Looking for that perfect set up - why?

[GaryE]

I received two species of hatchetfish this week, Carngiella strigata (the fairly common marble hatchet) and C. myersi, the rare around here pygmy hatchet. I got 10 of each, and they've gone into their 6 week quarantine together.
I read up on them, and it seemed the perfect set up for them would be a still not very deep tank with very tannin stained, warm water. I'll also need floating plants, which I'm currently pretty short of. But I've followed the recipe (based on their natural habitat).
I've never kept myersi before, but strigata were in the family fishtank when I was a little kid. I'm familiar with them, but haven't kept them since before I got sensible about needing to adapt to the needs of the fish, rather than magically expecting them to adapt to my community set ups.

What a difference tannins have made.

The myersi (pygmys), seemingly plain silver fish noteworthy for their shape and tiny size, have a greenish stripe in tannin stained water.

In a tank where they don't battle agitated water, they aren't hugging the surface as they would in my old communities. The show this group of 20 fish is giving me is in 3D. They occupy the top 2/3 of the tank, and once they pass quarantine, are going to look great sharing a tank with Cory group fish.

 

[anewbie]

I have a bunch in a blackwater aquarium that is fairly dark - strigata, silver (i forget the name but same size) and Gasteropelecus maculatus (these are very large and behave totally different). The marbles and silver hang near the top usually under leaves and the g. maculatus much lower. The smaller species will jump and when i feed them i have to make sure to block the opening ot prevent them jumping out. My setup has them at ec 27 ph low 6 or high 5 temp is a bit warm at 78 as i have b. wavarni and a. norbert in the bottom (100+ gallons). For the smaller hatchet fishes i've not been super successful in terms of longevity and after a year or so i find some have vanished the larger g. maculatus seems to do much better and the dwarf cichild at least 3 years (the temp is a bit warm for the various hatchet fishes which might have an impact on logevity but the b. wavarni require it).

 

[Innesfan]

Gorgeous, @GaryE

I have a bunch in a blackwater aquarium that is fairly dark - strigata, silver (i forget the name but same size) and

There are only two others in the genus but they sound like C. marthae.