In 1996, ichthyologists Santos, Jegu, and Lima described an unusual Leporinus from the Rio Xingu and Trombetas as L. julii. The new species is closely related to L. pachycheilus, an extremely color variable Leporinus species. Unique to L. julii, which was named in honor of Júlio Garavello, is the completely underslung mouth and teeth position. In 2008 the subgenus Hypomasticus, which was already established for Leporinus mormyrops in 1929, was elevated to generic rank and 12 species from the large collective genus Leporinus were assigned to it.
For the first time we were able to import 2 specimens of this rapids inhabitant from the Rio Xingu. In the photographic aquarium they behaved like two too large ground tetras, sitting on the bottom and supporting themselves with their strong pelvic fins. It can be assumed that in nature they have to swim strongly against the current and graze stones. Our two specimens are somewhat differently colored, one animal is darker than the other and has a strikingly different colored adipose fin. We do not know if this is a sex difference.
In the photographic aquarium the animals, in which intense red spots in the corner of the mouth and in the shoulder area are very conspicuous color features, were rather uninterested in each other, but the darker animal shooed the lighter specimen energetically out of its immediate vicinity after a certain period of acclimation. Because of the known tendency of Leporinus to quarrel, we have housed them separately in our fish house anyway.
The maximum length of the species is about 20 cm (standard length without tail fin).
For our customers: the animals have code 262205 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesale.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
