Another 'new' Nannostomus

[anewbie]

Top photo: N. beckfordi male.
2nd Photo: N. beckfordi female
Bottom photo, top to bottom:
N. beckfordi male
2 N. marginatus--looks like a pair, male above
N. mortenthaleri--appears to be female. If when the dorsal is erect and there's a prominent white blotch on the leading edge, it's a male.

All lovely!

Yea several of the n. Morthenthaleri are females and the beckfordi keep trying to breed with them. Not sure if they can actually cross breed.

Never purchased beckfordi so that is a disappointment i guess at least from a price perspective. I'm pretty sure they were sold as tiny rubes from wetspot but i could be mistaken.

 

[Innesfan]

Yea several of the n. Morthenthaleri are females and the beckfordi keep trying to breed with them. Not sure if they can actually cross breed.

They cannot. Worry not.

 

[anewbie]

They cannot. Worry not.

Well it would be good for the morths to breed - not 100% sure i have male. One of the issue with pictures is the low light vs constant movement esp when i'm in front of the tank after all 'person' -> FOOD. I swear one of these days i'll accidently get a finger in there and they will gobble it down.

 

[GaryE]

Somehow when I visualize @Innesfan 's fish set up, in my mind it morphs into lots of shiny metal framed tanks.

This is a great fish discussion where I sit like a fly on the wall and learn. I've spent years getting excited about subtle location/population differences in killies - I think that's a reason why I love those fish. To see the same kind of information exists about Nannostomus, a group I've long admired but usually from afar is really wonderful.

When I see we've had 100,000 forum members, I realize that keeping fish the wrong way is boring, and people leave the hobby. Just looking at them has its limits. Observing them closely and learning their natural history changes the game. The goal is to find a fish that looks to you like @Innesfan looks at Nannostomus!

 

[Innesfan]

I wouldn't be too disappointed about N. beckfordi. They are wild-caught which is a rare find these days. And in my opinion, the best N. beckfordi you can get.

 

[Innesfan]

Somehow when I visualize @Innesfan 's fish set up, in my mind it morphs into lots of shiny metal framed tanks.

This is a great fish discussion where I sit like a fly on the wall and learn. I've spent years getting excited about subtle location/population differences in killies - I think that's a reason why I love those fish. To see the same kind of information exists about Nannostomus, a group I've long admired but usually from afar is really wonderful.

When I see we've had 100,000 forum members, I realize that keeping fish the wrong way is boring, and people leave the hobby. Just looking at them has its limits. Observing them closely and learning their natural history changes the game. The goal is to find a fish that looks to you like @Innesfan looks at Nannostomus!

Once again you beat me to the punch. I was just about to write about how gratifying and pleasurable this convo is and how nice it is for me to have interested parties to chat with about this niche passion of mine. Thank you all, and thank you @GaryE for your generous and kind words.

And I have but one metal-framed tank--the 15g that won the recent tank o'the month.. However, this one is calling to me on ebay. A 55g. I've managed to resist. ...so far.

 

[anewbie]

Our very first aquarium was a metal frame - I think it was a 10 or 15 or 20 who knows - my dad had always wanted neon tetra and it was the first fish he put in it - it sat in the kids room on top of a solid wood dresser we had when we were babies. But anyway I know what a metal frame aquarium is which is probably a bad thing. Today well we can safely say they don't make them like they did in the old days

 

[GaryE]

I have one repaired metal framed 10 gallon. I wish I knew about these tanks from reading, but like @anewbie I seem to have been alive for a while. Some seem to see that as a vice, but it's the price of seeing things.

A friend who had founded our Montreal club in 1933, and who lived well into his nineties had his killies in slate bottomed metal framed tanks. I wish I had one of those.

Meanwhile, I don't consider taking a niche approach to fishkeeping as superior in any way, but it's stimulating. Like anything you put your mind to, it enriches. I can't talk Nannostomus in detail, but because I've had such conversations before about dwarf Cichlids and killies, I can appreciate a good sharing of experience and knowledge. It's something this hobby has a lot of, but that it doesn't always have outlets for.

 

[anewbie]

Somehow when I visualize @Innesfan 's fish set up, in my mind it morphs into lots of shiny metal framed tanks.

