Leporacanthicus cf_galaxias eating silicone

[Firestorming]

I recently stepped into the realms of keeping Leporacanthicus cf_galaxias

L007

, and thought I was well prepared until I found a report of them eating (or just destroying) the silicone that holds the tank together.

If anyone has experienced this, could you please provide me some preventative measures to stop them, I have an individual fish at this stage, but am tracking down some more in the hope of breeding them. I have a spare 6x2x2 tank they will eventually go into, at this stage I am thinking of glueing acrylic strips over all the joins to provide a barrier.

[MatsP]

The prevention, I think, is to give them food! ;)

Seriously, I have seen the damage a large group of

Leporacanthicus triactis

(20-30 fish) did to their tank at Pier, but there seem to be no damage to my tank tho', where I have 4 large ones of the very ones from Pier.

I think it may be something they do when stressed and/or starved.

--
Mats

[Cristoffer Forssander]

They usualy attack te corners of the aquarium, so I have long piece of glas, glued with silicone in every aquarium where I have Lepos. It's seemes to be 100% safe from destroying the silicone.

I Have this with L264, L240, L241 and L91

Cristoffer

[Richard B]

As Mats says, the ones at Pier really did some damage. I think this is related to stocking density & the continual scraping action of a lot of loricariids. I've not heard of this replicated to the same extent by hobbyists but obviously prevention is better than cure so some barrier to the silicone would be a good idea

[Shane]

This genus feeds by using its long upper jaw teeth to scrape cracks in stones and wood for food. The fimbriae on the upper lip function as "whiskers" to taste/locate hidden food items.

Burgess (1994) theorized that these teeth were used to extract snails from their shells, and this may be the case for

Leporacanthicus joselimai

. Gut content analysis in

Leporacanthicus triactis

however showed caddis flies and freshwater sponges.

As the aquarium's seams are the closest thing to a "crack" in most aquariums, my best guess is that they sometimes ruin the silicone by exploring this "crack" for food with those large upper jaw teeth. A thin substrate will help protect the seam from their attentions and a piece of rough surfaced stone or wood that they can "explore" may help as well.

-Shane

[MatsP]

I have plenty of wood in my tank, so that may be a factor as well.

--
Mats

[Firestorming]

Thanks guys, sorry for the belated thanks, just getting back from 3 weeks in china, I will post some pics of what I spotted when I get back on a proper computer.

[fish fodder]

I have two large L91 and they do the same thing, you can hear them attacking the silicone. I tend to agree with Shane. The softness of the silicone could resemble sponges or my theory, snails.

I doubt very much it's down to lack of food as mine have a better diet than myself.