Black Lancer

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 10 Jun 2003, 18:51

If all goes well the LFS will have one of these for me this weekend. I've read the CotM article and the one in the Manual of Tankbusters but neither one says how predatory they are. I would like to know if one would be safe with Glass catfish.

Post by **Silurus** » 10 Jun 2003, 18:54

They are safe with all but very small fish. They have really small mouths and would not be able to eat the glass cats even if they tried (which they won't).

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 10 Jun 2003, 19:08

That's good, because I've read they're quite shy and I want to get mine started in a
peaceful tank, with it being the largest fish.

Post by **Silurus** » 10 Jun 2003, 19:10

Have you read the article here that Shane and I wrote?

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 10 Jun 2003, 21:15

My nephew and I had these long ago, and maybe it were just bad humoured ones, but in our experience, they're not nice at all!

I never found any mentioning in any thread here or article, BUT: they were TERRIBLE fin- and skin-nippers! they lived in a 400L tank with all kinds of catfishes, characins etc, but they behaved very nasty, rasping skin- and finparts of many other fish....

The only catfish that were even more obnoxious that we've ever encountered were a 8" Cetopsis (wich would even nip fingers, and rip off bits of any other fish, including slimy, thickskinned Auchenipterids and spiny Dorads and Pseudacanthicus) and a 2" Ochmacanthus (who made no hesitation about attacking a 14" Pterodoras granulosus, trying to eat the skin of that poor bugger.....)

Post by **Silurus** » 10 Jun 2003, 22:07

You probably had the extreme bad luck to own bad-tempered individuals. They are somewhat intemperate towards each other, but shy otherwise. My experience from keeping them on two separate occasions and seeing individuals in LFSs (I've also seen tanks full of hundreds of individuals at the exporters) all indicate that they are mild-mannered if given enough space.

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 17 Jun 2003, 18:25

Unfortunately the LFH's supplier was sold out when he placed his order. Supplier is trying to get hold of some more, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 29 Jun 2003, 10:52

Until recently I had several lancers. I still have two, a large female (6" SL) and a younger male (2.5" SL). They are in seperate tanks as they can be quite nasty to one and another and I was somewhat worried about the size difference.

No lancer I have kept has shown aggresion towards other resisdents in the form of fin nipping or chasing. The large female is in a 48"x18"x18" with some fish smaller than 1" and they are not eaten. When not eating directly she chews over rounded pieces of gravel in a <I>Satanoperca</I> fashion.

Jools