Elephantnose Fish

• GeneralIt generates a weak electric field to find its way and locate prey in the dark.
• Its brain accounts for close to 3% of its body weight, a proportion similar to a human's, and uses around 60% of the oxygen it takes in.
• Each individual gives off an electrical pattern of its own, and the fish recognise one another by that signature.
• The extension below its mouth is not a trunk: it is a mobile chin studded with electroreceptors.
• It has the highest ratio of brain to body oxygen consumption of any known vertebrate, at around 0.6.
• Its trunk is not a nose: it is an extension of the lower lip with which it probes the mud for prey.
• It generates a weak electric field with an organ in its tail stalk and reads it with receptors on its head; that is how it navigates and finds food in turbid water.
• It is territorial and aggressive towards its own kind, and that behaviour is expressed through electrical discharges.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Turbid rivers and lagoons with muddy bottoms

Sexual maturity

Minimum length at sexual maturity between 10 and 11 cm

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Gnathonemus petersii

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.