''Nannostomus marginatus'', (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ''nanos'' = small, and the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''stomus'' = relating to the mouth; from the

: ''marginatus'' = marginated),"Exotic Aquarium Fishes" by Dr. William T. Innes, Innes Publishing Co, Philadelphia, 1935 commonly known as the dwarf pencilfish, is a freshwater

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

belonging to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Nannostomus'' in the

characin Characiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.; Buckup P.A.: "Relationshi ...

family

Lebiasinidae The pencil fishes are a family (Lebiasinidae) of freshwater fishes found in Costa Rica, Panama, and South America. They are usually small and are known as ornamental fishes in aquaria, including popular fishes such as the various pencil fish a ...

. They were first described in 1909 by C. H. Eigenmann and are typical of members of this genus being small, elongated fish with prominent horizontal stripes. The most notable feature of ''N. marginatus'' is its size, it being one of the smallest members of the genus, only reaching a maximum size of 35 mm. They occur widely on the South American continent having been recorded in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, and have been a popular aquarium species since their introduction to aquarists in the early twentieth century.

Common name and synonyms

The common name given to ''N. marginatus'' is typically dwarf pencilfish, reflecting its diminutive size, although it is not the smallest known member of the genus since both '' N. minimus'' and '' N. anduzei'' are smaller possessing a maximum length of only 23mm and 16mm respectively. ''N. marginatus picturatus'', a variant described by Hoedeman in 1954, is now regarded as a junior

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

References

Lebiasinidae Taxa named by Carl H. Eigenmann Fish described in 1909 Fish of South America Fish of the Amazon basin {{characiformes-stub