Red Arc PencilfishPeruvian Red, Coral Red, and Ruby Red Pencilfish

Distribution:      The Red Arc Pencilfish, also known as the Peruvian Red, Coral Red, and Ruby Red Pencilfish, was described by Paepke and Arendt in  2001. They are found in South America, specifically from the Rio Nanay in Peru.

Status:      The species is not listed on the IUCN Red List.

Description:      The Red Arc Pencilfish, true to its name has a elongated body that is pointed at the snout. It has a beautiful red body color with two strong horizontal black lines, giving it a broadly striped appearance. The lower portion is paler and often white. Males are the more brightly colored sex and have a white patch at the base of the dorsal fin.

Size - Weight:      These fish get up to a maximum size of about 2 inches (5 cm)

Care and feeding:      Since they are omnivorous they will generally eat all kinds of foods. The Red Arc Pencilfish is not a picky eater so they will eat most prepared fish foods including small pellets, freeze dried foods and most flakes foods. To keep them looking their best, brine shrimp (live or frozen) or frozen blood worms should be fed occasionally.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:      The Red Arc Pencilfish will swim in most parts of your aquarium.

Acceptable Water Conditions:      Red Arc Pencilfish like a well planted aquarium.
     Hardness: 2 - 10 ° dGH
     Ph: 5.8 to 7
     Temp: 72-82 ° F (22 – 28 ° C)

Social Behaviors:      The males of this species can be aggressive towards each other but usually little damage is done during their fights. If you plan on having more than 1 male in your tank, to be safe you should keep as many as you can afford to keep aggression to a minimum. Fortunately they aren't aggressive towards other species so the Red Arc Pencilfish are a good community fish.

Sexual Differences:      The males have an obvious white patch at the base of their dorsal fin.

Breeding/Reproduction:      This fish has been bred in captivity but not in commercial levels. If you want to attempt to breed the Red Arc Pencilfish, one successful breeder used a water temp of 78 F, with a pH of 6.6 and a total hardness of 20 ppm. For more information on breeding characins, see the description in Breeding Freshwater Fish.

Availability:      This is a relatively rare species and the price can be quite high. It is hoped that in the near future someone will be able to breed them in commercial levels so the price will drop.
   They are sold as the Red Arc Pencilfish as well as under the name of Peruvian Red Pencilfish, Coral Red Pencilfish, and Ruby Red Pencilfish.

Author: Ken Childs