Pencilfish

[serbusfish]

Ive been looking for a small shoaling fish and pencilfish look like a nice alternative to tetras/rasboras. I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are on them, and if they would mix well with my current fish (white cloud minnows, black widow tetras, pearl gourami). What is considered the minimum number to keep, and does there need to be any sort of male/female ratio? By tank is a Juwel Rio 125 btw.

[Trillianne]

There are several varieties of pencilfish, so you may want to narrow down which types you are looking at a bit more. In addition, depending on your area they may not be as readily available or not, so check to see what your lfs would stock.

All that said... I'd focus more on increasing your existing schools to a more sizable number, so that you see better school/shoal behaviors. 4 is just barely a school. And in a 125liter (~33 gallon) 2 good sized schools/shoals would have more interesting behavior than 3 small schools/shoals.

[serbusfish]

I was planning on upping the Black Skirts to 6 or 7 and the Minnows to 5, I figured I would still have enough room for a small group of Pencilfish as they are pretty tiny?

[steeler58]

They are usualy sold pretty small so if your black widows are big they would probably eat them.

I've kept the Three lined and the Ruby red. The Ruby red school better and stay in the upper part of the tank. The Three lined swim wherever they want and only school once in awhile. Both get to 2" but are slow growers IME.

They should be kept in groups of 6-10 even if they are not as social as other characins. This will help as they are a nervous fish.

The Gold pencilfish from what i've read are the hardiest.

Hope this helps you.

[serbusfish]

They are usualy sold pretty small so if your black widows are big they would probably eat them.

I've kept the Three lined and the Ruby red. The Ruby red school better and stay in the upper part of the tank. The Three lined swim wherever they want and only school once in awhile. Both get to 2" but are slow growers IME.

They should be kept in groups of 6-10 even if they are not as social as other characins. This will help as they are a nervous fish.

The Gold pencilfish from what i've read are the hardiest.

Hope this helps you.

Ive seen some in 2 different stores over the last couple of days and both were at least 1 inch long, I didnt realise Black Skirts eat fish anyway, in anycase mine arent that large.

[steeler58]

Anything that can fit in another fish's mouth are usualy fair game. Your black widows are considered a semi-aggressive fish that keeping in larger schools help curb.