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Date Posted: 23:57:05 08/09/00 Wed
Author: Matt
Subject: Re: elephant nose
In reply to: rlwallin 's message, "elephant nose" on 16:02:51 04/05/00 Wed

> I think my elephant nose starved to death. I was told
> to feet it frozen blood worm and frozen brine shrimp.
> It got weak and could not keep upright in the tank.
> Do they not eat frozen food? What should I have been
> feeding.

Elephant nose (Gnathonemus petersi) are very difficult fish to obtain healthy. Mine does fine on a diet of frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. It does not eat plants as an earlier post claimed. My aquarium is 55gal. and heavily planted and I have never seen the elephant nose eat any plants. (or the zuchini, carrot, ect. that I feed to my vegatable loving fish) In order to find one that will live in your care it is important to scope it in the pet store for a week or two and ask to see it eat. If it is off its food in the store it will most likely die in your care. NOTE: these fish are jumpers. It WILL jump out of your tank if it is not covered. An earlier post also claimed that these fish will get lonely without their kind. This is absolutly not true. As adults they are very aggresive to their own kind. I have seen juveniles school but when I tried to introduce a new EN to my aquarium my adult EN beat it without mercy. These fish also have an organ that enables them to deliver electric shock and may enable them to navigate or find food in the dark as they are nocturnal. They should never be kept with other electric fishes. What I would most like to impress on anyone wishing to own one of these fish is its curiosity and intelegence. This is a very smart animal as evidenced by its large brain to body oxygen use. (almost triple the ratio of humans and ten times that of other fish) It is , I belive, one of the most abused of all fish. Most sold are doomed to starvation by the uninformed owner who tries to feed flake or pellet food or die on the pet store floors when they envariably jump. Also these fish are "scaleless" meaning their scales are very small. They are suseptible to parasites namley ich. Unfortunatly they cannot be treated with the usual malachite green. There are medications but they are expensive and hard to find. A large heavily planted aquarium is highly suggested for these fish. If they will not eat when you first get one try feeding tubifex that have been rinsed three times daily for a few days. (this hopefully removes the parasites and feces from the digestive tract) If you do not have plants get some drift wood or PVC pipe for the fish to hide in during the day. There is an abundance of information on the web. For anyone interested try a search under the scientific name. "Gnathonemus petersii". Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

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