Leporacanthicus heterodon

Order: Siluriformes
Suborder: Loricarioidei
Family: Loricariidae
Subfamily: Hypostominae
Genus: Leporacanthicus
Species: Leporacanthicus heterodon, Isbrücker & Nijssen, 1989

As probably one of the smallest Leporacanthicus species, heterodon only grows up to 20 cm maximum. Mostly they stay around 5 cm smaller. L. heterodon has a flat body shape and a long, pointy head. Typical for its genus, it has the two "vampire" - like teeth, which gives it the name "vampire pleco". Even though, males can show odontodes from the head till back to the tail, their overall body is covered in a slimy muccus, which makes it sometimes difficult to catch this species.

Its overall body coloration can differ from golden-beige, brown to brown-grey. On top of it there are black spots all over the body and fins.

This species is often reffered as "L172" or "L172b", which is wrong and describes a species of the genus Ancistrini. Other than that it is also called golden vampire pleco.

Leporacanthicus heterodon is endemic to the Rio Xingu in Brazil. There it inhabits fast streaming, rocky biotopes with warm water and a lot of oxygen. Water temperatures of over 30 °C can be measured.

This species is carnivorous and feeds in nature mostly from snails, crustaceans and other invertebrates. With their pointy teeth, they can crack open stone- and wooden crevices or even the shells of snails and mussels.

In captivity L. heterodon is not picky. Their main diet should be protein based. Live, frozen and dry food are all accepted by this species.
We prefer to feed Snail soft granules and Artemia soft granules.

Since this species doesn't grow very large, it doesn't need much space. Tanks starting with 100 cm length are ideal for a group of 3-4 specimens. Males are aggressive towards each other and therfore need enough hiding spaces, like stones, wood and pleco caves. A good filtration, a strong streaming pump and a bubble stone are necessary to keep them healthy. Light is not necessary, since they are mostly active during night or while feeding. As a substrate everything from sand to gravel can be used.

The water should be warm, with around 27 - 30 °C. Weekly waterchanges of 50 - 80 % are very welcomed by L. heterodon. Since this species comes from the Rio Xingu, slightly acidic and soft water is ideal for them. This can be reached with osmosis- or peat water. Also cattappa leaves or elder cones do good work.

Leporacanthicus heterodon can be kept in species only, or in community tanks. Since Leporacanthicus can be aggressive, it should be taken care not to put them together with to sensitive fish, that can be damaged by the pointy teeth of L. heterodon.

Sexing Leporacanthicus heterodon is in general not so difficult.

From the side you can see, that the male tends to be a bit flatter and longer. The female seems to be higher, especially if she is full with eggs. A slight difference in coloration can also be noticed. As in most Leporacanthicus males tend to be a bit more contrasty and show therefore a more gold-brown ground coloration, where as females show a bit more greyish colors.

Normally the head reveals a lot about, which sex a certain Leporacanthicus specimen has. In the case of L. heterodon, this is a bit different. Male and female share the long and pointy head, which doesn't make it an sexing indicator.

Odontodes are to be found on both sexes. Males tend to have a bit longer ones on the gills and are also more spiky on the side of the snout.

The odontodes on the pectorals are in general a good indicator. Males show them longer with more pronounced hooks on the ends than females.

Also on the tail, males tend to be more spiky than females.

From top, also with this species, sexing is the easiest. Females have a broader body with more curves and tend to be not as stretched as males. Males show quite long pectoral fins.

If you take a look at the heads from above, the only really outstanding differences are the broader gap between the eyes of the female and the, in general, more spiky borders of the males head.

As it seems to be typical for Leporacanthicus, also heterodon females show yellow dots around the genital papilla, when looked from underneath. Other than that both sexes share quite a similar papilla shape.

Like any other pleco, also L. heterodon spawns in caves. The eggs and larvae are protected and cleaned by the father.

If you want to breed L .heterodon, it's best to get a group of 4 - 8 specimens. Those should be put together in a large tank with enough hiding spots. The animals should now be kept on breeding parameters (temp. 30 °C, e.c under 200mS). Now it is important to feed the animals good and rich in proteins. This can be done with protein rich granules or frosted food like mossels, artemia and krill.

The females soon start to get rounder and the males should start fanning actively in their caves. Once you can see a potential pair, that is interested in each other, it is better to separate it in a smaller breeding tank. This way, changes are higher that male and female stay active with each other and don't get stressed by other tank mates.

We prefer to use rather small tanks with around 60 liters volume. This depends of course, on the size of the breeding animals. Ours spawn with a size of around 12 - 14 cm.

To set up a optimal breeding tank, we put in a HMF - filter with airlift. It is good to put him on, as strong as possible. Then we add two caves with around 8 cm in diameter and 20 cm length, into the tank. On top of those caves we add stone slates to build a roof between the caves and over the entrances of the caves. The streaming pump should be added so, that the current blows the water to the cave entrances. An additional air diffusor should bubble air directly into the streaming pump. That way the tank water is in constant movement and highly oxygenated.

If the animals get now fed 1 - 2 times daily and big water changes with part osmosis water are done regularly, it is mostly only a matter of time till a pair spawns. In our opinion it is the first spawn, which is the most difficult. After that a pair mostly spawns with less stimulation and sometimes in tap water, as long as the pair is harmonizing.

The tunneling takes mostly 2 - 3 days. If a pair is close to laying eggs, you can see when the female is parked reverse in the pleco cave, looking with the head out of the cave. L. heterodon mostly spawns in that position, similar to L. triactis "L91". Shortly before laying eggs both animals also shiver.

The eggs are not so numerous, since the animals in general are not so big. Batches with 12 - 50 eggs are normal. The larvae hatch after 6 - 7 days. In some cases, the male kicks the egg batch out of the cave. In that case artificial rearing has to be done, which works normally without problems, as long as the eggs are older than 3 days.

The larvae are relatively small and feed on their yolk sac for about a week. After that grinded granules can be fed. They develop best, if they are raised in a breeding box, which should be always clean and have an opportunity for the babies to hide. A piece of ceramic works well for that. Feeding them 2 times a day, helps them grow faster. Unfortunately this species is also a really slow grower and can take up over 1,5 years to reach 4 cm body length.