# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Characins >  Nannostomus marginatus (tiny pencil fish)

## apistoworld(HK)

nannostomus marginatus (tiny pencil fish)

very small pencil fish and very cute in the glass tank 
Belongs to one of tiny pencil fish only then 2.5cm easy to raise most greatly, moreover working ability to eliminates the algae, insect, ...... , moreover is lively, can eliminate the algae, ...... it has three blue black lines in its body, futhermore, the center has a red red line, but the fish fin also catches red, and the center has a golden streak under the stability, is very beautiful, when 2 pcs met, will pursue demonstrated mutually more will attract.

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## Morgan01

great looking fish! will we be seeing any of these on our shores soon?

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## joydiv

They have been available from time to time. Check C328 or Wuhu. Cost wise, definitely cheaper than the coral red.

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## windcharm

Does this pencil fish attack shrimps?

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## oblivion

how about the algae eating powers as claimed?

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## Quixotic

Although they will nibble at some algae, they are not known for their algae eating capabilities. They will not do well if used as algae eaters. In the wild, they take small crustaceans, insects and larvae.

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## SCOPE

beautiful fish...have not seen them at our shore.

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## CK Yeo

Don't think it is Nannostomus marginatus.

ck

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## hwchoy

should be, just that they are a bit skinny and exhibiting stress or night colours. Qian Hu has a lot but make sure you don't pay more than $2 a piece.

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## illumnae

market price last time they came in was up to double that amount choy  :Confused:

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## Savant

looks like a good fish for a 1ft cube...

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## hwchoy

> market price last time they came in was up to double that amount choy


could be due to the fact that the LFS bought it from the importer at red-pencil prices.

the logic is quite simple. no matter how much the pricing of the market has moved, there must still be a relative difference between the marginatus and the red-pencil. if people sell marginatus at red-pencil prices then something is seriously wrong. not least is the fact that marginatus appear to still be available in much larger quantity.

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## apistomaster

N. marginatus is usually one of the least expensive of the wild pencil fish and definitely among if not the smallest species. They will be ill at ease unless kept in groups of 6 to 12 so always buy as many as you can. They are more heavily built for their size than N. trifasciatus which is the only pencilfish they can remotely be confused with.
N. mortenthaleri resembles this species in shape but is far more red to purple and grows much larger aside from costing 8X as much.

N. marginatus is completely safe with Cherry shrimp or similarly small algae eating shrimp.

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## Zenislev

Very nice fish, i think this time round the marginatus is different from the previous batch i got from HK. Notice the middle line on the body and the tail portion, its much more redder than the ones i got previously. i got afew pieces in my tank, really cute fishes...

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## genes

Now that you mentioned. Could it be another fish and not marginatus instead? So different!

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## CK Yeo

Thanks Eugene for the photo-confirmation. The red line on mine is does not extend to the end. The tail lack 2 red spots. See pic below.


These are different pencils. Incidentally, they are available in C328.

ck

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## hwchoy

yes I was just starting to recollect that what we knew as _N. marginatus_ has no red in the caudal region.

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## Quixotic

> _N. marginatus_ has no red in the caudal region.


Uncle, was this mentioned in the original description? I was starting to wonder what was actually mentioned in the scientific description.

I did come across an article which mentions that as the distribution is quite wide, there are some different "forms" of _N. marginatus_. But the common line of thought is that some of the "forms" may actually be different species pending scientific revisions, hence the quotes.

I'll see if I can summarise and provide the link later, it's in German.  :Exasperated:

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## hwchoy

that's why I said "what we knew as _N. marginatus_ has no red in the caudal region".

I don't have the description.

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## Quixotic

Hah, guess _N. marginatus_ is the catch-all bucket for the pencils that look similar.

Anyway, here is the summary from the article, the best I can make out of dodgy online translations. There is a number of information omitted as I can't make out any sense, to those who could, feel free to add on. There are also some pictures in there, and citation of the pictures available in literature.

Denotation of stripe from top to bottom of fish = secondary, primary, tertiary (based on my interpretation).

1. Rivers of Guyana and Suriname. Primary and secondary stripe extending into caudal fin as black dashes. Narrow, overlapping red stripe at the top of primary stripe from 6th to 9th vertical row. Tinted gold colour between primary and secondary stripes. [similar to genes and CK's fishes]

2. Area of the lower Amazon in Pará, apparently also the upper Rio Branco (Roraima) [STAECK, 1998]. Red stripe overlapping primary stripe missing. Wider secondary and tertiary stripe, white on caudal fin slightly more intense. Tinted gold colour above primary stripe missing.

3. Middle and upper Rio Negro (Brazil) and upper Orinoco (Venezuela), including Rio Inirida (Colombia) [BORK, 2002]. Strong red stripe above primary stripe, extending from behind operculum till caudal peduncle. Red dashes extension of primary and secondary stripe into caudal fin, with white colour in between. [similar to Apistoworld's fish]

4. Catchment area of the upper Amazon, the Rio Putumayo in Peru (on the border with Colombia), on the Rio Napo in Ecuador to Rios Caqueta and Orteguaza in Colombia. Colours similar to previous forms, except red instead of white in caudal fin between the end of primary and secondary stripe. Overall, very rich color contrasts.

5. Guyana and Rio Ampiyacu (Peru) [BORK, 2002]. Broader stripes than the above forms. Appeared as _N. marginatus_ "Broad Stripe".

6. Peru [HOFFMANN & HOFFMANN, 2003]. Similar to above form but colour of the underside appears yellow sulfur instead of white. Appeared as _N. marginatus_ "Yellow".

The article is here in German, http://www.salmlernetz.de/index.php/...nostomus-forts. Have a read using Google or Babelfish translation. It is quite an interesting read, although I cannot vouch for it's reliability, there seems to be some detailed citation and pictures.

It will be interesting to see if some of your _N. marginatus_ turn out to be different forms.

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## Zenislev

> ...
> Anyway, here is the summary from the article, the best I can make out of dodgy online translations. There is a number of information omitted as I can't make out any sense, to those who could, feel free to add on. There are also some pictures in there, and citation of the pictures available in literature.
> ...
> It will be interesting to see if some of your _N. marginatus_ turn out to be different forms.


Thats very helpful bro. It would be nice to see more forms of _marginatus_ appearing here in SG.

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## CK Yeo

Same fish? I named it N. marginatus for the moment.


ck

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## hwchoy

I thought marginatus should have very little red in the caudal.

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## CK Yeo

Probably not, but I am reluctant to put it as Nannostomus sp. since the trade calls it N. marginatus. Based on the information Quixotic provided, couldn't it be one of the forms of N. marginatus? 

ck

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## hwchoy

> Probably not, but I am reluctant to put it as Nannostomus sp. since the trade calls it N. marginatus. Based on the information Quixotic provided, couldn't it be one of the forms of N. marginatus? 
> 
> ck


could well be, as I have seen some variations myself. scientists normally do not put the specific epithet (in case they are proven wrong  :Grin:  ) when they aren't sure so they willl just put "sp."

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