Lepornius

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I got one about 5-6 inches with SA/CA Cichlids and he's something of a target fish. Get to see some awesome colors when the cichilds harrass him. Very tough fish, survived a harsh beating by an istlanum. It had basically no tail fins and I could see the flesh in the caudal region. Istlanum died by jumping out of it's container during a resealing job. The Leporinus is still alive and full recovered. Eats well and occasionally flares back.
 
Most if not all Leporinus species, and several other "headstanders" have the reputation of being killers, and if nothing else they LOVE to harrass slower fish (such as angels and gouramis). They especially like to go for the eyes and any long or soft fins.

IME:

They will kill or harrass other fish just for fun.
They will kill or harrass other fish if they're stressed.
They will kill or harrass other fish if they don't feel their enclosure is big enough or they feel crowded.
They will kill or harrass other fish if the other fish annoys them enough.
They will kill or harrass other fish for impeding on their territory.
They will join other headstanders or vice versa to harrass/kill other fish, and seem especially likely to do so when other headstanders are present.

My Leporinus desmotes has done all of these things, and it doesn't seem an uncommon experience for others either.

The best tankmates for a Leporinus sp. are either too aggressive for it to beat on, and/or are too fast for it to catch and/or have very tough skin/scales that it can't hurt too much (such as large Polypterus species).
Even if all the above conditions are met some very persistent Leporinus still manage to kill or severely injure their tankmates.

So yeah. Gourami and angelfish = worst tankmates ever except for an unusually peaceful specimen.

Leporinus fasciatus can reach up to 14 inches and become quite territorial and aggressive, so plenty of thought should go into picking tankmates for them or keep them as a single specimen.
 
shinypenny;1200247; said:
oh man, they are going to be a pain to catch, I'll have to take the whole tank appart....
Click to expand...

I had a small leporinus in my 750 gal and I got sick of watching it nip at my bichir's fins. Finally 2 days ago I decided to "fish" it's ass out at 11:30 at night. My tank with stand is about 7 1/2' tall. It was miserable. After 45 min of splashing water all over myself and the floor, kicking up sand, tearing up plants, knocking over driftwood and stressing out every fish in the tank I was finally able to catch it.

Now it resides in a 55 gal with a few trouble maker cichlids. Welcome to the jungle you little S.O.B.

Soooo, cool looking fish but would advise against keeping with peaceful fish or fish with nice finnage.
 
heres mine. its completely peaceful. but i keep him well fed so i think that helps. but once again i think it depends on the individual fish. guess i got lucky.:D

000_0071.JPG
 
cichlid_25;1210532; said:
heres mine. its completely peaceful. but i keep him well fed so i think that helps. but once again i think it depends on the individual fish. guess i got lucky.:D
Click to expand...

Well fed has nothing to do with anything as far as these fish go.
They're upredictable. One individual might be peaceful forever. One individual might be peaceful with certain types of fish (mine left a zebra danio alone, go figure). One indivual might be peaceful and then go nuts on the other fish eventually, or vice versa.
Like mine, he went on a killing spree when we first got him but he hasn't really bothered anyone for a long time. He lives with a marbled headstander and they're both supposed to be aggressive towards conspecifics, but my Leporinus has never injured another headstander.
 
shadow bass said it best!!!!!

They do ok with aggressive africans though,


"quote" IME:

They will kill or harrass other fish just for fun.
They will kill or harrass other fish if they're stressed.
They will kill or harrass other fish if they don't feel their enclosure is big enough or they feel crowded.
They will kill or harrass other fish if the other fish annoys them enough.
They will kill or harrass other fish for impeding on their territory.
They will join other headstanders or vice versa to harrass/kill other fish, and seem especially likely to do so when other headstanders are present.
 
Fish should be called a "tic" all it does is instigate and pester. Then it will actually strike. Get its butt kicked then tic-tic-tic.

Can't wait to get rid of mine.

Common theme is at 7inches it really goes for blood.

I'll give you mine for free. Looks exactly like Lep pic see above.

Read on here that if you have 3+ they will curb their aggressiveness, but hell you need 400+gals for that I would think.
 
I have a 6 inch one in my tank right now and its getting along great with my black ghost, and 2 Pangasius hypophthalmus. I agree with cichlid_25 I got lucky. Hopefully i'll stay that way.
 
Couldn't agree more, mine was barely 5" and an absolute terror.

watermark.php


This Christmas I thought I would finally get a Ghost Knife, however given the LFS was out and not wanting to come home empty handed, I ended up deciding to take a chance on a good priced 6" Leporinus fasciatus. I've researched them before, been meaning to experiment for myself, since I've always seen mixed reviews; from killers to community tank worthy.

So I put him in my old 75 barb tank; 8" spanners (as well as a swarm of tigers), 5" loaches, 6" red tail shark, 4" CAE's, and 12" plecos. Well, at least I thought they were semi-aggressive.

The first day I over observed him, since I knew their might be problems. However he was a perfect 'angel', he actually schooled with every fish in the tank, eat well, no problems. As days progressed, I noticed a nick here and there, although seemed just territorial. Finally today I was taking some pictures, and holy cow, he had actually taken numerous nicks out of every single fish in the tank, shredded an entire tiger barbs tail fin, numerous marks on the side of red tail, and had turned a 12" large pleco into permanent hiding.

What a pain, he was yanked today and placed in one of my planted tanks (which from what I hear I need to watch out for them as well). This one was far from capable for a community tank. Buyer beware.

Ed
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom