Golden Pencilfish

[KingofthePisces]

im getting some golden pencilfish for a community can you give me some advice on keeping them and what to feed them

 

[xxBarneyxx]

im getting some golden pencilfish for a community can you give me some advice on keeping them and what to feed them

Cant help I'm afraid as I have never kept them but would also be interested in seeing any info on them from someone that has.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They do best in densely planted tanks with very peaceful tankmates, they are insectivores so things like bloodworms, krill, daphinia, artemecia etc should all be accepted, these fish do best in peat-filtered tank set ups;

http/fish.mongabay.com/species/Nannostomus_beckfordi.html

 

[Essjay]

I have six of these fish in my community tank - 2 males, 4 females. They are lovely little fish. I have them with small fish so I don't know how they get on with larger ones. I have them with honey gouramis, green neons, galaxy rasboras (or whatever they're called now), habrosus corys and dwarf chain loaches. The males chase the females, and 'display' to each other - there was a link to a video of 2 males doing this posted recently, but they've never chased anything else.
They eat pretty much the same as my other fish. Because all my fish are small, I crumble the flake and they eat this readily, also frozen food such as daphnia and cyclops, as well as mashed peas.
They seem to do fine in my tapwater which is pH 6.8 with medium hardness. I think they're supposed to be one of the easier pencilfish, some can be hard to acclimatise.
HTH

 

[doubledee]

I don't have golden pencilfish but have 'diptails'/'hockeystick' pencilfish. My brother has 5 or 6 golden pencilfish in his community tank and says they're very easy to keep. Mine are very peaceful but occasionally the males do spar with eachother. They do not like aggressive fish but seem to have got used to my rummy noses that go mental at feeding time and my apistos who chase everything. They hang out mostly at the top of the tank and will eat anything I put in. I feed Tetra Pro, Prima and frozen/live food and absolutely love Hikari Micro pellets as pencilfish have very small mouths. I've had them spawn in the tank a few times but unfortunately the eggs are eaten immediately. One day, I hope to try and setup a breeding tank for them.

 

[KingofthePisces]

do the golden pencilfish feed well on flakes?

 

[Essjay]

Mine eat crushed flakes (they have small mouths) but I don't feed that exclusively. I also feed frozen daphnia and cyclops, and they eat mashed peas as well. All of these are eaten with great relish.

 

[ulster exile]

As well as a heavily planted tank they will love a decent amount of floating plants, especially if you have bright lighting.

 

[KingofthePisces]

got a large ammount of new plants the other day ill post a before and after pic