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I am always on the look out for unusual or rare fish, or sometimes, just a new breeding challenge. Obviously there are still many species that I haven't tried, one of these being Pencilfish. Having listened to an interesting talk on breeding Pencilfish by Alan Vaissiere (Preston & Dist A.S. member) and then having a good read about the various species, I decided to play safe and my breeding challenge would be (quote) one of the "easier" ones!
Golden Pencilfish are found in the wild in S. America in the rivers of Guyana, the lower Rio Negro and part of the Amazon. I got a pair from my local aquarist and put them in a 24" planted tank, temperature around 74F, with just some Corys as tankmates. I gave them my standard "welcome treat" of Daphnia from my garden pond and they settled in easily. Three days later and the male's colours had improved tremendously as he set about courting the female, who was already quite plump.  The male's "nudging" activity continued almost incessantly. The female didn't seem too co-operative as sometimes she would escape his attentions and find a quiet spot in the tank. Another repeated action, was that he would just nudge her as he hovered over the top of her (as in the photo below).  Spawning set-up Having seen all the courtship and the fact that the female was quite rounded, I set up half a plastic toffee jar with some shells and "bits" on the base. On top of the shells I put a small piece of plastic grill (which can just be seen) and above it all, a clump of Java Moss. The moss must not be too dense or the eggs can't fall through as easily.  Spawning The male continues his attentions, they adopt a side-by-side position. While in this position,they tremble and a few eggs are shed. Any eggs that stick in the moss are eaten by the adults almost immediately.  I left the pair in the jar for 2 days and then removed them. A few days later and I could see at least 10 fry had hatched. I have to say it wasn't a good set up, as the adults could still get down into the shell part, but I had no other pieces of my original plastic grill left;- "Never throw bits away is my message!" The fry The fry were much smaller than I expected, much smaller than the Celestial Pearl Danios which I had bred very recently. They really were very tiny "pinheads" and at first clung to the jar side and the shells. On the second day they moved a little more but remained still for for long periods. I squeezed some "Novo Bio 1" between my fingers and made a cloud. I did this little and often as I had no infusoria. The first week During the first week, I can safely say I saw very little "growth" or movement;- I was just pleased that they were feeding enough to survive this demanding period! After a week I could spot the fry a little better and I put in just a little microworm to supplement the fry powder. I did regular little water changes and by now I could count 16 fry around the jar. Around 5 weeks old The fry had now reached around 5 mms and, viewed from above, still didn't look like they had filled out much. I continued with little and often feeds of fry powder and Microworm. At just over 6 weeks old I decided it was time for a move. I put them into a 24" mature, well planted tank and now I could see a little more depth to the body which was quite speckled with a darker, broad lateral line. One feature I noticed was the relatively big tail, which looked out of proportion!  Even now there were still some fry which were half the size of the biggest ones. I continued to put in plenty fry powder and microworm and was pleased to see them moving around the tank a little more (albeit, still very slowly) to find their food. At this stage of growth, they seemed to stay within the safety of the Java Fern on the bogwood, or up in the Indian Fern at the surface. Quite often I only saw 4 or 5 at a time and I have to repeat ... growth continued to be slow! When they were just over 10 weeks old, they had reached a size of around 2.5 cms. Apart from the increase in size, the major change was that above the dark lateral line, there was a hint of the gold colour and also a hint of red appearing on the anal fin.  Summary I enjoyed my attempt with these attractive little fish, even though I knew my egg trap could have been improved upon (and the return would have been better). So if you're tempted ....Don't do as I did! Firstly, get a good fitting grill and you will have lots more fry to work with. Also, have a plentiful supply of infusoria which is an obvious major asset to improve the early growth of the fry. Alan Vaissiere, of Preston & Dist A.S. who has had many successes with breeding Pencilfish, always has a good supply of his particular "brand" of infusoria available, as well as Brine Shrimp. Having read this basic account of my little breeding challenge, please have a read of Alan's article "Some Observations on Pencilfish" which contains some very interesting and more detailed personal observations. Golden Pencilfish are always popular, so if you do breed them in good numbers, there is never a problem moving them on to friends or aquatic centres. Copyright; Text and photos. Ivor Hilton. |
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