What do I need to breed Beckford pencilfish?

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ManEatingShrimp

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Jan 28, 2012
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I have been thinking about trying to breed some of the fish in my community tank for a while. The only fish that have successfully bred were my plecos, but they did that on their own and for some reason only bred 3-4 times over the course of a month and never did it again. I have neon tetras, cherry barbs, and 8 beckford pencilfish. I read that neon tetras cannot breed if they live in high ph (mine is 8), and I am not sure I want more cherry barbs.
I really like the Beckford pencilfish and they appear to be showing breeding behavior. Two large males are a very dark color- seems almost like jet black/blue. These males fight and do little displays with each other, and one appears to have claimed the right side of the tank in the jungle val.
What will I need to breed them? They seem pretty fat and happy. I feed flakes and frozen blood worms. I have a small ~1.5g plastic bin and an extra 10 gallon I can use for breeding. I was thinking of making the 10 gallon bare bottom with some moss, netting, and floating plants for cover, then moving a few females to this tank and conditioning them with bloodworms and then adding the males in after about a week. Will that work? I read I need to keep the water around 82 degrees and use ro water to lower the ph to around 7. To make them spawn do I add the males into the tank in the evening, then add cold ro water and wait till the morning to remove them? Are there any specific supplies I will need? I know I will need to feed the fry small food so will flakes ground into powder work?
 

tiger_cory

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Since they are pencilfish, then I'm assuming that you'll need soft, acidic water and excellent water quality. Not much else I know of, sorry.:D
 

henningc

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May 11, 2013
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Pure water is always a bad idea unless cut with regular water. I can't give much else, but you picked one tough project--Best of luck.
 

ManEatingShrimp

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So i did some research on lowering ph and decided I could use half ro eater and half tap, hen add peat moss and oak leaves to lower the ph and create cover for the eggs when they are laid. Is peat moss effective at lowering the ph? Im not really worried about the tannins since it isn't a show tank.
 

authmal

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Aug 4, 2011
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Yes, peat moss as part of your filter media will lower pH. So will driftwood.
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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The North Jersey aquarium society has a small article on beckford's pencils.

available here
 

ManEatingShrimp

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Thanks for the article.
I have tried setting up the 10 gallon in a way that will work best for breeding them. I emptied it and refilled it with water from the 90 gallon they are currently in, then I moved most of the gravel to the side and laid plastic netting over the bare bottom part and propped the piece of driftwood over the side with the gravel to give them a place to hide. I will take 2-3 females and condition them in this tank over a week or two and also be adding peat to the filter, replacing the water with 1/2 tap, 1/2 RO water, and adding some oak leaves to hopefully make the water more acidic. Once I think the females are ready and the water conditions are right I will place the largest male into the tank in the evening and if they spawn will probably remove all of them the next day. If there aren't a lot of eggs I might just leave them in there and see if they spawn again before moving them back to the 90 gallon.
 

dougall

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Good luck with the breeding :)
 

ManEatingShrimp

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Forgot to update this, but I was able to get them to breed! I got them to spawn twice so I could raise a lot of fry at the same time. It was actually a lot easier than I thought! They are probably breeding a lot in the community tank but I do not notice because the fry are eaten by the other fish..
Here is a video of the fry. I have not had time to upload the more recent videos, but they are now looking similar to the adults. I hope to upload a video showing their growth from newly hatched fry to adult fish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNXcuSLYv14
 
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