Picking Pencil Fish

[sherry]

picking pencil fish

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I am pondering the choice of pencil fish for dithers for a trio of apistogramma cacatoides.

On the one hand there are some gorgeous coral reds Nannostomus mortenthaleri that I am just drooling over. I spoke to Mark over at annubias design who gets them on occassion. He says in his experience these can grow to 3 inches and are very active, and may eat some fry if the apistos breed.

does anyone have any experience with them in an apisto tank?

The other option is to go with a mix of Beckfords and some of the hovering types like Nannostomus Eques and Nannostomus Unifaciatus. The fish would be slower and less interested in fry.

I don't want the apistos to feel "under attack" .. and yes I already have a couple of bn plecos but I did get some breeding caves that would keep those out....

and I don't need to have tons of surviving fry. . I'd just like the apistos to have a chance to raise some... and have a nice life.

if anyone has used the mortenthalari and knows how that has worked out in their tanks, please tell me. They are truly gorgeous fish and could be fun. If the beauty an't worth the price, I can go with the slower less brilliant pencils. Also.l .I know my apistos are nice and slow.... if the tank would aesthetically be better complemented by slower dithers that would be good to know too. Just any experience or thoughts would be welcome. This is the time to toss all information on the table, since I haven't made any orders yet

thanks

 

[BrianNY]

JMO sherry, but if these considerations are for the tank in your sig, you'll really be stressing the bioload. In addition, there is so much activity in that tank as to not need dither fish.

 

[sherry]

Brian.. I should have stated that Crazycat is inherting all of my tetras. I am swapping them out.

so the pencils would live with the rasbora adn featherfins on top.

 

[sherry]

bumping this because I still need an answer.. :O) thanks

 

[BrianNY]

I've never kept pencil fish but do keep a variety of apistos. Caucatoids are especially peaceful and I think do well with any fish that doesn't harass them.

Go get the pencils you like.

 

[sherry]

I've never seen any of them in real life.. so I'm relying on information on line and there isn't much about pencil fish... which is why I'm here asking

it's hard to make these decisions in a vaccuum and i hate to make the investment without a sense that I know what I'm doing.

 

[BrianNY]

If there isn't much info on them and you really like them, all the more reason to get them. You can become the expert....

Here's my take on what I know of most pencil fish. Most stay quite small and have very tiny mouths. I just can't picture there being a problem keeping them with apistos.

 

[Lance M.]

I keep N. beckfordii. They are very peaceful and pretty active. I got them because they are very colorful with the red. I've never kept any type of chiclids except rams so I couldn't help you with the compatability, but I believe it will be fine.

 

[sherry]

beckfords are a proven... so are many of the others. the coral reds are a little more fragile, a bit mroe active and a bit more aggressive.

but as colorful as the beckfords are, these are said to rival marine fish for color. I think I'm going to go with them