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To my utter disbelieve (which soon turned into anger later on) I witnessed my new Leporacanthicus galaxias (which I swapped against my pair of L18's) is attacking anything that comes near it. Moreover, it chases other fish as well.
This looks nice when he tries to chase Exodons (no way!), but gets pretty annoying when Platystacus are almost getting crushed by the silly beast. Yesterday evening I saw it wriggling into a piece of wood which was crowded with Auchenipterids.... for a short time. One Trachelyopterus galeatus couldn't get out quickly enough however, and this poor female got badly damaged. This happened just before lights out (11.30 pm), and in a state of sheer madness I had to get some sleep. Not!
But today I'll be the hunter and despite it will upset my fish again I have to choose the worst of two evils, so I'm getting this one of the tank a.s.a.p.
Has anyone had similar experiences with this species?

Marc, I'll write more later but, Yeap...

For now, I need to finish getting a program for the local Aquarium Society (I am scheduled to talk tonight!)

Looking forward to your story Paul.
Anyway, this afternoon I did the chasing. And won

I had 3 Leporacanthicus sp. (L263) and one of them killed the other 2 and a male L034.
He had a really bad attitude and at first I didn't realize who was doing the killings
because the fish were in a tank full of African cichlids. I soon witnessed a brutal beating
for myself and I tried to save the victim but it later died in a hospital (tank). I'm not an
expert on Loricariidae but I think it is safe to assume that Leporacanthicus species are
rather dangerous to other plecos.

Marc van Arc wrote:And won

Well, did I ??
I found the T. galeatus female dead this morning and noticed other damaged Auchenipterids swimming in broad daylight. Not a good omen .
No winners here at the moment....

I have never seen a Leporacanthicus sp. attack another fish. We keep them, one individual per tank and never with any other bottom dwellers in the store(because of their reputation), and I have never kept any at home. What I'm interested in is how, mainly, the attack is done? Plain ramming head on? Slashing with pectoral spines or beating with the base of the tail? Maybe it´s a combination of all three... or are they in possession of some secret weapon. Or do they actually bite other fish?

My L.joselimai is very placid indeed, although it's not quite sexually mature.

Only on one occasion have I seen it being aggressive. Just after a water change it wanted to get into a cave inhabited by a male Hypancistrus L262.

The L.joselimai gnawed at it's back and flank for about 5 minutes solid. The L262 finally relinquished it's home, and suffered only light scarring, which is surprising considering the teeth they possess.

Here's a great pic from the Armbruster website....

TalenT wrote:Plain ramming head on? Slashing with pectoral spines or beating with the base of the tail? Maybe it´s a combination of all three

I saw the first two being done; it also uses it's whole body (not just the tail) to squeeze other fish against wood or tank windows.

TalenT wrote: or are they in possession of some secret weapon

No, or it should be their ill-minded character

TalenT wrote: Or do they actually bite other fish?

Yes!

I can only tell you what I saw with Leporacanthicus sp. (L263). My killer pleco used
it's mouth to completely destroy it's rival. There was also some pushing and wrestling.
He (or she) chewed up a total of 4 plecos and I was able to save only one female L034
and all the rest died later from their injuries.

I have to agree that they don't call them vampire plecos just for how the teeth look, they truely can inflict alot of damage with them. I used to have an L007 that was only 4" SL in my 135g tank, that little rat would shred the fins of every other bottom dweller in the there and it was the smallest of the bunch!

Only the big Botia that were in there at the time were safe, speed & clicking kept their fins intact..

To put it simply, I don't miss that fish one bit!

Marc,
The posts above are consistent with my experiences with these fish.

Aucheniperids fare particularly poorly against such well armed fish. I've found, once an adult Leporacanthicus decides it's time to enhabit a cave, they don't give up.

Despite their downfalls, they remain one of my favorite groups of Loricariids

pturley wrote: they remain one of my favorite groups of Loricariids

Mine too...... in books
Thanks for the replies everyone. Wish I had known this before; it would have saved my fish and myself a lot of unnecessary stress. They still feel very uncomfortable.
Next time I'll do some reading first. That is what I usually do, but I hadn't expected any problems with this fish.

I wasn't aware of this either marc. At least others can now be informed. I shall keep a very close eye on mine as it reaches maturity.

how close is the L263 to the L264 because i have an L264 and i have heard that they can also be agressive but i have never seen it as bad as what is being described. When i first got mine it was not very nice to my L177, chasing around and such, but they are friends now i think. they hang out under the same piece of wood when there are other places to hide.

Update: I think I'll get away with one victim. The whole thing has settled down somewhat, although I definitely lost the trust of my Trachelyopterus, which won't show themselves anymore. They have all occupied one piece of wood and hopefully they don't damage eachother in this relatively narrow space.
On the other hand I see my Liosomadoras quite often these days (well, evenings) and that is nice after several months of Pythonesque behaviour: How not to be seen.
So indeed the galaxias worked as some sort of explosive

i have an l007 and never had any trouble with him, now my clown plec he's a different story

fish fodder wrote:i have an l007 and never had any trouble with him

And I do hope you can keep it like that, because they are beautiful fish. But if something strange happens in the future, you now know where to look .