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Aru Islandsbutalso inNewGuineaandAu-
stralia, even though the species is a
freshwater fish.
However, numerous different local forms
have evolved within thehuge rangeof
P.
gertrudae
,and these sometimesdiffervery
clearly fromoneanother intheircoloration.
TheSpottedBlue-Eye iswithoutanydoubt
a very close relativeof theNeonBlue-Eye,
and, like the latter species, againgrows to
onlyaround threecentimeters long.
caught or captive-bred.The specimens first
importedhavearich,orange-redbasecolor.
Thevertical finsare the samecolor,and the
tips of the caudal fin and thepectoral fins
yellowish-white inmales.Aneon-blue irides-
centband runsalong theback.
Twocolor formsknownalready
A short timeagoa second color formwas
imported from Indonesia. In these likewise
veryattractive fishes thebodybasecolor is
moreof ayellow.But themalesof thenew
form areeasier todistinguish from the va-
riant first importedbyhavingdeeporange-
colored tips to the caudal fin and almost
transparentpectoral fins,againwithorange
tips.There isvery littledoubtthatbothNeon
Blue-Eyes belong to the same species, alt-
hough the yellow form also differs so-
mewhat fromthered inbodyshape:the for-
mer is somewhat slimmer andhas amore
pointedhead.But theneon-coloreddorsal
bandalonemakesthespeciesunmistakable.
However, the females of the two variants
look extremelysimilar.Itwillbevery impor-
tantnot tomix themupasotherwise there
is adanger of crosses,as it is likely that the
twovariantsofthe NeonBlue-Eyewill inter-
breed readily.
Whatare theclosest relatives?
There is very little doubt that the Neon
Blue-Eye isaveryclose relativeof the long-
knownSpottedBlue-Eye,
Pseudomugilger-
trudae
.The latterspecieswasthethirdofall
the
Pseudomugil
species tobecomeknown
andwas,asalreadymentionedearlier,des-
cribed from theAru IslandsbyMaxWeber
back in1911.TheAru Islands liearound150
kmsouthofNewGuinea.Theyare,geologi-
callyspeaking,young,ormorepreciselythe
seathatseparatestheAru Islands fromNew
GuineaandAustralia is recent. Until10,000
yearsago therewas still a landconnection
between theAru Islands andNewGuinea
andAustralia.This also explainswhy
Pseu-
domugil gertrudae
occurs not only on the
Thisnew, rather yellow color formof theNeonBlue-Eye was first importedbyAquariumGlaser in June
2013.
Courtingmaleof the redvariantof theNeonBlue-Eye.
Two rivalmalesof theyellow formof theNeon
Blue-Eye.
Paska'sBlue-Eye
In1986GeraldR.AllenandWalter Ivantsoff
describedanewblue-eye fromNewGuinea
under thename
Pseudomugil paskai
,popu-
larlyknownasPaska'sBlue-Eye.This species
isextremelysimilarto
P.gertrudae
anddistin-
guishedprimarilybythedevelopmentofthe
fins.At present thisblue-eyeappearsnot to
bepresent inGermany,sounfortunatelywe
can't includeaphotoof ithere.
