cheeky bugger
- I bought mine when he was a wee tot and now he's around 6". I put him in a community 75 gal. tank w/15 clown loaches that vary in size from 4-6". In addition to that are 2 angels, couple barbs and dojo & kuhli loaches.Everything was cool for a while and then I noticed the dojos and kuhlis where no longer frolicking in the bubble curtain.So I started to pay closer attn. to them and saw the leporinus sneak up and nip them.He takes special delight in tormenting my large green dojo whom I call the "loach ness monster" Mr. Ness will be minding his own draped over a plant when Mr. Lepor will come give him a nip.So he now has become the scourge of eel like loaches and soon as I catch him, he will be joining the cichlids in the 135 gal. tank.He's swift and the cichlids can defend themselves, I think it will work out. If not, I will move him to his own tank w/compatible(hopefully) fish. He doesn't bother the clowns though. Go figure. If this works, I will post my observations.
- —tzar66
A Great find for my tank
- My tank was down to a 5yr old Kissing Gouraami that disliked ever fish placed in the tank with it after it killed the other Kissing G. So I went and bought fish that would stand up to it. So I have a Golden Sevrin 2 tiger Barbs a albino barb and 2 Lepo in a vertical 30 gallon tankand everone knows their place they only eat flake food. This may be a contributing factor why mine are not aggressive and eat other fish.Temperature stays in the low 70's, if a major clean of the tank occurs all plants and rocks are removed and rearranged differently and if a fish is removed during cleaning they all are, that way they all loose territory which are re-established when plants and rocks then fish are re-introduced. Noticed lately the back half including tail of one Lepo is turning back to all black can't see any reason for this. Curious to find out why.These fish are impressive in the tank. A wise choice for my tank
- —Guest Court
The exact opposite actually
- Mine's a little over a year now. I work at the Walmart and these fish were coming in, well I got one as a baby for a tank mate for my Gourami, which I've had for two years. He kind of befriended my algae eater. The two became inseparable and he learned the algae eater's habits. He mostly hides from me, especially when the light's on. I had to get a new filter because of this one too. I did have an undergravel setup but the leprinus tends to dig; which is all well and good until they get stuck in the filter. I had to actually get tweezers and pull him out and I think he's still afraid of me for it. I've never seen him be aggressive really, he just hides in his little area the majority of the time. He's hardy too, last year the power went out during a snow storm for three days that meant no heater, the water got down to about 40 degrees. Whereas the others became dormant, he began to swim vertical, the power came back on and he acted like nothing ever happened I guess I'm lucky.
- —Guest Britton
Awesome Fish
- LOL, ya ee had one, had to give it to my neighbor who had an empty tank. We had a bunch of fish, Rosey Barbs, Angelfish and Gouramis. Noticed fish just disappearing. After watching this guy was definitely the predator. Was really awesome to watch, not the feeding but the predator, lol. Well we had to get rid of him as I mentioned. He now eats 2-3 small minnows a day, has his own tank with his food and is happy. And my 60 gallon tank is happy. Its funny how carefree my fish are now with him gone, he really made the other fish defensive. But was a beautiful fish!
- —Guest Don in Dallas
My old guy still strong
- I have a leporinus that is well over 15 years old. My husband bought two as little guys. One died about eight years ago. The surviving leporinus is at least 13 inches and is quite solid and heavy. He shared a 150-gallon tank with 4 silver dollars and a 20-year female red devil. The red devil died a couple days ago from old age. The leporinus tolerated existing tank residents but when I tried to replace old fish with younger fish, the leporinus killed them. My red devil was tank boss. But earlier this year I had to remove her from the 150 to a quarantine tank. When she was better I placed her back into the 150. The leporinus was now tank boss and would have killed the red devil. I removed the leporinus for a week to give the red devil a chance to regain confidence. After a week I placed the leporinus back into the 150. The red devil was able to remain dominant for 3 months and lost her strength again. I removed her back to quarantine where she died two months later.
- —Guest teresa
We all made the same mistake
- Like the majority of the people above my Leporinus is an aggressive bugger also. I actually bought him for my nephew about 3 years ago from our LFS and he was housed in a community aquarium at the time and was fine. One day I ended up with "Chip" (his name) and I put him into my 5ft community tank with 2 BGK fish, rainbows, 2 silver sharks and bristlenoses. I had started to notice that my rainbow fish numbers started to decrease. So one night i was lying in my lounge room when all of a sudden I see chip rise to the top of the tank and chomp on one of my Lacustrus rainbows... So i had to move him into a 4ft tank on his own... However i then added a purple Spotted Gugdeon as I found that he also started chasing my rainbows. Should have done the home work and researched whether they were all compatible. This will never happen again I can assure you that.
