Leporinus
- Ours is 21 years old! He won't die! He survived jumping out of his tank and laying under the sofa in dust! I don't know what to do with him!
- —Guest Deborah
Can not stand
- I can not stand this fish any more. The only way that I can put other fish in the fish tank with that fish is by putting a fish tank divider and that is so it will not eat my hatchet fish. But it did because my mom filled up my fish tank and the hatchet fish is small enough to slip by the divider and I think that is why there is only one fish in my fish tank.
- —Guest Hatred
What a pain fish
- I have one of these bullies and we had three very large silver dollars, two large sharks, a large pleco and numerous other smaller fish in our 100 gallon tank for a couple of years and they all got along just fine until one day this bully decided to start plucking the eyes out of the other fish and nibbling on their fins until he slowly killed and ate every other fish in the tank. We are now considering getting rid of him so we can have other fish again. What a mistake to put him in our tank, lesson learned.
- —Guest JustJim
Love my BBL!
- I keep reading about all these people telling horror stories about their BBL killing all their other fish. I have 1 he's about 4in long in a 20gal tank with a rainbow shark, a roseline shark, a featherfin catfish, and a small pleco. I've never had any problems with the BBL. He keeps to himself and bothers none of my fish. I feed the tank flakes,brine shrimp, and sheets of green seaweed on a veggie clip. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones!
- —Guest Tom
Lack of knowledge
- I purchased 2 of the bbls with a silver dollar and a pleco at the same time. Having no info on how to raise the bbl's, I put them all in a 38 gal tank. That was over six years ago. All have grown up together and leave each other pretty much alone. They get tropical crisps to eat and nothing else. The only disturbing action is that the bbls and the silver dollar can't leave the scenery alone. They are forever moving the plastic plants around, knocking over objects such as an anchor used for display and or bumping the intake pipe of the water filter loose. They do get a lot of comments and admiration.
- —Guest Bruce
plays well with others
- My leporinus is 7 inches long and lives in a 55g African tank. That's right, African tank. Boo ya!
- —Guest adamhadem
Bandeded Ninja
- I've had my BBL for roughly 16 months now. I picked him up when he was less than an inch in length and now I'd say he's between 8-9 inches. I've only experienced one act of aggression with him. I had done a very thorough tank cleaning and perhaps over cleaned it and robbed him of his food supply, because the next day I awoke to my feather fin catfish with a huge chunk out of his dorsal fin (he's all healed up now). I added some new plantlife to the tank that day, and haven't had a problem since. It's my opinion that the key to keeping these guys dosile is to keep them in a live planted aquarium. I should mention, he has 9 tankmates, all smaller than he and there are no issues. I should also mention, that he is in excellent health and his colors are vibrant. In the 16 months I've had him, I've never actually witnessed him eat, not even the food I drop in specifically for him, but my tank is fairly heavily planted and he keeps getting bigger, so I must be doing something right.
- —Guest Unwavering
Peace and quiet
- I am a bbl keeper and have successfully bred these fish. With a balanced diet of plant life and occasional blood worms/ shrimp etc....there should be no problems as long as he has a large enough territory! If the tank is too small( remember how big these guys can get!) then you will have fins being nipped and even worse! If you give these guys what they need, you will enjoy a great fish with no problems
- —Guest Hayze
Even the little ones are bullies!
- I have a tropical community tank and added two 3 inch guys. At first, they seemed peaceful and worked dilligently at eating up all of the algae on my plants and tank decorations. In the second week, one of my mature tiger barbs was observed floating sideways...upon closer examination both of the Black Banded Leporinuses were feasting on him as he was dying. After that I began to watch them carefully and observed them nipping the fins of mature silver dollars, my gourami...they even went after my spotted climbing perch! As I examined my fish, I noticed almost all of them had chunks out of their fins. Needless to say, we have removed them from the tank. I would NOT recommend these fish for a community tank whatsoever.
- —Guest Ken
BB Leporinus
- My Leporinus is now over 14 years old and share a 55 gal tank with one clown loach. I onlly feed a rotation of frozen bloodworms, white mosquito larvae ad brine shrimp with the occasional romaine leaf. Obviously he is thriving with this diet. he's over 8 inches and very vibrant color.
- —Guest Becky
Bastards!
- I had a 9 year old Texas, he was my pride and joy in my 55 gallon tank. I bought the banded bully and with in 2 days he had beat my Texas to death and now he is after my Blood Parrots and Pacu!
- —Guest Darby
Beautiful Fin-Nipper
- These fish have been a pleasure to own! But anyone interested should be aware of the potential headaches that come with owning this fish. Small or large, this fish nips fins of any fish that wont fight back and sometimes even large Cichlids than would easily eat them. I have 4 of these and they are kept in a 150 gallon tank with a variety of Cichlids and a stingray (I don't recommend trying this it wasn't easy at all). Two of them are between 13 and 15 inches, one is about 10 inches, and the other is 5 inches. The bigger ones will eat any fish that will fit in its mouth. But mostly they like to dig in the sand and find leftover food. over all these fish have been a pleasure to own. If your looking for an attractive and active fish and you don't have small docile fish, this is the fish for you!
- —Guest jesse
I am very dishartened
- I, like the rest of you, bought three lepos because I was told they get along good with angelfish. They were small, beautiful fish that I was excited about. My angel's fins started getting nipped and the king of the tank(the one with the red eye) angelfish died. I noticed him at the bottom with no eyeballs. Then another died, with the same results. I breed angels and thought the were getting eaten post-mortem. That was until I put some fresh adolescents in the tank and watched them get devoured in seconds. I now am afraid to add more babies. I love, the now 8in. psychos for some reason though. I plan to just buy a giagantic tank and hope my angels and lepos can live peacefully. My two long tailed ram fish have survived fine though, for some reason.
- —Guest Mark
Black Banded Leporinus
- I too have one of these little/large things. Same stories as most of the people here have stated. He was given to us from someone who tried to introduce him into their tank and he was picked on by all of his other fish. When he came to our tank, things went well for a little while. As he got bigger, more stripes he got more carnivorous. I know the explanation of this fish says that they are herbivores, but this fish we have eats everything from fresh vegetables to other fish to all of the plants. He has killed all of the other fish we had. We want to put more fish in, but obviously cannot with this guy in there. He's at least 4 years old now and probably about 7" long, and he is the sole survivor in our tank, so I'm sure he'll get bigger.
- —Guest Treefairies
New observations "HOTDOG FISH"
- I posted awhile back w/the title"cheek bugger" I tried w/ the 135 gal. cichlid tank but he was too much of a hellion for the other residents. After much chasing about, I managed to catch him(or rather he caught himself by leaping out of the tank like a missile) He moved into the 125 gal oscar tank. He ignores the oscars & vice versa. However, one longtime resident is a rather stout convict cichlid coming in at 5+ inches. It was great fun watching them go round and round. But alas ( a month or so) the convict lost & was missing eyes & fins in the morning.One day I ran out of food 4 the oscars and fed them sliced OscarMayer weiner(no pun intended) they begrudgingly accepted it however the leporinus finds this absolutely delightful.For a treat he gets a half inch portion which he move like lightning to get before the oscars know it hit the water and zips to the corner to eat it in peace. Now when guests come over, they wish to see the "hotdog fish" in action. Cheaper than LFS treats.try i
- —Guest tzar66
