Spotted Leporinus (Leporinus nijsseni)

The Spotted Leporinus is one of the most popular and brightly coloured of this species. It is a beautiful fish and stands out in an aquarium.

The Spotted Leporinus is an excellent community fish, but it can get relatively big. This fish is very hardy and extraordinarily active, so make sure you keep them in a large aquarium. Make sure you keep the aquarium covered with a tight lid as they are excellent jumpers, and can jump long distances.

The Spotted Leporinus is generally peaceful with fish of similar size; however, adults may be somewhat territorial with one another. They can be fin nippers, so choose their tank mates carefully.

This fish has an elongated body with an arched back and narrower tail. Its body is a yellowish-gold colour that displays scattered different sized black spots. The dorsal, pectoral, and caudal fins are transparent, the pelvic fin in some individuals have an orangy-yellow hue, and the anal fin matches the body colours.

An aquarium suitable for this fish has a sandy bottom with lumps of rock and pieces of wood. The Spotted Leporinus will swim in a head-down position continually grazing on the algae. If there are no algae present, they will nibble on the leaves of plants.

Habitat

The Spotted Leporinus is native to French Guiana and Suriname in South America. These fish inhabit fast-flowing rocky waters and will typically migrate into flooded forest areas during the rainy season. When the water declines, some of the fish are left inland in lakes and ponds.

Other Leporinus of interest

Diet & Feeding

The Spotted Leporinus are omnivores, but they prefer algae and vegetables over everything else. They will regularly eat a vegetable flake when they are small but as adults will appreciate plant material.

Feed them a good spirulina formula fish food or algae wafers and other vegetable material such as watercress, chickweed, spinach leaves and crushed lettuce leaves. They will also snack on the soft shoots and leaves of aquarium plants. every so often you can also offer them live meaty foods

Sexual Dimorphism

It is very tricky to differentiate males from female Spotted Leporinus. The only noticeable difference is that adult females are rounder bellied than males.

Breeding

Unfortunately, there is not much information available on breeding the Spotted Leporinus and records are few and far between. In nature, they are reported to construct some form of a nest which the male will guard until the eggs hatch.

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