Distribution
The genus has a vast distribution in South America, from Colombia, Venezuela and the Guyanas in the north, to the southern Amazon basin and Bolivia in the south, to Peru in the west and Belém, Brazil in the east. Several of the individual species have a distribution nearly as vast. As a result, many of the species are polymorphic and manifest marked color variations depending on the population. Over the years, some of these color variants have been erroneously described as separate species. Such names as 'Nannostomus ocellatus', 'Nannostomus anomalus' and 'Nannostomus auratus', among many others, are now known to be junior synonyms to the various species. To date, only two species, Nannostomus beckfordi and Nannostomus harrisoni, have been commercially raised for the aquarium trade in fisheries, mostly in Asia. All of the remaining species that find their way to home aquaria are wild-caught from South American waters.
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