Purple labeo, a hippo-sucking aquarist nightmare from Africa

[thebiggerthebetter]

I'm too lazy to retype what's been described to great detail in here https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=41670&hilit=purple+labeo

I am creating this thread to document my continuing endeavor with my remaining 1 of 2 purple labeo, bought as a harlequin shark, or calico shark, etc. back in 2011.

This is some of what they do with that terrific sucking apparatus in the wild:

What they do in captivity with it, you can see in that PCF link I attached first.

 

[moe214]

Didn't realize you had him with the etc before, surprised he wasn't a meal. A pretty fish. I've read your threads on it before, after you talked about its aggression here, which adds to the appeal for me lol

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Didn't realize you had him with the etc before, surprised he wasn't a meal. A pretty fish. I've read your threads on it before, after you talked about its aggression here, which adds to the appeal for me lol

You're sick, Moe.

I was a bit surprised it wasn't made a meal too but I've had both purple labeos in with monster catfish TSN, RTC, TSNxRTC, Jau, silver aros, two 3' alligator gars, etc. for a long time, since 2011 til ~2015.

Its brother died back in 2013 in a rubber pond, IDK from what. They had been (I realized in retrospect) merrily harassing all the fish in that pond, killed three 30"-36" channel catfish, then one day I found one pretty much dead but don't recall any / much damage. I think it was eaten up later that day or night by the cats. The other one remained in that same pond.

 

[Hendre]

They say barbel there but that name commonly refers to clarias species

 

[fishdat]

Labeo are such beautiful fish, it's such a shame they're all so aggressive. I can barely get by with a black shark with my monsters.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Been almost two years...

Our Terroristka has been taken out of the 4500 gal, as those who read the PCF thread linked above know, and placed in the 240 gal jerk tank, where it had spent a year or longer but eventually our #1 jerk aka Distichodus lusosso after about a year together decided enough's enough and started attacking the purple Labeo, #2 jerk, and pulling out its scales. They had been quite alright together before that.

So the Labeo has gone through three 240 gal tanks since then, cohabiting with smaller fish, e.g., gulper catfish and as you will see in the following video with other small fish, it doesn't perceive them as a threat or a target:

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Been almost two years...

Our Terroristka has been taken out of the 4500 gal, as those who read the PCF thread linked above know, and placed in the 240 gal jerk tank, where it had spent a year or longer but eventually our #1 jerk aka Distichodus lusosso after about a year together decided enough's enough and started attacking the purple Labeo, #2 jerk, and pulling out its scales. They had been quite alright together before that.

So the Labeo has gone through three 240 gal tanks since then, cohabiting with smaller fish, e.g., gulper catfish and as you will see in the following video with other small fish, it doesn't perceive them as a threat or a target:

Is this species a similar ahole as its relative the blackshark labeo? Ive had my eyes on the purple labeo but havnt been able to lay my hands on it yet.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Is this species a similar ahole as its relative the blackshark labeo? Ive had my eyes on the purple labeo but havnt been able to lay my hands on it yet.

Most think the black shark aka Labeo chrysophekadion is pretty bad but the purple Labeo aka Labeo congoro is 1000x worse in my experience.

 

[Tobiassorensen]

Most think the black shark aka Labeo chrysophekadion is pretty bad but the purple Labeo aka Labeo congoro is 1000x worse in my experience.

Haha damn i had a 1.5' black shark stress out all of my fish and was an real ahole against my smallest cichla orinocoensis until my clarotes snaped and killed the black shark.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Haha damn i had a 1.5' black shark stress out all of my fish and was an real ahole against my smallest cichla orinocoensis until my clarotes snaped and killed the black shark.

As usual... the smaller the tank, the worse the black shark would be but the exact tank mates and individual temperament seem to matter. One of our black sharks has been in a 240 gal for 2-3 years with a bunch of tank mates and while I saw some chasing, it had never been anything serious. I have raised 5 pbass in there too meanwhile, one temensis, one orino, and three supposed kelberi, all from small sizes. Nowadays, the shark cruises the 25,000 gal.

Anyhow, all this you can find in my black shark thread. Let's keep this thread clean for the hippo cleaner fish.