betta splendens vs leopard fish

[Adrienne]

Does anyone know if these two would be okay in the same tank. I know nothing about leopard fish except that it belongs to the same family as the fighter.

Opinions welcome.

[SamH]

Do you mean the Leopard Ctenopoma?

I've heard they're predatory.

They are carnivorous fish who love to stalk their prey, holding themselves completely vertical, bending their caudal fin to look "leaf like" before going in for a kill. Instantaneously before a kill, the Ctenopoma opens its mouth creating a cylinder type funnel and swallows the prey whole. Feedings should be various and should always include some sort of "live" food (frozen included). Favorites are feeder guppies, live/frozen brine shrimp, tubefex worms and mollusks.

I put it in a community tank with some neon tetras, hatchets and glass cats. One day I noticed that my school of 8 neons had become 7. There were no remains in the tank and I thought that it was just another case of the disappearing fish syndrome. The next night my school was down to 6 and I realized then that my Ctenopoma must be eating them! So I stayed up late one night and watched and I noticed that he always went to a particular corner of the tank at night, put his body in a completely vertical position and waited for a sleeping neon to come by then chomp! Dinner. I was surprised that he was able to fit the whole fish in his mouth since my Ctenopoma is only about 7 cm long and the neons are about in 3 cm, but somehow he can. Once in awhile he will yawn and you can see how big his mouth can really get. In the end my school dwindled to zero but it's OK because I'd rather have my one Ctenopoma than a dozen neons.

So I'd imagine they would probably attack Betta's fins, PK's might be okay.

But then again, futher down the page it does say:

You would think that this fish is aggressive, but it's actually fairly peaceful. It will lunge at the other fish once in a while when they comes near its cave, but never actually bites them. I think it's smart enough to know what can become dinner and what can't, so if you are going to have this fish, be sure to put similar sized tankmates with it.

Good luck