Photo: Fajoe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Brown pencilfish
Nannostomus eques
3.5 cm
Adult size
70 L
Minimum volume
6
Minimum group
4 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Nannostomus
- Diet
- carnivore
- Social life
- small group
In the wild
Overview
Its Latin name, “horseman”, refers to its oblique swimming, head up, a behaviour it shares within its genus only with N. unifasciatus. Long placed in the genera Poecilobrycon and Nannobrycon, it is popular in the hobby.
- Scientific name
- Nannostomus eques Steindachner, 1876
- Classification
- Characiformes › Lebiasinidae
- IUCN Red List
- Least concern (LC)
Natural habitat
Central and upper Amazonia (Brazil, Peru, Colombia: Tapajós, Trombetas, Madeira, Negro, Japurá, Putumayo) and Orinoco basin
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
It lives in slow tributaries, small rivers and swampy areas rich in plants, submerged wood and leaf litter, often in flooded forest and blackwater floodplain lakes. In the lower Atabapo it was recorded in tea-coloured water at pH 4.4, among submerged terrestrial vegetation.
Behaviour
Very peaceful but shy and small: not ideal in a community tank. Keep it with small, calm characins, Corydoras or small Loricariidae. It occupies the middle and top of the tank and does not hunt fry: an excellent companion for Apistogramma. Very gregarious. A micropredator: fine dry food and small live or frozen prey every day.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth