never seen it could catch any of them, even a new born (what a wimpy fish ;-)

Quite a few places on the web now with good information about this fish, but I think there are still very few people that can keep enose for a long time (I know someone on this board had enose for more than 20 years). My last enose lasted for about 3 months before died of bad water quality when I had to do extensive traveling on the job. I hope to keep this one for a long time.

agilis: How often do you feed your enose? Is your a common one (Gnathonemus petersi) or some other subspecies? My last one was a double-trunk (bird beak?) , which has the mouth opening at the end of the "trunk", and seems to be much more robust and aggressive. However, I could not find any LFS carry them now. My current one is a black Petersi, and I've been feeding it with frozen blood worm and freezed dried tubiflex once a day.

[agilis]

I have both kinds of enoses, the "double trunk" and the far more common Petersi. The little one I described is a Petersi. They seem to make better pets, because they are less aggressive and excitable. Petersi are a more easygoing fish, in my limited experience. They are cheaper, and seem just as hardy. My LFS had a group of Petersi last month for less than $5 each.

I feed my enoses live black worms, which I buy in small quantities each week and keep in shallow clean water in the refrig.

I also feed frozen brine. I noticed that the Petersi, which shares an Amazon biotope 46 gal. with a bunch of Tetras, Corys, and two dwarf frogs, comes out when I feed tiny pellets to the Tetras, and seems to eat some, though certainly not enough to rely on as part of a main diet. He also will eat crushed snails, and I believe he eats various living organisms that he finds in the gravel and in the heavy plant thickets where he likes to hunt during the day. I feed enoses about once each day, at night, when the low illumination bulb is on. I skip a day or two now and again, with no harm done.

I keep the double snout enose in its own tank. It eats about the same things as the Petersoni. It's a surly, ill tempered fish that attempts to drive me away from its tank if I get too close or stare too long.

These fish need clean soft water, on the acidic side of the pH scale, if you want them to do well. Most aquarium medications for Ich, even those "safe" for Tetras, will kill an elephant nose. They are tough in some ways, but VERY sensitive to chemicals.

[bghost1961]

Thanks again for the more detailed info. Doesn't look like blackworm is one of my options as my wife and daughter would drive me out of the house if I keep something like that in the fridge! :D

For now, I'll stick with frozen bloodworms and probably will also get the frozen brine shimp, trying to have a more variety diet.

I do believe when you said the double trunk tried to drive you away from the tank. These species are really amazing in itelligence. That makes it even harder to watch them die (our false or not!)