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South American fish choice

Paul Kettless said:
OK, so I have been outside in our garden area this morning, and I think by moving a few things around I have found an area where I could put a 100ltr slimline water butt. Maybe this is a daft question but I am assuming that you cut the water with your tap water when doing water changes? I have be honest I didnt even think that using rain water was viable. Once the tank is established, a 50% weekly water change would be around 80 litres or so and would take the whole thing every week if not. Saying that if you are not using the water, do you not have to worry about it becoming stagnant and not aerated?
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To be honest I use pure rainwater, but this is due to the fact I keep a few species which are black water specialists. For general South American species cut with tap is fine.

I haven’t had any issues in regards to water quality in the butt and do not aerate. I have daphnia in the butt, as long as they’re alive I can assume the water is fine. The bonus of daphnia is the live food which is added when you pump the water in to the tank. My pencil fish wait directly under the hose as they know what is coming.

cheers

Conor
 
Conort2 said:
To be honest I use pure rainwater, but this is due to the fact I keep a few species which are black water specialists. For general South American species cut with tap is fine.
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Conort2 said:
I haven’t had any issues in regards to water quality in the butt and do not aerate. I have daphnia in the butt, as long as they’re alive I can assume the water is fine. The bonus of daphnia is the live food which is added when you pump the water in to the tank. My pencil fish wait directly under the hose as they know what is coming
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Thanks for the additional info. It seems like using a percentage of rain water even if it is a smaller amount can only be beneficial in the long run
 
I'm glad you're rethinking rainwater, it's such a cheap and eco-friendly option. As I said before, I use rainwater and my fish breed a lot and are much more colourful and healthier than the same species I've seen in tap tanks.

I have several of them attached to our 2 sheds, and they never get smelly or anything. I have one which is under a rosebush where the water is brown, but that one has lots of live food in it. You'll also get a lot of mosquito larvae in the summer, which the fish will find delicious. These waterbutts are also 5+ years old, and they've not been stagnant or gross at all (probably because rain water is quite pure so there isn't much to go gross) Definitely get the biggest one you can, so that you don't run out too much. I haven't run out of water at all this year, even in summer, when I was just using a small one. I have 2 20L cartons to store the water and bring it inside, which is especially useful when tehre's beena lot of rain and I want to get as much as possible.

When you set the tank up, you could do your first 2 weeks-1 month with full tap, then start doing 50% tap, 50% rainwater so that it's an even split by the time you get your fish, and then you won't waste any rainwater.
 
Hi @Paul Kettless

During the drier seasons obviously needs some planning. But, there is always tap water available as others have suggested. When using the latter (and, sometimes, with only rain water) please ensure that you use a good tap water conditioner such as Seachem Prime. Going with RO water currently and for the foreseeable future is impractical whilst we are in the grip of a pandemic. I normally use remineralized RO water but I haven't used it for over a year now. Instead, I use mineralized or just straight rainwater whilst maintaining water hardness at a reasonably constant level.

JPC
 
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The Beckfords that I have are quite vicious, chasing peacock goby, Cory and amano shrimps. I'm making them a separate tank. I lost some to melafix and have a bad ratio just now, of 3M and 1F. I will get (lots) more F when I move them. It makes me laugh when I see them described as peaceful. I wish I knew what to keep them with – I don't mean to hijack the thread, but any advice welcome. They are going in a 60 litre cube; 40x40cm seems small for an Apisto. Maybe corys, but as I say, they have been chasing them in the larger tank I have (106l), and I don't want to repeat that. I do like the pencilfish, but wish I'd never got them for my community tank. Good luck with yours.
 
I've had a colony of beckfords for a decade now and never even seen them look at a different fish species. I've bred them, swapped some out for new blood but maintain around 15-20 of them in a 120 tank all that time. I do tend to plant really heavily, jungle style though. My brother has 6 in his community and again they keep themselves to themselves. I do know people have had aggression from them but I've personally only seem conspecific aggression in terms of fish but they did decimate my cherry shrimp population (but only after living together seemingly harmlessly for 4-5 years).
The biggest tip I have is to provide heavy vegetation so they have breaks in line of sight but that's mainly so they don't get feisty with one another. Males will spar but I've never seen any damage from this and I always notice that when they are kept in a large enough number they tend to keep to themselves in the upper layers of the tank, so wouldn't notice other fish.
As an example of how quiet I actually find them I have not actively tried to breed them for 5 or so years but get enough babies come through that I still have to reduce the population frequently. They are too busy showing off to the girls to even worry about hunting, well hunting anything but shrimp but that's no longer a problem.
 
I'm happy for those they work with. I have a well planted tank. The aggression has gone beyond the species. My tank isn't high, which may be an issue. I suspect there may be different breeding lines with different behaviours. My peacocks and cories now hide away in corners and caves. I lost an amano, probably to shock. I lost a Cory, perhaps coincidence. It had no tail left and I'd not seen any fin rot. If it was just the males sparring I would be fine with that. They have big territories at ether end of the tank and attempt to keep all the other fish in some non-existent middle ground.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,

I think all the male "Pencil fish" (including Copella spp. etc) are pretty territorial. I've kept a few different ones and some of them have been distinctly homicidal.

cheers Darrel
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I’ve found male pencil fish of certain species to be pretty aggressive, beckfords probably the worst but coral reds are a handful and can’t be kept in too small a tank. Mine also have the bizarre habit of nipping fins on fish when they’re newly introduced, however this ceases after a day or two and never happens again.

Cheers
 
I like pencilfish, i find them far more interesting than the average normal tetra so perhaps i stick up for them a bit but I can definitely see why they could be aggressive and perhaps my experience is good because I keep 1 male to 4 females, so there is plenty of space for the males to show off to their girls, which they do constanlty, keeping themselves busy. I've kept a few other pencilfish and not really seen much aggression from them to either themselves or other fish, in fact most seem pretty timid. It may just come down to how I keep them compared others and I'm in that goldilock zone, or perhaps just lucky.
Every tank seems to be different and I'm actually having real problems with an ancistris that relentlessly chases away my cories. This is new behaviour for it but goes to show compatibility is always a gamble.

My brother has his little group of beckfords pencils with cardinals, pentazona barbs and another tetra that I can't remember but it's not as timid as the others and they get on fine. He does have a lido tank that are very tall so that might be why.
 
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