Seriously considering a Leporinus

[FishyCarChick]

Heya fish lovers, I saw a 7 inch leporinus in my favorite LFS two days ago, and I fell in love! I've been doing some reading, found out that they can be fin nippers and rather nasty to their own species. The fish would be going in with my 8 inch platinum flowerhorn, a m/f pair of jds, a jaguar, a green terror, and two large plecos, into a 150 tall. I have yet to buy the fish and need some advice, my tank is going great right now, everyone gets along and I'm not having any aggression issues. Anyone guide me in the right direction as to getting this guy? Would it be better to buy a young fish rather than a larger one?

 

[ECW]

I've had a few of those and their personality is unique to the fish itself. I have had one that didn't bother other fishes for the most part and another that would constantly harass all tankmates. The one that was nice was housed in a display tank and that is where it's temperament probably developed as being accepting of tankmates. The others I bought at a lfs where there were many for sale and they were pretty aggressive and irritating to other fish. They never actually killed anything or did much damage, but they irritated me and in sure it's tankmates so much that I sold them off. Having said that your stock is full of aggressive cichlids and they should be able to hold their own against him.

 

[jwh]

I have 4 at the moment, 3 in a 6' grow out, around 4-5", and a 8" in a large 500g community with large fish, oscars etc. I can honestly say I've no problems with any of them, I think tank size plays a big role, I plan to relocate 1 or 2 from the grow out to the large community in the next month or two.
I bough all mine as juvies around 1-2", they grow pretty quickly (0.5" - 1" per month) up to about 6", then growth slows somewhat

 

[FishyCarChick]

Great, thanks a bunch, guys! That's pretty much what I surmised from my research. You guys sealed it. I'll be going to pick him up on Monday

 

[MN_Rebel]

I think the posters above me, did forgot to mention that most of them are super aggressive towards the tank mates.... Owned several of them because they're cheap....my mistake they killed all fish and I returned them to the pet store.

 

[ehh]

I think the posters above me, did forgot to mention that most of them are super aggressive towards the tank mates.... Owned several of them because they're cheap....my mistake they killed all fish and I returned them to the pet store.

We used to get a lot of these donated back because they were killing tanks.

They're really cool looking fish though. They're like striped torpedos.

 

[jeaninel]

Personally, if your tank is in harmony right now I would avoid adding anything to mess that up. These fish can be nasty. I also think your at a full stock level with the fish you have.

 

[FishyCarChick]

He went into my tank with only one fish in it. A 75 gallon with a foot long texas cichlid. They've been in there now for about ten hours. They've checked each other out, but otherwise seem unimpressed. They have caves on opposite side of the tank. SO, we shall see. He's goorgeous! Probably longer than I originally stated. I'd wager he's close to full grown. My Texas (Flower) is a big, pushy, jerk. BUT I adore him and he seemed lonely. We shall see how they get along. The fish came with a "if he even harms anything in your tank, no matter how long, we'll take him back, guarantee."

 

[typicalalex1]

I owned one a few years back. Was tank mates with a few small SA cichlids. It never bothered any of them. Just swam up and down the tank all day long like they do.

I have read that they can be aggressive but it depends on the individual fish. I keep Silver dollars now and i'd never put one in that tank. They would get torn to shreds.

WIth your tank mates, i can't see it being a problem. You have aggressive cichlids and i can't imagine they'd just sit there and let the leporinus nip them.

 

[jeaninel]

Would love to see pics