What was claimed
An image of a bright yellow fish with a trunk depicts an elephant fish.
Our verdict
This image appears to have been altered. The fish pictured is markedly different from recognised species of elephant fish.
Viral image doesn’t show an elephant fish
14 October 2021
An image has been shared on social media of a small, bright yellow fish with a trunk-like nose. The picture is captioned “elephant fish”.
There are recognised species of fish called elephant fish, or elephantnose fish. While both have impressive snouts, they look notably different from the image being shared on social media, which appears to have been edited.
A reverse image search showed no reputable sources for the image being shared on Facebook, and Full Fact could find no evidence of this type of “elephant fish”.
The image is one of a number of images of fish with what appear to be fake trunks, or tusk-like appendages.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because the image appears to have been altered and is not consistent with the appearance of recognised species of elephant fish.