Here is a video of a couple of rescued banded leporinus, which I have had for 1 year and for 1.5 years. I gathered they were a few years old, one was kept in a glistening 30 gal tank on a kitchen counter top and the other in a murky outside 200 gal pond. I got them at about 7"-8" and placed them in 4500 gal and they grew some, perhaps reaching ~10" currently.
They fought at first a little (for a day or two) to figure out who is who but the damage was pretty mild, some scales went flying, and never since have I seen this. They have been the most intact and completely damage-free fish in my very populated 4500 gal, which says a lot - no one touches them or those that want to can't catch them... and in all likelihood they do touch others as evidenced by nipped fins but being sneaky they appear to do so by night when we are not around...
They occur in large shoals in the wild, so it is not surprising that when one keeps a few of them, they enforce an hierarchy more rigorously and don't shoal as much (mine do swim in a relative proximity often though) and most regrettably they become fin nippers in a fashion that appears similar (to my ignorant and learning mind) to the behavior of many tetras and Co - fish lacking the comfort of a school of their kin turn into fin-nipping jerks.
It's my working hypothesis anyway. Feel free to argue pro or con.
Lone leporinus appear to indeed behave as smart jerks with some people, for example, reporting that they nip even the most threatening and aggressive fish like Hemibagrus wyckii and wyckioides in a 100-200 gal tank because the latter can't catch them to retaliate or to eat them. They are lighting fast and their vision is superb and apparently they do not sleep because otherwise they'd not survive. They'd not survive in my tank either if they slept, I reckon, because being so slim they'd fit in a mouth of many of their carnivorous tank mates. Plus I always leave a night light on.
As for their feeding habits, they are very nondiscriminatory, as described in literature. They are also smart and inquisitive albeit they do not care for who their owner and feeder is, IME anyway.
They are the smallest fish (as judged by their "swallowability") in the 4500 gal but the most relaxed and always intact, not a tiniest split in their finnage, that, counter-intuitively, it appears as if they are the bosses of the tank...
They fought at first a little (for a day or two) to figure out who is who but the damage was pretty mild, some scales went flying, and never since have I seen this. They have been the most intact and completely damage-free fish in my very populated 4500 gal, which says a lot - no one touches them or those that want to can't catch them... and in all likelihood they do touch others as evidenced by nipped fins but being sneaky they appear to do so by night when we are not around...
They occur in large shoals in the wild, so it is not surprising that when one keeps a few of them, they enforce an hierarchy more rigorously and don't shoal as much (mine do swim in a relative proximity often though) and most regrettably they become fin nippers in a fashion that appears similar (to my ignorant and learning mind) to the behavior of many tetras and Co - fish lacking the comfort of a school of their kin turn into fin-nipping jerks.
It's my working hypothesis anyway. Feel free to argue pro or con.
Lone leporinus appear to indeed behave as smart jerks with some people, for example, reporting that they nip even the most threatening and aggressive fish like Hemibagrus wyckii and wyckioides in a 100-200 gal tank because the latter can't catch them to retaliate or to eat them. They are lighting fast and their vision is superb and apparently they do not sleep because otherwise they'd not survive. They'd not survive in my tank either if they slept, I reckon, because being so slim they'd fit in a mouth of many of their carnivorous tank mates. Plus I always leave a night light on.
As for their feeding habits, they are very nondiscriminatory, as described in literature. They are also smart and inquisitive albeit they do not care for who their owner and feeder is, IME anyway.
They are the smallest fish (as judged by their "swallowability") in the 4500 gal but the most relaxed and always intact, not a tiniest split in their finnage, that, counter-intuitively, it appears as if they are the bosses of the tank...
