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How wide and how tall is an adult marmoratus mouth?

Knowing this along with the total body size should help me find suitable tankmates that won't be able to be swallowed or choked down.

It's a tough question. First of all, the rate of growth and the final size CAN vary greatly ---> so can the size of mouth. Second, as I know, they are not nearly as predatory the likes of TSN and RTC - these try to swallow heaters at times! My three L. marmoratuses (8", 11", and 1.7') and two L. pictuses (10" and 1.7', all TL) are excellent eaters but do not bite or go after any other even 2-4 times smaller fish in my community tanks and ponds, even when pretty hungry (the big ones I feed 1-2 times a week).

Sorry, this is a tangenial answer to your q. Cannot give you numbers or % right now.

Thanks Victor, lucky two pictuses.

Hi Sequoicat.

Agreed this is a tricky question without actualy measuring it & not sure my cats would approve!

I would hazard a rough guess based on my 26"+ monster that it is a good 6" across, it has no trouble when hand feeding in taking WHOLE fillets of white fish so I'd be wary of adding anything under 7-8" in width.
However my pond also contains a pair of Dovii & the female is certainly within that size range & also at one time a Large Pike Cichlid of around 11" but a cigar shape so you'd think easily "eat able."
I'd agree with Victor in that they do not "appear" to be nearly as Voracious a predator as TSN, RTC's etc.
Your call if you risk it though.
If i could house my Dovii elsewhere I would.

Thanks RedtailRob.

I been looking at these Plecos as possible tankmates...
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=151
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... cies_id=80

Its just that the pure blood Leiarius's and a punctatus would be the fish with the largest mouths in my final setup.

thanks Rob!

There were two 7" and 8" TL Lima SN's (slim guys, "edible", as you know) in the pond with the large pictus and the large and medium marmoratuses. Survived just fine, never even a bite mark.

Sequoiacat, a punctatus who??

Ictaluras Punctatus-channel cat.

Iam really leaning to the royal panaque, since the rhino pleco is so rare in my town, for a tankmate, also due to their body height and length.

One of mine LFS's I visit has had two rhino plecos for 1/2 year. Very nice looking. Close to foot each. $60 each. NOT trade-ins. Probably too expensive for you (i.e., if I bought them and shipped them to you; but I've never done it myself before, so can give no guarantees). I can ask the owner if he'd ship them to you but to ship fish, businesses have to have a permit - not all LFS's have that.

Thanks Victo , but I recently found a new lfs near me that has better and rarer stock that they can get in.

So a Rhino or a Royal pleco would be fine with the leiarius's and channel cat? Iam thinking so.

As long as the pleco is big, yes. Of course, the Leiarius may well grow a lot quicker than for example a .

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Mats

Yah, I figured if the Xl catfish out paced them in growth, the plecos would be in a 100 gallon to grow out.

Hopefuly I find leiariu's with the disposition of my leiarius hybrid, who doesn't even try to eat or intimidate 1-2inch fish even though it is 11 inches for now.

Mats, is 11" rhino or 13" royal pleco (near max) considered big enough in your advice? To me it sounds kind of too small to handle a 2'-3' cat, but then again, neither L. marmoratus nor channel cat are top predators but mostly scavengers.

Sequoiacat, if you are talking about L. m. x TSN (the one you started another thread on) then consider yours a highly unlikely exception. Mine at 5" stuffed three 1.5" goldfish in his mouth although he could not swallow that many (already having 2 feeders in his tummy).

Yah the tsnXleiarius, he is in 100gallon right now with 4 cherry barbs and 4 fathead minnows. Either he is to lazy or truly has no interest in eating other fish.

I do know of a leiarius personally that has eaten fish 3/4ths its size.MY main reason for worry.

I wouldn't mind an albino one of these http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=148

I don't know how large a pleco needs to be to not become lunch for a 2-3' fish - all I was trying to say is that if you have, say, a 6" Leiarius and a 6" Royal Pleco, the Royal Pleco will probably be about 8" by the time the Leiarius is 18" - and that COULD lead to problems. It is, from this discussion, my understanding that these fish do not eat anything that they can eat, and if they are well fed, unlikely that they will eat something that is capable of defending itself. But "unlikely" isn't "will not happen" - after all, it's unlikely that a particular person will win the lottery - but it does happen.

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Mats

Oh Mats! It is the elegant answers like this that make us love and appreciate you!