The Long-nosed Elephant Fish has a widespread distribution across the Congo and Niger River basins, where it is most commonly found in dark, slow-flowing, heavily vegetated waters with sandy or silty substrates. This unusual nocturnal fish has a long, highly sensitive trunk-like extension on the chin, which it uses to probe for food items in the substrate, with the small round mouth located just above it.

Mormyrinae have a high brain to body mass ratio, due to an expanded cerebellum used in their electroperception. The brain size to body weight ratio is even higher than that of humans; although unlike humans, the cerebellum is larger than the cerebrum (front brain). Related to this, they also hold the zoological record as having the brains that consume the most energy as a percentage of the body's metabolic rate of any animal (at around 60%). May also be seen on sale as the Elephantnose Fish or Peters' Elephantnose Fish.