Are Pencilfish peaceful? I have Cardinals, Otos and Dwarf Loaches for tankmates.
Please forgive me if this question's been already asked a million times.
Thank you.
I have Three Striped Pencilfish (Nannostomus trifasciatus) and they do squabble amongst themselves but not with other fish. I don't think they could even hurt one of their own kind if they wanted to.
I've got six nannostomus eques (aka tubemouth pencilfish), and they are completely peaceful. They hang in the water at the surface most of the time, doing their best imitation of sticks. You'll read occasional stories of beckfordi pencilfish going rogue and terrorizing other fish, but those seem to be very much the exception. If you can find (and afford) Espei pencilfish, well, that would be cool. Their stripes are vertical, so they look like they've been grilled. My eques only look grilled at night.
Espeis are one of my favorites! They spend most of their time hovering near the surface. It's funny to see them spend so much energy, all their little fins moving frantically, just to stay in one place. They're like little hummingbirds!
I've also kept beckfordi, trifasciatus, and mortenthaleri (coral reds). The coral reds are the most assertive. They're in all levels of the tank, and the males are constantly displaying and sometimes sparring with each other. My green neons do occasionally get a nipped fin or two. Nothing serious, and I'd still consider them peaceful.
No, golden pencil fish M can be very aggressive. I had to remove 1 from a tank. They hassle my peacock goby a lot. I wouldn't buy them again for a community tank.
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