This is a great fish discussion where I sit like a fly on the wall and learn. I've spent years getting excited about subtle location/population differences in killies - I think that's a reason why I love those fish. To see the same kind of information exists about Nannostomus, a group I've long admired but usually from afar is really wonderful.

When I see we've had 100,000 forum members, I realize that keeping fish the wrong way is boring, and people leave the hobby. Just looking at them has its limits. Observing them closely and learning their natural history changes the game. The goal is to find a fish that looks to you like @Innesfan looks at Nannostomus!

The problem is the lack of experts on some of these things. As demonstrated I know very little about nannostomus and some of the details i do pick up seem to escape me a bit too quickly. I know more about dwarf cichild mostly from TomC's website and i have a small amount of experience keeping more diverse fishes - mostly sa with a touch of west africa. But expert it seems I have to go to others and the pool of experts is getting smaller and the number of non-experts with big ego is getting larger (or perhaps not necessarily ego but vocal misinformation).

There are people out there besides Innesfan and TomC/Mike/Frank but they are scattered and we live in a world where first hand experience is decreasing for many reason.

Many of the best books were written 20, 30, 40 years ago but they are now so dated to be almost worthless and updates ... when is the last time you saw an up-to-date publication on tetra, nannostomus or south american dwarf cichild ?

 

[Innesfan]

I sill consider myself a generalist, but with decided areas of specialization. I normally don't keep lists but a recent interminable plane trip gave me the opportunity to try to reconstruct an inventory of every species I've kept since the 50's and that first 3 gallon drum bowl containing two fantail goldfish that somehow lived for years. I came up with 147 species (varieties and geographical variants don't count) for certain and another 19 I-think-I-kept-these-also ...i.e. surely I kept cherry barbs at some point, didn't I?

15 of those 147 for-certains are Nannostomus. Never kept N. bifasciatus (probably not imported since the '60s...a holy grail fish for me), N. britskii (only known to science by preserved specimens...until recently), and the 3 new 'red things' if indeed they are species and not color variants of N. rubrocaudatus.

 

[GaryE]

I know a few of the experts I wish were on forums. But they won't do it. Most did, and were so vexed by trolls they stopped believing the general hobby was worth the effort. I don't agree with them, but I understand them. Plus, until you retire, it's hard to be a regular on forums.

I see the people here with the deepest knowledge protect their secret identities.... It's wise.

I'm absolutely delighted with what I've learned about Nannostomus today, and I'm ready for more! I also like that morph of beckfordii you have there, @anewbie .

 

[Innesfan]

I also like that morph of beckfordii you have there, @anewbie .

Indeed. I've never seen a wild form of N. beckfordi that wasn't handsome. This one is especially nice. I imagine two males sparring is a pretty sight...especially if there's sunlight.

 

[anewbie]

The one thing I will point out is the male has a *lot* more red than any picture of a beckfordi i've seen before. It isn't necessarily a nice red because it is diluted through the body. The disappointment is that i believe tehy were sold as itsy bitsy rubrocaudatus; conversely i only purchased 4 so maybe they will breed. I should try to get another picture that is not blur though it will take a bit of effort - usually to get the higher shutter speed i have to push the image so far that the grain dominates - though i could try upping the aquarium lights for a short period.
--
Hum there is a domestic variant of beck's that have a lot of red though mine were sold as wc.

 

[gwand]

I know a few of the experts I wish were on forums. But they won't do it. Most did, and were so vexed by trolls they stopped believing the general hobby was worth the effort. I don't agree with them, but I understand them. Plus, until you retire, it's hard to be a regular on forums.

I see the people here with the deepest knowledge protect their secret identities.... It's wise.

I'm absolutely delighted with what I've learned about Nannostomus today, and I'm ready for more! I also like that morph of beckfordii you have there, @anewbie .

I came to the hobby late in life. This forum has been indispensable in providing me with the necessary skills to be a decent novice aquarist. I still have much to learn. @GaryE, @Innesfan and many others here have been outstanding teachers. Their passion for the hobby is palpable.

 

[Back in the fold]

This is a great fish discussion where I sit like a fly on the wall and learn.

You got that right ! I feel like a kid on the first day of first grade here . I’ve only ever seen pencil fish once and that was many decades ago .