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Thread: Hardiness of pencilfish

  1. #1
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    Hardiness of pencilfish

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    Hi everyone, I'm curious about the hardiness of the pencilfish (Genus: Nannostomus). I bought a pair of Nannostomus beckfordi but they lasted only a few days. My water parameters are good and all other fishes are thriving well.

    My tank inhabitants are as follows:

    - Ap. bitaeniata trio
    - 2x Pyrrhulina zigzag
    - 4x C. pygmaeus
    - 4x C. habrosus

    Hence, it just puzzles me why the pencilfish can't last. Luckily I didn't get the coral reds!

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Did you ever see them fighting? Nannostomus beckfordi can fight to the death when kept in small numbers. N. beckfordi are very hardy fish.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
    Back to Killies... slowly.

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Nope! They were doing well for the first few days until I saw 1 piece die. This was followed by the death of the next!

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Was there any visible injuries to the bodies? They might have "fought" with the Phyrrhulina. However, in small numbers, N. beckfordi are vicious. They will fight to establish a pecking order in the tank. It happens very often.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
    Back to Killies... slowly.

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Hi,

    Pencilfish are quite hardy from what I see, being tolerant to a certain extent. The only problem that might have caused such mishap, could probably be tank aggression among the tankmates, because I only keep a single male specimen of Nannostomus mortenthaleri in my tank & it's thriving fairly ok. It shares the tank with Corydoras hastatus, Corydoras pygmaeus, Corydoras atropersonatus, Boraras maculatus, Danio margaritatus, Nannoptopoma sp. 'peru' & Indostomus paradoxus. These are fairly peaceful fishes so I can only guess their death are associated with fatal injuries, especially when the tank is small. If you really want to keep pencilfish, try to keep one only, IMO, pencilfishes are really nasty towards their own kind.
    Last edited by Shi Xuan; 17th Dec 2011 at 00:29.
    Currently keeping large predatory fish 🐟

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    I'm quite puzzled by these remarks.They are interesting fish. I've had them for years on and off.Never lost any to fights. The aggression towards each other is only kept to flaring and the occasional chase. It can be quite entertaining. Keep them in a group of about 6 and they will form loose shoals. They like floating vegetation for resting at night.

    Their large cousins like the cigar fish or Marbled Headstander, well thats another story.
    Suckerfish no eat poo poo.

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Try keeping N. beckfordi or N. eques in small numbers, they will fight and deaths can occur. In heavily planted tanks, the skirmishes between territorial males will not end with injury, not so much in sparsely planted tanks with little hiding space.
    Fish.. Simply Irresistable
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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Somehow i have never had problems with fighting among my nannostomus beckfordi. I kept them in groups of 4-5, and they were perfectly alright, except for the occasional skirmish. could the apisto bit. trio have attacked them? There was once i kept by N. anomala male with a group of P. gertrudaes and the result was terrible

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Recently bought a group of 20 for my first attempt on nannostomus beckfordi ,so far so good with no casualty for a month now which i kept in a bare tank . Now intent to try again on coral red pencilfish (Nannostomus mortenthaleri ) after my first and only attempt on them from Biotope years back . Hopefully this time round will be able to keep it alive

  10. #10

    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Most Nannostomus species do no harm to each other when they fight rivals but I have to say that of all the members of the genus, Nannostomus mortenthaleri is quite aggressive with it's conspecifics. N. beckfordi are also feisty but do not normally harm each other. I have raised several hundreds of N. beckfordi.
    N. eques are very peaceful and long lived. I have had them live as long as six years. The other pencilfish usually live about 4 to 5 years.
    Old fish breeder. SA Dwarf Cichlids, Hypancistrus sp L260, L333 and Peckoltia L134 breeder. Also Sturisoma, Dwarf Corydoras spp, wild Discus and Killiefish. Like breeding Characins and wild Betta spp too.

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    5 N. mortenthaleri (ordered 8, but 3 of them cooked to death due to the heat pack not packed properly ending up with 2 males and 3 females) in a 30c and they seem to tolerate each other without much issues. Tank is moderately planted and other inhabitants include zebra otocinclus (2), small group (5) of C. habrosus, trio of endler's, tons of sakura reds, some crs, and cpos (6). Seems to be relatively easy fish to keep and feed.
    Eric

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Where can i find this pencil fish?

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    What first attracted me in a LFS about the pencilfish was their tiny size. From afar they looked like ikan bilis (anchovy) because they lacked colour. I promptly brought ten and was given one free.

    Upon releasing them into the tank, I was astonished by how bold they were … heading straight to interrupt a cluster of 6 male guppies who are perpetually trying to mate among themselves. Leaving the flabbergasted guppies alone, they separated into two schools to inspect the tank.

    Fearing the guppies might go after them, I decided to feed the guppies. Not to be outdone, the pencils went after the flakes with gusto but their tiny mouths were clearly not an asset to them. I broke the flakes into bite sizes for them.

    What I though highly unusual was their lack of intimidation, how quickly they adapted to their new environment, and started to show, figuratively, their true colours even before I could reach for my cup of coffee - they got into random fights and chasing games. Their fights are in a style where 2 or 3 of them have their bodies in parallel formation shoving each other. Wow! I said. That's something to watch!

    If I thought I was disappointed because they do not shoal or school, that was made for by their antics or demeanours viz. swimming in quick starts and stops, criss-crossing each other, flapping their pectoral (?) fins like humming birds and adopting a tilted position

    I think they are very robust. Within two weeks they doubled their size and that was when I could identify them as one-lined pencilfish, Nannostomus unifasciatus, the least colourful of the pencilfish species.

    Now, I wish to give them up for the more colourful species but I think they're hard to come across in LFS.

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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Hi,
    This thread isn't exactly new but since it's on the topic I thought I might ask...

    Since pencilfish are generally aggressive to their own kind, how many do you think would be good in a heavily planted 2ft?
    Would a pair be fine?

    Also are they aggressive to other small fish like boraras or shrimp?


    ive read online that they prefer to be in schools. If that's the case, would it still be fine to keep them alone as mentioned above?

    Thanks,
    JJ
    Cheers,
    JJ


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    Re: Hardiness of pencilfish

    Quote Originally Posted by jiajuen900 View Post
    Hi,
    This thread isn't exactly new but since it's on the topic I thought I might ask...

    Since pencilfish are generally aggressive to their own kind, how many do you think would be good in a heavily planted 2ft?
    Would a pair be fine?

    Also are they aggressive to other small fish like boraras or shrimp?


    ive read online that they prefer to be in schools. If that's the case, would it still be fine to keep them alone as mentioned above?

    Thanks,
    JJ
    I think it would be fine. The tank is quite big for only two pencilfish in fact, so they would definitely be able to escape if there is aggression. In a two feet tank you could probably keep a school of about 8? Depends on how much vegetation you pprovide.

    In my experience, they aren't aggressive to boraras nor shrimp, but they will definitely eat shrimplets given the chance.

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