dither fish

[nir_tza]

how many pencil fish would you recommend for a 35g\130l housed by a pair of aggies?

 

[Greg PL]

which pencil would that be?
I don't like beckfordii, they seemed to disturb the apistos in my tank.
marginatus is smaller and more suitable - some 6-10 species should be fine
my personal favorite is N. eques. they are, by physiology, surface oriented. they also don't interact too much.

 

[retro_gk]

I've kept N. beckfordi and N. marginatus as dithers for dwarf cichlids (still have the latter) and they are both awesome. School nicely at all levels, don't bother the cichlids and are very pretty.

I would go with around two dozen of either species for a 35 gallon tank. I keep groups of 6 in 10 gallon tanks.

I have not kept any of the larger Nanostomus with dwarfs yet. N. mortenthaleri and N. sp. coral red II/sp. purple are very similar to marginatus, so they should behave in a similar fashion, although they're usually a bit too expensive for my taste

 

[ed seeley]

I've got 12 Nannostomus eques in my 40g tank with Apistogramma and Nanochromis. They're ace, but do spend an awful lot of time at the surface. This may, or may not be a good thing, delends on your point of view I suppose!!!
Their mouths are so small I don't think they could eat any fry if they wanted to! (I'm sure I'm now going to hear all about the terrible predatory pencilfish everyone else has!!!)

 

[Refael Hdr.]

I would definitely recommend Nannostomus eques and Nannostomus unifasciatus, I found them most suitable for many reasons. Furthermore, they are relatively easy to find in our region...