red coral pencilfish (nannostomus mortenthaleri) required water parameters

[pandamonium]

hey everyone,

i saw this fish recently at a store about an hour from me and i found it was very beautiful. i asked my fish store to order some regular golden pencilfish for me (n. beckfordi) but they did not have that. only the N. mortenthaleri. i lucked out as N. beckfordi would have been bad for my tank of slower moving, not so active fish. i did research on N. mortenthaleri and i want to order those from my LFS. however i have read many differing accounts of the water parameters required to keep them. anyone who has them, could you tell me what parameters you keep yours in and how they are doing?

for comparison, these are my water parameters.
pH: 7.4
KH: 3 dKH
GH: 6 dGH
ammonia and nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 5ppm
last water change was 6/17

[plantbrain]

SF tap is fine/great etc..........fairly easy fish, but will jump out for sure in tank is open top.

[pandamonium]

thanks tom, that is great to hear from someone especially yourself. once my tank settles down (i have a bit of a brown algae/diatom problem at the moment which i am guessing is from biological instability?) i will look into ordering them.
my tank is almost completely closed at the moment. i have to cut out the back vinyl panel to fit all my filter tubing and an air line that i plan to use to circulate the air above the water, as i have heard that frogbit does better with good above water air circulation.
btw i was down in milpitas at the neptune aquatics store. i heard through this forum that they sell manzanita that you handpick. if that is the case and its true, the wood is very nice. i bought myself a piece and am going to incorporate it into my tank as soon as i can.
thanks tom

[mubender]

Morts are wonderful fish. If youre going to order them i would recommend snagging a few from msjinxed. I grabbed 10 of them from her and have only lost 2(from jumping)...nice thing is that after 3 months i now have about 20 of them in the tank. If you plan on breeding, then save yourself some headache and pull the male and female out when they pair. Otherwise theyll eat all thier babies/eggs.

[pandamonium]

i looked up her profile and definitely interested. my LFS also sells them for the same price. im not sure about their survivability though. i guess its a gamble either way. i will probbaly PM her to ask about shipping prices since it would be cross country. i might order all my fish that i want from her too, again dependent on shipping. right now my tank is in a state of disorder. things are killing each other (rams mainly, perhaps they are breeding? im not sure) once they settle down, i will give it a shot.

[Bananariot]

You dont understand man, your SF water is like perfect for any aquatic animal lol

[pandamonium]

thats one of the perks of living here dude haha that and the abundance of LFS.

[VeeSe]

I have almost identical water parameters if we are just looking at pH, GH/KH (7.5 pH, 4-5 dGH, 2-3 dKH). Thanks for this thread. It is encouraging to hear that coral reds could do well in these parameters, as that was one of the things that was keeping me from getting them. I thought the pH seems really high for their natural range.

[pandamonium]

their natural range is the rio nanay in peru i think which does have very acidic waters. i guess that like a lot of people on this forum say, its better to have a slightly off but stable pH over a spot on but fluctuating pH. i definitely would like to get some of these guys when i can.

[mubender]

Heres a few of the ones i grabbed from msjinxed

Couple males


Couldnt catch the females out and about, the males are generally more colored, but today was flake food day an i had just turned on the lights.
My ph is around 6.8, gh is 4-5, kh 4-5 temp 26c. I feed them frozen baby brine on mondays, frozen daphnia on tues, powdered repashi soilent on wed/thurs, live mosquito larvae on friday, skip sat and flake on sunday. I top off every week, change 20% water every other week, and swap them into breeding tanks the day after changes. My breeding tanks house rcs so they eat what they find there. I usually let them sit in the breeding tank for the week(which is full of yarn mops) then flip the adults back into the primary tank the following week. So far they breed fairly regularly and breed in the main tank, however i have yet to find fry there due to thier dilligent egg eating.

[pandamonium]

great looking tank mubender! the 12 longs look really good if done right and i think you definitely did it right. i have a lot questions now haha. why do you move them into a breeding tank every other week? do the morts breed frequently with ease? also the food you give. i noticed the soilent and i was going to see if it was worth the money in terms of use and price. would you recommend it?
regarding the fish, is having a proper ratio of males to females required? or a grabbag will be sufficient? i messaged msjinxed about it and she hasnt gotten back to me. it was for shipping quotes to see what i would be paying. my fish store may be able to order them but she seems much more reputable.
and lastly the plants in your tank. what is the one on the far left? and the one next to it, im guessing are dwarf swords?

[mubender]

The left most plant is limnofila aromatica, just to the right is a larger form of limnophila vietnam. The grasslooking plant is blyxa japonica(i tend to keep mine shorter growing and pull the larger plants), i dont like invasive runners from standard grass plants. As far as repashi, i like the food, but my morts arent very receptive to a sinking type of food so powder seems to spur thier interest a bit more than gel'ing it. They dont all breed eer other week, but it seems luck of the draw gives me atleast one pairing in that time although it doesnt always work out that way. I swap them into a more controlled environment to alleviate the morts/cpds eating all the eggs. As far as picking sex, id go for atleast double the number of females to males, they tend to spar frequently but i have yet to see any injuries. Msjinxed will be glad to give you what ever mix you want. And for reference, if you look at the anal fin you can see a deep red border, the females have a more lightly colored anal fin with no border. Others have stated that there are other ways to sex them but i havent found that to be reliable.
Thanks for the kind words on the 12, its still a work in progress more or less trying to create a bog effect on the right side.

[pandamonium]

yeah i really like the looks of those plants. i probably ont use that as i am trying to keep my tank in the amazon style but they look great in your tank. as for the powdered foods, is it because of the generally small mouths of the fish? i read that pencilfish have an always open mouth that is quite small. if so i will probably try to get some BBS as well to supplement their diet. i may try the alternate breeding tank if i can set one up. i know petco has their dollar per gallon sale so maybe i can pick up a 10 or 20L tank to set up as a breeding tank. if not ill just hope that the eggs survive in my main tank.
i want to order from msjinxed. she just got back to me today and shipping will cost quite a bit and since temperatures are on the rise, i would have to order by express. but i think it may be worth it to go through her as i could get the ratio i wanted as well as positive reviews on their health. through my LFS i would just get however many i order but no guarantees on their sex. both are the same price so moneywise this is rough. its a gamble with the LFS due to having sick fish but its also more expensive through msjinxed due to shipping. dang haha ill have to think this one over.