pull the pencils or not?

[aspen]

i have my first spawn of a. cacatoides in my 35 gal planted tank. tank inhabitants are, 5 cacatoides (1 male, 4 females) 12 beckford's pencilfish, 7 silver hatchets, and 2 gold dwarf b.n. plecos. the hatchets spend all of their time on the top, so i'm not too worried about them, but the pencilfish are always worrying the female, and i'm worried they are going to put too much pressure on the female. should i pull them now, wait to see what happens with this spawn and pull them later, or leave them in. any idea if these fish are fry predators? i would assume so. i am not too worried if any or all of this spawn makes it, but i would like to create a nice tank visually, (it is in my livingroom) i really like the pencils, but i would also love to have several generations of fry here and there in this tank. what do you think?

rick

 

[Randall]

Pencil Puller

Dear Rick,

It's not been my experience that pencil fish are notorius fry preditors, but in a 35-gallon tank with 12 of them and 7 hatchet fish to boot, I'd pull the pencils. Perhaps not manditory, but it might add to your female cacatuoide's comfort level.

Why not try your hand at spawning the pencil fish?

Good luck!

Randall Kohn

 

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

How do you spawn pencil fish? Any articles out there?

 

[aspen]

hey, you know what randall? i think i'll do that. i've got a 30 gal tank just waiting for this type of thing. these fish are constantly showing spawning activity. that would be a challenge i'm up for. these are the nicest tetras i've had yet.

http://www.characin.com/

ghanzafar, this guy knows what he's doing with tetras.

rick

 

[Neil]

Rick,
I have started using more pencils in my breeding tanks. They don't seem too interested in the fry and can handle the extremes of pH and low hardness. I start out with about 6 or so and then after the fry are free swimming, I pull half. The remaining 3 never seem to cause any problems for me. However, I will say that it is a little dangerous to have any fish in the tank with fry, even the parents. But, because I like the parents in there, pencils seem to keep the male busy enough and the female appreciate him - without too much of a threat on the fry. Seems to work great for me so far!
Neil

 

[Bissot_J]

nice , but wich pencil fish are you using.

 

[Neil]

Rick,
I am using the new red pencil. Nannostomus sp. 'Coral Red". Beautiful and seem like perfect dithers for Dwarf Cichlids.
Neil