Pencil fish with Angels?

[Dallascowboys16]

Hello everyone. I have a question about fish compatibility that I'm having a hard time figuring out. I have recently redone my tank completely and have been letting my fish thin out for the last 2 or 3 years. My tetra schools are down to the last 3 fish so I decided it's finally time to restock with a new large school. I've been thinking pencil fish this whole time, but have found conflicting information online about housing them with angelfish. I have a trio of pretty large angels in my tank and would like to see if anyone has experience housing any variety of the smaller pencil fish with angels. My other fish shouldn't pose any problem as they include rams, corys, plecos, and keyhole cichlids. So if anyone has any input I would greatly appreciate it. If anyone has any alternate suggestions for an interesting schooling fish (preferably from the amazonian region as I try to keep a loose biotope) I would love to hear it! Thanks guys.

 

[Brookster123]

Ehhhh. I think they'd pick them off relatively fast and easily??

 

[coralbandit]

Although small like tetras and a mouthful snack ,IMO the pencils are fast and shark like.
I used them as dithers with apistos and they were almost predators to apisto fry !
I ended removing them as I thought they were rather tough and a little too fast to be comfortable with fry around them.
It may also depend on the angels . Do they bother your tetras now?

 

[Autumnsky]

As my Angels became very large they chased and ate the medium to large Neon tetras, of course the new younger small ones I added, (slurp). I found one with a tail sticking out of its mouth and it seemed a pretty big size Tetra. I believe they went after a couple when the Tetras were zoning out in groups.

This isn't really any answer to the question, other than I would make darn sure they were big sized and not smaller ones. Most ones I have seen lately have been similar to Neon Tetra sized at the lfs. Could end up an expensive treat. My tetras had so many places to hide in a 72G and I lost about 25 before I realized what happened out of about of 100. Those Angels are adept at turning and sliding through the most narrow of spots. I watched one Angel charge a group and bite at a Neon, but my coming close to the tank startled the angel and it backed off /jumped a bit and missed the Neon.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Thanks for the input guys. I at first believed my angels would be possibly ok because they tend to be on the chill side. Well I picked up 10 eques pencilfish today and acclimated then to my tank. As soon as I released them the angels relentlessly attacked them so I removed the angels. After thinking about it, I decided I just need to rehome the angels. Based on where I want the stocking of this tank to go, the angels will end up being a lot of trouble. After removing the angels the pencils started to group up and come out a little bit more. I even got them all to eat a bunch of frozen brine tonight! I think I’ll add some water sprite to the tank and allow it to grow all the way to the top so they have more to hide in when they’re out. I just redid my tank to incorporate less plants and more space so the pencils are lacking a little bit of cover. My previous tank layout would have been absolutely perfect for them! So many plants they could barely move!

 

[Autumnsky]

Post a pic when you can!