[Watto Admirer]

Hi! I signed in as "Watto Admirer" because I and the other members of my family see a strong resemblance between Watto from Star Wars and Elephant Nose fish

We have been keeping a 30-gallon tank of varied freshwater fish for a little over a year, and have tried keeping Elephant Nose (E.N.) fish twice, both times with no success...and THEY were the sole reason we got into this hobby!

We are trying to figure out what has been going wrong, because we want to try again but absolutely do not want to cause the death of another fish.

Before buying them each time (one 10 months ago and one a few days ago), our local aquarium expert tested the water and declared it perfect. General website information about the E.N. said we were doing everything right. But you seem to have more knowledge than our local aquarium or the sites we've been checking, and we will try your suggestions of upping the acidity (to what level?), adding an airstone and driftwood, and raising the water temperature. I still have a few questions, though:

1. Each time, we bought the smallest E.N. the aquarium had...probably 2.5 inches long from nose to tail. We figured a small baby would lead to a small adult, and our tank is only 30 gallons. Is it possible that these fish are so small because they're already unhealthy? Or is that an okay size for a baby E.N.? Do you think they need a higher temperature when they're so small? Any other needs?

2. What do YOU suggest looking for while selecting an E.P.?

3. The aquarium suggests that maybe this one died because it was attacked by another fish. We didn't see any marks on it. Could a fish be attacked in such a way that it wouldn't be marked? Rammed, perhaps? My kids watched the tank a LOT during daylight hours and didn't see any agression, but the E.N. died at night. We have a Dalmatian Molly, which I just found out some people classify as aggressive, and we have a Gold Dojo Loach, not classified as agressive as far as we know, but our largest fish by far at 6.5 inches. (Our others are about .5 - 1.5 inches, and we don't have so many that the tank is crowded.) Any history between the E.N. and either of these fish? We have several great hiding spots, and were feeding the E.N. blood worms which we saw it eat. It seemed to be doing nicely for the short time we had it, alternating between hiding and swimming. (The last time, our E.N. lasted about 3 weeks and also seemed healthy until we found it dead one morning.) We added one Clown Pleco the day we added the E.N., and had just added a half wafer of algae to the water, which I assume wouldn't harm the E.N., but I'm just trying to add any information in case it's helpful.

So, if you could answer the above three questions plus the one about acidity level, and add any other advice you can think of, we'd love to try again. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[Morledzep]

i had to look up this elephantnose fish because i'm not familiar with them. from what i can gather online they need a much larger tank than a 30 gallon. not to mention that the loach in your tank is far too large for that 30 gallon already and it will get larger still.

my first suggestion would be to start with a 50 - 75 gallon tank, do a complete fishless cycle before adding fish. here is a link with easy to follow instructions. http://www.drtimsaqu...FQ10gwodQlAuDQ. ignore the first section with the advertisement for the bottled bacteria and read the article after that. remember your tank needs to be at 85 degrees F to begin the cycle.

i personally don't trust aquarium stores' water tests, your best bet is to get your own liquid test kit. this kit is the most widely used and is very reliable (you don't necessarily have to get it from petco.. it's just the best pic i could find on short notice). http://www.petco.com...t%20Kit-103685.

then when your cycle is completed and you've done the 50% water change at the end (with prime or another de-clorinator), add your fish. i usually add no more than 3 fish at a time and give the nitrifying bacteria a few days to catch up before i add more (but then again i have big poopy fish).

the thing i read about your elephantnose fish is that they sift through sand to find food and eat small worms. you didn't say what type of substrate you have in your aquarium. you are going to need some type of soft gravel or sand (not live sand for salt water aquariums) that the fish can hunt for food in. this means that floating and/or flake food will not work, you will need to buy frozen bloodworms and or sinking loach pellets for them to be able to find food. they also need hiding places, a couple interesting pieces of driftwood or some tubular artificial logs or rock formations would be great additions.