Taxonomy & naming
Leporinus lebaili was described in 1983 by the French ichthyologists Jacques Géry and Christian Planquette, part of a wave of Leporinus descriptions from French Guiana and the neighbouring Guianas during that period. It belongs to the family Anostomidae — the headstanders — within the order Characiformes, a family whose members are recognisable by their oblique, head-down feeding posture and, in many species, a superficially anostomid "beak" adapted for grazing rather than for grasping prey.
The genus Leporinus is large and taxonomically active; the Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, California Academy of Sciences) is the current authority for which species remain valid within it, and some historically described Leporinus have since been reassigned to other anostomid genera as the family has been revised. Leporinus lebaili has not been affected by any such move and remains in Leporinus. The species epithet honours Pierre-Yves Le Bail, a French ichthyologist associated with fieldwork in French Guiana and the wider Guianas region during the era of its description.
Morphology
Leporinus lebaili is a modestly sized headstander, reaching a maximum recorded length of about 5.5 in standard length — small by the standards of the genus, many of whose better-known species (such as L. fasciatus) grow substantially larger. Detailed morphological description beyond the original 1983 species account is sparse, and no dedicated hobby or ichthyological profile with photographs and measurements is readily available, so specific colour pattern and fin-count details are not repeated here rather than guessed at.
Like other Leporinus, it can be expected to show the family's characteristic elongated, torpedo-shaped body and small terminal-to-slightly-inferior mouth suited to grazing rather than to seizing prey, but confirming the species' exact banding or spot pattern would require examining the original description or a verified specimen photograph, neither of which is available here.
Habitat
The species is known from the Maroni River basin, which forms much of the border between Guyana/Suriname and French Guiana in the Guiana Shield region of northeastern South America. It is recorded from rapidly flowing water, consistent with the rocky, well-oxygenated river-and-rapids habitat typical of Guiana Shield drainages rather than slow blackwater floodplain.
Detailed water chemistry data specific to L. lebaili's home waters were not found in the sources consulted for this profile; Guiana Shield rivers in general tend to be soft and acidic to circumneutral, but that generalisation should not be read as a measured figure for this particular species' habitat.
Feeding
Leporinus lebaili is recorded as an omnivore that is likely predominantly a herbivore/aufwuchs feeder, grazing algae and biofilm from submerged rock and wood surfaces in its fast-flowing river habitat — the classic headstander feeding style, carried out at the characteristic oblique, head-down angle the family is named for. As with many grazing Leporinus, soft aquatic plants are a plausible part of the natural diet, though this has not been specifically documented for this species.
In the aquarium, related smaller Leporinus are kept on a vegetable-forward diet — algae wafers, blanched vegetables and spirulina-based foods — supplemented with some protein such as quality flake, pellet or occasional live/frozen food, and that general approach is the reasonable default for L. lebaili given its close relatives' known feeding ecology.
Mating
No courtship behaviour specific to Leporinus lebaili has been documented in the sources available for this profile. Across the genus, spawning is associated with paired behaviour, and no reliable external sexual dimorphism is documented for this species — the sexes cannot currently be distinguished by colour or body shape based on available information.
Breeding
Leporinus lebaili is, like most headstanders, presumed to be an egg-scatterer, releasing eggs over weedy or densely vegetated substrate with no parental care given afterward — the pattern documented for related Leporinus and Anostomus species. It has not been reported as bred in the home aquarium, and no hobby or commercial breeding account for this specific species was found.
Some larger Leporinus species are farmed commercially in South America for food, but there is no indication that applies to L. lebaili, which appears to remain essentially unbred and unstudied outside its original scientific description. Prospective keepers should not expect to reproduce this species and should treat any wild-collected or trade specimens as effectively irreplaceable within the hobby.
In the aquarium
Leporinus lebaili is rarely, if ever, available in the aquarium trade, and there is no dedicated care sheet for the species; the guidance here is extrapolated cautiously from smaller Leporinus relatives of similar size (around 5.5 in). A tank on the order of 55 US gal upward, with strong water movement and good oxygenation reflecting its fast-flowing native habitat, is a reasonable starting point, along with driftwood and rock offering grazing surfaces and biofilm.
As with other Leporinus and Anostomus, keepers should be aware that many members of this genus are nippy and territorial, particularly as they mature, and are prone to shredding or nibbling soft-leaved aquarium plants while grazing — hardy, tougher-leaved plants and driftwood-grown algae are a safer bet than a delicate planted layout. Given how little is documented for this exact species, a cautious, spacious, well-filtered setup with tough tankmates is the sensible default rather than assuming it will behave like a docile community grazer.
Conservation
Leporinus lebaili has not been evaluated by the IUCN Red List and carries a status of Not Evaluated. It is known from a fairly restricted range within the Maroni basin along the Guyana/Suriname/French Guiana border, and GBIF occurrence records confirm the species there, but no population trend or threat assessment is available.
As with many narrow-range Guiana Shield fish that have not been formally assessed, the honest position is that its conservation status is simply unknown rather than presumed safe; general pressures on Guiana Shield rivers, such as small-scale gold mining and associated sedimentation, are relevant regional concerns even though no threat has been documented specifically for this species.