My Feelings on Leporinus Fasciatus (A Rant)

[Midwater]

For years I never got any Leporinus. I have read that Fasciatus are terrible, fin nippers, intimidating, aggressive, kill other fish and even (as in one recent thread) eat the silicone out of glass tanks. So I stayed clear.

I have also read on many sources that they are mainly herbivorous, or omnivorous but should not be fed too much protein.

So a year or so ago, I got a bunch of Strawberries. They are lovely fish, and quite mild. And soon after, I thought I would try Fasciatus. I got three little ones.

I supplement the feeding in pretty much all my fish with ghost shrimp. I noticed that the Fasciatus much prefer ghost shrimp to any kind of pellet or flake food. They also seemed to like bits of feeder tilapia that went astray.

Those three are now ten inches long, and are among my favourite fish. Last month I got five new small ones, and they have already doubled in size. When a bit bigger they will go in the large tank with the original three.

But, they are not fin nippers and they are not aggressive at all. They will rip to shreds anything that will fit in their little round mouths. IMO they are certainly not herbivorous. They may be omnivores, but I think they need high protein from lots of live food. And given the right diet then they are easy and peaceful fish.

This looks to me to be another case of the internet repeating false information.

 

[RyanScanner]

I agree but throw a few algae wafers in there too because mine will actively seek them and swim away to eat in privacy over bloodworms or shrimp. But I’ve seen them eat anything if there’s no algae wafers to scoop up.

 

[Deadeye]

To add onto diet, they are definitely a snail eater. Mine actively hunts mts (possibly to extinction in his tank since it’s been a while).
I think their aggression comes from how they are kept. Naturally they would nip at each other in a large shoal like many characins do, but they’re often kept alone in small tanks and turn the aggression on other fish.
Mine is solo (haven’t come across more in ages and the tank is too crowded as is) and I’ve definitely seen a lot of aggression towards similarly sized fish, though that has calmed down as they’ve all figured out territories.

 

[wednesday13]

Usually always hear about the bad so its nice to hear a report on the good… i had a 10”er relentlessly harass a 20”+ pacu. Had another 6-7”er that loved eating eyeballs out of other fish. I did have a stunted 5”er that never grew and it was placid bothering noone at all for years. I don’t think theres mis information of them being terrors in most cases. Maybe it has to do with them being kept solo or in numbers. You may be mitigating their aggression spreading it out amongst them selves.

 

[jjohnwm]

I had three fasciatus in my very first 360 plywood tank for a number of years; they lived with a community of cichlids and cats, never caused any problems and never suffered any grief. Beautiful fish.

I think they are just like many barbs, tetras and other schooling fish, i.e. they go a little bonkers when kept singly. They're bigger, so a psycho Leporinus is capable of more damage than an antisocial Tiger Barb or similar, but it's just a matter of scale. An aggressive Chihuahua is more or less a joke; an equally aggressive Mastiff is going to catch your attention.