leporinus fasciatus

[Donkey]

I wasn't really sure as to where this fish would fit in, so I decided he may be an "oddball".

I've had my leo for a few weeks now in my 55gallon tank. He's in there with only 4 female bettas (he will be moved to another tank if he ever shows aggression to them).

Half of my tank is a bunch of drift wood, the other half is caves made from rocks.

My question is, do these guys EVER come out of hiding? I hadn't seen him since I introduced him to the tank. I was thinking he had died, so today I took down all the rocks and wood only to discover he was hiding in a very small crevice between rocks.

I haven't seen him come out to eat, and he doesn't bother the other fish, even when they swim around the caves. He appears perfectly healthy, but extremely shy. Is this common?

[Cholly]

They're fast growers, and notorious fin nippers with long finned fishes. I think they're schoolers which may be his problem, but I've seen a few kept singly that didn't seem to mind(out and about swimming freely, not furtively).
Interesting fish, I've not kept them personally, but I might get a trio when I replace the heater in my 45 long. I didn't realize they got that big(10-12"). I like semi-large and large oddballs.

[Donkey]

Thanks.

I think he may have actually been stuck in that small crevice he was hiding in. During feeding about an hour ago he finally came out. He grazed the fallen food along the bottom and seemed perfectly fine with the female bettas. Zero aggression, and no attempt to nip at them. It was actually one of my females that was bossing the leo around, so hopefully I got lucky.

If he ever shows any interest in harming one of the girls, he will be either rehomed or put in a different tank.

In all the research I did before purchasing him, I didn't see anything that mentioned leos being a schooling fish. I'll have to look further into it and make a decision about keeping him.