Leporacanthicus sp. “L314”

Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Hypostominae
Genus: Leporacanthicus
Species: not described yet

Leporacanthicus sp. "L314" is a bigger growing species of its genus. With around 25 cm this species reaches its maximum body length. It shows all typical traits for Leporacanthicus, icluding the big, pointy head, with a trunk like mouth. Like all the other species of this genus, also "L314" has long and pointy teeth for a more carnivorous diet.

Its overall body coloration is grey-beige with black dots all over the body. It is not as dark grey as it is known of Leporacanthicus joselimai "L264". It can easily be confused with the very similar looking Leporacanthicus sp. "L263". The "L314" shows no white pattern on the hard rays of dorsal and caudal fins.

Also this Leporacanthicus can be very territorial, especially towards males of the same species / genus. Interspecial fights for hierarchy and dominance are a common behaviour and can result in damaged fins, eyes and skin.

This species is from Brazil. There it can only be found in the Curuá-Una which is located in the province Pará.

Its habitat consists of mediate streaming, and warm water with a low electric conductivity, due to a very low sediment content in the water.

Leporacanthicus, and thus also the "L314", have teeth which they use to open cracks in stones, wood, snail shells and mussels. They are carnivores (meat eaters) and should therefore be fed a protein-rich diet consisting of shellfish, shrimp, mussels and fish meat. They also scrape on wood, but this is not part of their main diet and is not necessary for thriving of this species.

The L. sp. "L314" will also take vegetarian food in between. You can therefore sometimes offer them some green food. It is an easy eater that actually accepts all types of fish food well.

We mainly feed them Carnivore sticks, Shrimp sticks and Mussel sticks, alternating with Krill soft granulate, Snail soft granulate and Mussel soft granulate.

The minimum length of the aquarium should be 150 cm.

It is a larger L-number for the larger aquariums. Think of an aquarium of 150 - 200 cm for 1 - 4 animals. The "L314" must have enough hiding places in the aquarium.
They are peaceful with most other fish. Males can be territorial and aggressive towards each other, so there should be plenty of hiding places in the aquarium, in addition to space, if you want to keep a group. It is advisable to have more hiding options than the number of fish. The most peaceful way to keep this species, is in pairs of both sexes.
The temperature should be between 26 - 30 °C. High oxygenation should be applied with streaming pumps and airstones. It is a light sensitive fish, which is more often to seen with non or dimmed light.

Leporacanthicus sp. "L314" follows kind of the same pattern for sexing as other members of this genus, like for example L. triactis "L91", L. joselimai "L264" or L. sp."L240/L241".

From the side is not so much difference to see between male and female.

A close-up reveals a more pointy and slender head of the female, where as the tip of the males snout seems rounder and in general more robust.

Odontodes on the snout are more visible at the male than the female, but as always, take care with sexing plecos solely on the odontode growth, since this can often mislead.

Odontodes on the gills also seem slightly more visible at the male, even though this species doesn't show much of them in general.

The differences on the pectoral odontodes are minimal and probably hard to distinguish with the bare eye and are therefore not the best sexing indicator.

The same could probably be said about the spikes on the sides of the tail, which are visible in both sexes.

This genus makes it easiest for us from top. Where as the male seems to have a more pronounced head and a straighter line from the shoulders till the tail, the female shows a slight curvarture and ends a bit more pointy in the tail region. Gravid females make the sexing from top of course easier.

From top the male shows a longer head which is bigger in ratio to the rest of the body. This female doesn`t make it to easy, since from top she shows quite a bulky head. More pronounced bumps just behind the tip of the snout is also a more maleish trait in Leporacanthicus.

If the secondary sexual traits are a little to subtle, a view on the genital area can reveal a lot. So far every female of all our Leporacanthicus species we keep at home, show yellow colored pigments around the papilla and so also "L314".

This species spawns in caves and the male takes care of the eggbatch till the fry hatch (6 - 7 days). In the following 4 - 5 days  they use up their yolk sacs.

So far we managed to get our group to spawn only once. This was induced by seperating a harmonizing pair and feeding them well with protein rich food. We added two round caves in the tank with one big stone slate on top, used as a roof, to give the fish a shadowy area around the caves, so that they don't feel stressed. The temperature was raised to around 30° C and almost daily water changes of at least 50% with a osmosis/tap-water mix. The EC was lowered to around 100 mS. A strong streaming pump was positioned in a way to blow the current directly to the entrances of the caves. A bubble stone was positioned directly under the streaming pump, so that the oxygen gets diffused well in the whole tank.

After several days of tunneling, the female spawned in a middle sized cave, where both of them just fitted in together. The male took care of the eggs the next following days. Sadly the egg batch didn't develop well and died off, before the fry could hatch. The male ate the bad egg batch later on.

This is mostly a result of an unexperienced breeding pair, that didn't fertilize the egg batch successfully. Other reasons can be not matching water parameters.

There is not many breeding reports of this certain species known. In one case known to us, it hybridized with a Leporacanthicus triactis "L91", which needs similar parameters to reproduce successfully.