f_i_e_a

I saw a fish at a local pet store and I was wondering if someone knew what it was. It was a labeled as a pencilfish but I tried to find it online and there are no pencilfish that are that big. It is about 3-4 inches, thin (pencil shaped), and mostly black with a red stripe. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture. It was really interesting looking so I was thinking about buying it for my tank but I don't want to buy it without knowing what it is.

poppet

Hi i know there are many types of pencil fish and they are part of the Characins family. Hope this helps.

COBettaCouple

it does sound like a pencilfish or tetra.. but those do tend to stay 2.5" and under.. it may be a fish related to the gar, but i'm not real sure on it. did it have any distinctive fins? maybe a loach or eel?

f_i_e_a

I was looking pencilfish up online and i noticed that they had never been recorded over 3" or so. I saw this one at Petco and it was already atleast 3-4" and usually the fish they sell in there are pretty young. It didn't have jaws so I don't think its a gar although thought of that before. I don't remember a whole lot about its fins, but I know they weren't anything very unusual like the swordtail's. It was in a tank with a clown knifefish but I don't think that helps. It didn't have any teeth I could see and the opening to its mouth was more circular rather than jaw-like. Most of what I remember is its unusualy large size for a so called "pencilfish" and the fact that it had red and black stripes. Darn those mislabelings. I think I'm going to go back soon and see if its still there, I'll take a picture.

COBettaCouple

maybe it was a type of loach or chinese algae-eater?

f_i_e_a

I found out what the fish is! It is an anostomus pencilfish! Its interesting that I couldn't find that out online. Oh well, and it turns out that it was black and yellow striped with red edging on its fins. Thanks for the input!

Tom

Could youmaybe show a pic of it?
Tom

COBettaCouple

very cool, those are beauties. and nice-sized too.

f_i_e_a

here ya go! I couldn't get a good picture of the one at the store, it was camera shy, and I didn't end up buying it since it isn't a very good community fish and there was only one...(too bad, it was really interesting too). So I got a picture from Google!!

Callum The Cat

COBettaCouple

yea, it is an interesting fish for sure.

vin

Nannostomus trifasciatus..Three-lined Pencilfish...Get up to about 2.5" long....

http://www.aquarium365.com/three_lined_pencilfish.htm

f_i_e_a

actually, its not exactly a pencilfish. Its in the same family as pencilfish and thats why the tag at the store said pencilfish. But if you look up the scientific name online, they call it a striped headstander and some places say that it can get around 6-8" long. too big for my tank.

vin

Looks pretty darn close to the picture in the link......