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I saw my lfs (aquarium adventure) has 10 gallon tanks on sale for 50$ everything included. My question is would I be able to put a amazon leaf fish (monocirrhus polycanthus)in it? I wouldnt be able to set up the tank for a while and would probably have to set up a breeding population of guppies before hand.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

A tank measuring 28" (71 cm) with a volume from 20-25 gallons (76-95 L) is adequate. The tank should be well-planted, especially with large leafed plants. Use floating plants should to diffuse the light. The tank should be arranged in dark colors.

So a 20" 10 gallon would not work?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

You might get away with it as leaf fish are small and fairly sedentary, but obligatory piscivores can be messy eaters and they vent fish oils , especially if they are getting live feeds. A bigger tank would help with the water quality. Dont forget leaf fish can eat fish almost as big as they are, they have a disproportionately huge mouth. Imagine the amount of waste produced by a dead guppy decomposing in a tank - in a small tank with a small filter that could overload the filter,the venting of a leaf fish would be an only slightly reduced amount of waste. A leaf fish due to its size will have a faster metabolism than a bigger predatory fish and that can mean more waste. In a ten gallon the flow from a filter capable of handling that much waste could literally send your leaf fish spinning in circles.

Odd little fish, that eats outsized meals

Last edited by longhairedgit at 12-Dec-2005 03:05

An old but still useful source of information on the Leaf Fish, Monocirrhus polyacanthus, is the Venerable Innes Book, beloved of old timers like me.

This book will not only contain useful maintenance and breeding information that is still pertinent today, but also has a nice photograph of the fish. One of the two specimens is 'yawning' in the photograph, and in doing so showing its remarkable telescopic mouthparts with which it literally hoovers its prey into oblivion. Once you've seen that picture, you'll know how well equipped for a predatory lifestyle the Leaf Fish is!

Oh, and if you can give it a decent sized home, so much the better. If you can arrange the décor to include a few carefully chosen pieces of leaf litter, then the Leaf Fish will oblige by putting on its 'floating leaf' act with astonishing finesse. Innes himself remarks upon observations in the fish's native habitat in this vein.

Small specimens will eat Daphnia, but will quickly require something more substantial such as small aquatic insects and eventually live fishes, especially if they are to be conditioned as breeding adults.

Décor should include bogwood root tangles, plants that can live under modest lighting conditions, and though a certain amount of current for oxygenation purposes will be necessary, avoid strong currents as the species hails from slow moving waters in the wild.

Oh, and one thing you will notice quickly about the fish is the sharpness of contrast between the spiny dorsal/anal fin sections (which are colour matched to the body of the fish) and the soft dorsal/anal fin sections (which are translucent enough to make you, in Innes' words, check twice to make sure that they haven't been sharply amputated). This is a feature of several Nandids, including Polycentrus schomburgkii and Polycentropsis abbreviata, two of the relatives of the Leaf Fish covered in the Innes book.


Last edited by Calilasseia at 12-Dec-2005 13:29

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002