Nannostomus Marginatus (dwarf Pencilfish) With Apistos?

[thefirethief]

Just a quick question, I understand pencilfish are a good dither for Apistos but has anyone had experience with dwarf pencilfish in an apistogramma tank?

ta,
Mark

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi there,

I've used/using the following pencils with my Apisto's:

Nanostomus eques
Nanostomus beckfordi
Nanostomus mortenthaleri

The key with the Apisto's (for breeding at least) is not to put in anything else that shares floor space with them as this will then give rise to conflict over breeding territories (unless of course your tank is big enough to allow separate territories). The pencil fish don't use this area of the tank so work perfectly.

Andrew

 

[thefirethief]

Thanks andrew, Ive actually had your site in my favourites for a while as Im going to be stocking my tank within the next month or so.

Im trying to decide on what other options Ive got for stocking. The new tank is roughyl 25G has a surface area of 2.5 sq ft. I have one male agassizzi in a temporary tank just now but I wouldnt mind adding another species of apisto to join him once the new tank is up and running. One breeder has told me 1 sq ft per pair is sufficient as long as it densely planted and enough cover is provided so I was thinking of adding a female agassizi and a pair of cactuoides. What do you think?


thanks
Mark

 

[a.d.wood]

Hi Mark,

I would go with 1sq ft as the minimum per pair, as you said subject to hidey holes been plentiful.

Don't see any problem with mixing aggie's and cac's. Body shape is completely different and will make it easy to distinguish who goes with who. They are both easy species to work with, however if you want something different from cac's (that's still a reasonably easy fish to work with):

Apisto panduro (Pandurini)

Apisto atahualpa (Sunset)

Apisto baenschi (Inka)

Andrew

 

[carpus]

hi all

sorry to jump in but where can i get some Nanostomus mortenthaleri

ive tryed everywhere ?

cheers

Daz

 

[a.d.wood]

hi all

sorry to jump in but where can i get some Nanostomus mortenthaleri

ive tryed everywhere ?

cheers

Daz

Hi Daz,

Depends on where you are, if you're in the UK, I'm hoping to bring in a box of them in January.

Andrew

 

[carpus]

andrew

ive just looked at your web site and we have emailed each other before.

im up for some of them when you get them so could you please let me know as soon as their ready.

thanks
Daz

 

[thefirethief]

Thanks andrew! Nice fish you have there! I'll get in touch soon about the pencils to see what you have in stock.