Black Banded Leporinus Fasciatus

[LetsBeFriends]

two picks of my leporinus, quite an interesting fish. a while back when i had first gotten him i posted a pick of my whole tank and CFC warned me about this guys aggression. man was he right. i have such a hard time getting tank mates for this guy, he is only bout 5.5 inches but he commands the whole tank. he has grown about 3 inches in 7 months which is pretty good. i have to keep the tiger barb count above 8 otherwise he starts to kill them off and i belive that the barbs will need to be rehomed in a few years as he will get big.


these are the most recent pics
that kirb in the second pic is my newest fish, he is about 4 inches for a size reference.

 

[~T~]

Very nice. Back when I knew nothing and took the advice of the lfs I got 2 of these little guys for my 3 foot community and they were fine at first then when they hit about 3" they just started to destroy every fish in the tank.

 

[catxx]

he's looking good. he'll be a right little terror when he's bigger!

this is a 10" one that's at london zoo's aquarium:

 

[LetsBeFriends]

wow he is a big one! i noticed from other pictures and i think this holds for a lot of fish, they start to lose their striking colors as they get older.

 

[BigTuna]

I have a question about my BBL and I figured this would be a fine place to ask it. He is in my new tank and is sticking to one end and swimming in a tight loop over and over. It seems stressed to me. Any suggestions or advice? Is this normal behavior?

 

[josh_g]

My leporinious used to get seriously stressed out when there was lots of other fish in the tank. But when i got rid of a few and he pretty much had tank 2 himself he was fine. He quickly outgrew my old 4x2x2 though and I had 2 re-home him. He is in my mates 6x2x3 now and is about 15". Also mine was a bad fin nipper ruined some of my cichlids. They are a quality fish if you can give them the home and attention they need.

 

[BigTuna]

He is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Yesterday he was very hectic today he is anchored down and hiding. Maybe too many quick changes for him in the past 3 days.