Elephantnose question/opinions

I would wait. You can always ask your lfs to order one for you when you are ready for it. They tend to grow quickly when you first get them...

They are a long-lived species as well, so plan on a long relationship with it.

The salt depends a little on the species. They have highly sensitive skin, more so than most scaleless species, so adding salt to the water (or any medications not rated for scaleless) will cause their skin to crack and peel, like it is severely chapped. (Found this out the hard way)

Also, the lfs might not tell you this, but they won't readily accept flake foods, and they're bad about waiting around for a while before they eat. Bad news if you have really aggressive eaters in the tank with it.

Whenever you do get one, be sure to have the lfs clerk feed it in front of you. If it doesn't eat, don't buy it....also, make sure it's little belly isn't caved in. These are both signs of starvation (a common problem associated with breeds that don't eat normal flake foods).
 
pinball..your moms grew Fast? Mine grows REALLY slow.... They love brine shrimp!!!

Let me add though, once the elephant nose gets used to the tank settings (a month or so--depends) they will RUSH to get that brine shrimp..

They are very intimidated when you first buy it..but after a month it will come out more often and be more visual

Example: Every night I feed brine shrimp, he "pushes" the Yoyo's and red tail shark away from the feeding area. Everyone still gets to eat, but this shows you they will get over their shyness...

PS: cover all openings..they will try to Jump out... Use tinfoil to cover the openings..

Just read that Thread and most of your answers will be answered..If you have any further questions..Just ask away.
 
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tinfoil, h3ll! Try plywood! (Then again, I'm dealing with a rather powerful 9-inch long dolphin with on an escape mission....) We had to resort to putting heavy shells on the lids so he wouldn't knock them open (kind of like a moray, really good at ramming the lids hard enough to swing them open....)

Mom's dolphin has grown a solid 2 inches since we got him about 8 months ago. I think they take spurts, like human kids do....
 
when you say dolphin..do you mean its cousin...the silver one without the nose (forgot the scientific name)???.. yes..plywood works too...

Mine is the "common-peterisi"elephant nose..but its growth rate is slow. If it is that silver one. they are NIce! not to common in the LFS eithor.
 
She has a silver dolphin (not sure about the sci. name, either). He has a long protruding nose, it's just not quite as abrupt, more like a gentle taper, like an elephant trunk, and not quite as long in relation to body size.

You may be thinking of a baby-whale, without the tube-nose.

He is really uncommon, we lucked out finding him.

Upon consideration, I think the reason for his rapid growth lies in the variety in his diet. He gets tubifex, beef heart (cut into teeny-tiny pieces so he can eat them), liver, frozen shrimp from the butcher, bloodworms, and live earthworms, as well as cichlid pellets. Really rich stuff. She rotates the diet to where he gets tubifex (which she hand-feeds him) and the pellets most of the time, and a weekly treat of one of the meaty foods.
 
Originally posted by pinballqueen

Upon consideration, I think the reason for his rapid growth lies in the variety in his diet. He gets tubifex, beef heart (cut into teeny-tiny pieces so he can eat them), liver, frozen shrimp from the butcher, bloodworms, and live earthworms, as well as cichlid pellets. Really rich stuff. She rotates the diet to where he gets tubifex (which she hand-feeds him) and the pellets most of the time, and a weekly treat of one of the meaty foods.
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WoW- that particular type of "elephant nose" sounds nice. Not for me though. Cant keep 2 types togethor...

That food your mom feeds him is really great. PLenty of nourishment ! I only feen mine frozen brine shrimp..mine is also only 4 inches, but I would love to give him that diet! Is their anyway you can get some pics of him/her? I would love to see what they look like in her tank..
I bet others would love to see him too...Introduce us..will ya? :)
 
Im going to hold you to that... :)

I would love to see the wilderness of TN! I hear its scenic.... How far are you (with the baby)? If you dont mind me asking of course..
 
the common elephant nose (Gnathonemus petersi) will grow up to about 14" in the wild. Most keepers have found they max out at about 9" in their aquariums.

In any case, you want a bigger tank. A 30 is quite small for a 9" fish.
 
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