Campylomormyrus is a genus of African elephantfish in the family Mormyridae, an offshoot of the bonytongues known for weakly electric organs that most species use to navigate and communicate in dark or turbid water rather than to stun prey. The atlas's 14 species, ranging from about 8 in to 25.5 in, come mainly from the Congo basin and neighboring West and Central African river systems, recorded here from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Zambia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Ghana. Their most distinctive feature is an elongated, trunk-like extension of the chin or snout, used to probe soft substrate for buried invertebrates, paired with poor eyesight, nocturnal habits, and an unusually large cerebellum that helps process the constant stream of electrical information from their surroundings.
Species names in the genus read almost like a catalog of trunk shapes and locations, from the Stanley Falls elephantfish (Campylomormyrus alces) and donkey-faced elephantnose (C. cassaicus) to the Matadi elephantfish (C. curvirostris), Kabunda elephantfish (C. luapulaensis), elephantnose (C. mirus), Pweto elephantfish (C. orycteropus), double-trunk elephant nose (C. rhynchophorus), and worm-jawed mormyrid (C. tamandua). The genus is kept only by specialist mormyrid enthusiasts, who value electric fish for their unusual sensory biology rather than color, and success depends on soft substrate to probe, live or frozen food, calm tankmates, and stable water quality, since these fish are sensitive and rely heavily on their electric sense in captivity. Most species are assessed as Least Concern, with one Vulnerable and three still Data Deficient.