Leporinus fasciatus

[RockyT~]

anyone got one. My husband bought this on a trip to the LFS he only got one. everything i have read says they are aggressive, mean and murderers (explains the prison stripes)

mine seems ok he just hangs out in his castle. he is only 4 inches. so i am wondering if maybe its when they get bigger they get really aggressive, or if when they are in packs they are aggressive.

any experienced owners advice would be great.
thanks

 

[Fishyfanatic]

My brother purchased one for his African tank and it was a TERROR. It killed every fish that they put in the tank except for one neon (he doesn't know how to stock tanks, hence the Neon with the Africans) There's was about 3 to 4 inches in size. The lfs labeled it as Peaceful, yeah, right!

 

[kaz]

about four months ago I bought mine, maybe 1/2 to 1inch long, the lfs profile said it grows 7" and was semi peacful. now he is about 2 to 3 inches long and hes not really that aggresive from what I have witness, on the other hand for some reason some of my fish fins have been nip and some just come up dead and chewed on, but again I dont know if they die and then get eat up or if the nip is from my other fish against each other. I'm trying to trade mine in the trading post but no one cares for him.

 

[willowthepoet]

my boyfriend had one for a while in a tank with a baby oscar (*shakes head* he should never be allowed at the lfs without me) and it killed the oscar that was about 4x its size.

IME, those things are NASTY.

 

[kaz]

My brother purchased one for his African tank and it was a TERROR. It killed every fish that they put in the tank except for one neon (he doesn't know how to stock tanks, hence the Neon with the Africans) There's was about 3 to 4 inches in size. The lfs labeled it as Peaceful, yeah, right!

why would you put a south american fish with african fish?

 

[kaz]

again I never witness any attacks I do not see it aggresive towards other tank mate, mine swims around the tank and doesnt even chase one or the other. now since I got my loach their the most active of them all.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

As I said Kaz, it's my BROTHERS tank, not mine. He does not know how to stock a tank, hence the Neons with the Africans. Why did he do it? He's under the impression that any fish can go with each other. But as I stated before, those fish are terrors. The Leporinus killed a Johanni that was about 5 inches in size. It picked off an Auratus in about 2 days.

 

[kaz]

I'm sorry buddy i didnt read all that and when I did I tried to delete that post but can't figure out how

 

[toddnbecka]

I once bought one of those, the aquarium encyclopedia I had stated that they are peaceful vegetarians. Fish don't read encyclopedia's. It wasn't particularly aggressive in general, for the 2 days I had it, but the supposed "vegetarian" ate an african butterfly fish alive. I had a pair of them, and came home to find the female, who was full of eggs, with a large part of her abdomen missing. (That was how I knew she was full of eggs, they were clearly visible) Looking at the fish, it appeared something had taken a huge bite out of her, so I netted the bicher, since it was the only big-mouthed carnivore in the tank, and returned it to the lfs. When I came back, she was missing even more of her abdomen, almost all in fact. I watched for a few minutes, and saw the leporinus swim up under her and nibble off another little bit. She seemed unaware of what was happening, didn't even try to escape. I removed the leporinus, and flushed the female butterfly, because she had no chance of living. I have since learned that they are best kept with larger, aggressive fish, and personally I wouldn't take another one if it was free.

 

[RockyT~]

holy cow!!!! well at least we named him good. we named him "jailbird" because of his coloring. Mine is not as yellow as the smaller ones.

well so far mine thinks he is a clown loach. they have buddied up and they hide out in the tree trunk

they come out and night and just swim. i have sat and watched him at 3 am. and he just swims around the tank. i don't know why but to me he swims "creepy" if that makes any sense. like a shark maybe or something. i cant explain it but if you watch him swim around the tank its just cool in a creepy way.

i haven't seen him bug anything. my Betta was getting stressed in there so i don't know if it was him or not i took the Betta out and he is happy now. so i don't know if the "jailbird" was doing anything or not.

mine is about 3 inches long. so far so good. someone told me though that in pairs they are even more vicious.