- —Guest Johno
Love my guys
- I bought mine as babies and they grew up with Cichlids and community, and have generally gotten along. I lost one who managed to jump out through the small opening by the filter, but the other 3 are 8 - 10 inches and over 5 yrs old. They are my favorites and I will hate losing them someday.
- —Guest PLK2008
Bad Ass Aggressive
- I brought three of them sometime a year ago with the foolowing sizes, two of them 5" and one is around 3". I placed them together with my green arrowana, silver dollars and plieco. They are now around 8 inches and the smaller one around 6 inches. They were living peacefully until last week. One of them became very aggressive. I noticed that if their color turn pale, they are into aggressive mode behavior. It seemed that two of the larger guys want to jockey into position literally banging and rubbing their bodies into each other and try to bite aggressively. Unfortunately the most pale colored guy seemed to be the most aggressive and dominant won the match and finished off the other guy by biting his eyes and body beaten badly. I decided to transfer the smaller one to another tank as he became the next target of the aggresive fellow, he is already trying to chase him off the tank. I was wondering why the other guy became a killer and so aggressive.
- —Guest silverjet
docile lepo
- My Leporinus is very mild manner - in fact very scared to come out. We have a large decorative castle in the tank and he's in that 24/7. Pokes his head down towards the bottom opening to see if food is coming. We have community fish in the tank and he doesn't bother any of them. He also is very picky and doesn't come out like the others during feeding time. I find myself having to provide food specifically for him in an opening at the top of the castle.
- —Guest Frank AMESQUITA
Bought 2 of these
- I bought 2 of these about 8 months ago thinking they were peaceful and wouldn't grow to big. They lived peacefully with about 15 guppies, and a red tail shark for about 4 months before they killed everything within 2 days. They now share my 10 gallon tank with a lone survivor guppy that they leave alone for some reason. They fight each other so often that I think they are going to kill each other off until I only have 1 fish left... :(
- —Guest Northerner
Leporinus fish
- I bought one of these type of fish a month ago from a local pet store he is only about 3" or 4" long but the attitude of a monster. It immediately killed my Silver datinoid and then our large Blue Crayfish by eating his feet off and the crayfish starved. My wife hates him, but the fish cant pick what it is. A VERY aggressive fish. Hides in the coral decorations whenever we approach the tank and even chases our much larger Pleco around. Its got a horizontal stripe down its body and 3 black spots nearer the head. these may turn into vertical stripes. Greedily eats alge discs till his belly bulges out. We named him Hannibal.
- —Guest Brandon
Defintely aggressive
- I agree with everything everyone else has said. The beast grew to 12in and is about four years old now. Every time I change the water I either get soaked from his jumping or, a few times, have had to get him off the floor. The thing launches itself whenever I get in there. I had a great tank of south american cichlids that I had originally introduced it to and they are no more. It was fine for about a year and then ate everything, and these were full grown cichlids. The only things this fish hasnt eaten are two 8in plecos, so I now have a 3-fish tank.
- —Guest Alex
Our Big Guy
- Our guy is well over 5 years old now and since we discovered today that their lifespan is only around 5 years; are now wondering how much longer we will have him. Our story is similar to all the other stories above. He grew very fast, very large, ate everything and everyone in sight (excepty our beloved little clown loach). He is beautiful but dangerous to anything else in the tank. We tried everything: cichlids, sharks, barbs, gourami's, oscars. They all found their demise within a short time. We have only found success with having other fish that can swim faster than him and stay out of his way. I suppose he will pass away soon. I'm guessing him to be around 7-8 years old now. Though I will be able to finally add and keep some beautiful species of fish, I will be a little sad to see him go. He is, after all, apart of the family now.
- —Guest Dee and Mark
black banded killers
- I had a tank full of gorgeous fish before purchases theses so-called "peaceful toward other species" fish. (That came straight out of a book.) These 2 fish have killed everything in my tank except 1 guppy, 2 neon tetras, and 1 pleco. I'm getting rid of them before they strike again. I do not recommend them to anyone with a community tank.
- —Guest barbara
Dito!!
- We were given a tank of GORGEOUS cichlids and this guy. At the time - he was about maybe all of 6-7" now he is a whopping 13"! We found him in a pet store, and they do state he only gets 6" which is crap! He is huge, and we are having a hard time with him as he has escaped from the tank - with a fitted cover already once and we cannot add other fish because they quite literally do bully even cichlids and eat their eyes!? He hides, so it looks like we have an empty tank. I am glad I found this site, because I almost couldn't believe he had eaten even my plecostamus eyes out. The only thing he will eat is algae disks or shrimp pellets - for an omnivorous that seems strange to me! I don't know how to feel about this fish, it certainly doesn't make us happy but we can't throw him in the creek either! Believe me, I've thought about it!!
- —Guest Michele
