NEWS108
24
Pseudomugilgertrudae
,aquarium strain,male.
Wenowknowthat
P.paskai
,
P.gertrudae
,and
P.
sp.”Neon”formaclosely-relatedgroupof
species,so it isunwise to term thenewspe-
cies
P.cf.paskai
,aswas initially thecase.
Acultivated form?
At present the localities for theNeonBlue-
Eye in New Guinea remain secret. Evers
(2012)givesaclear indication that thespe-
cies comes from the drainage of the Kopi
River. Inaddition theexporter in Indonesia
confirmsthat it isanatural form.Thishasalso
beenconfirmedbyDNAstudiesalreadyper-
formed,which revealed that theNeonBlue-
Eye isnohybridbut adistinctspecies.Butas
longasno localitydataareavailable, nose-
riousscientificstudyof thespeciescan take
place.
water".So faronlya fewsitesareknown for
P.paskai
,while
P.gertrudae
hasbeen repor-
ted fromamultitudeof locations.Almostall
contain "blackwater", that is soft, slightly
acidwaterstaineddeepbrownbyassorted
leaves,deadwood,earth,etc.The rangeof
measurement in thewild is,however, large
(according toTappin, 2010):water tempe-
rature 12-34 °C,pH3.68 - 9.4, conductivity
12-646 µS/cm, total hardness 0-18° dGH.
The fishesare thus fundamentallyveryad-
aptable. However, wemustn't forget that
themortality rateof fishes innaturalwaters
isenormouslyhigh,at leastcompared to in
theaquarium.Naturecanafford tobepro-
digal, while aquarists can't always, and
henceextremesshouldbeavoided.Awater
temperature between 18 and 28 °C, a pH
between6and8,withsofttomedium-hard
water,areconditions thatcanusuallybe re-
gardedasbeingon the safe side.
NeonBlue-Eyesare, like their closest relati-
ves, continuous spawners. These fishes
shouldalwaysbekept ina shoal of10 spe-
cimens ormore. Spawningwill takeplace
almosteveryday,though theremaysome-
times be breaks in spawning and that is
normal.The eggs are depositedby prefe-
rence on feathery-leaved plants or their
roots, andbreeders also like touse spaw-
ningmopsmadeofwool.Theeggs require
betweeneight and 40 (!) days todevelop;
the long ripeningperiod of theeggs isone
of themaindemands placedon thebree-
Lexicon
Blue-Eyes
Pseudomugilmeans ”falseMugil”;
Mugil isanother fishgenus.
gertrudae:dedication inhonorof
GertrudMerton, thewifeof thedisco-
verer.
paskai:dedication inhonorof M.
JohnPaska,oneof theco-discoverers
of the species.
Maintenanceandbreeding -easy!
Fundamentally theNeonBlue-Eyedoesn't
pose any stringent demands. Unfortuna-
tely, of course, nothing can as yet be said
about the natural habitat, but it certainly
wouldn't be inappropriate todeduce that
the Neon Blue-Eye occurs under similar
ecological conditions to
P.gertrudae
and
P.
paskai
.These two species occurmainly in
small flowing waters with brown "black
der. The fry always swim immediatelybe-
neath thewater's surface and canusually
take freshly-hatched
Artemianauplii
right
away; they are themselves ready tobreed
after around threemonths.Maximum life
expectancy in theaquarium isaround four
years,but
P.gertrudae
usually live foronlya
year in thewild.
All in all theNeonBlue-Eye is abreath-ta-
kingnewdiscoverywhichwehopeenjoys
ameteoricaquariumcareer!
Literatur
:
Allen,G.R.&W.Ivantsoff (1986):Deuxnouvelles
espècesdeBlue-Eyes (Pseudomugil:Melanotae-
niidae)deNouvelle-Guinée. Revue fr.Aquariol.
12 (3):85-88
Evers,H.-G.(2012):OrangeblaueBlitze -einneues
Blauauge istda!Amazonas8 (4):42-45
Tappin,A.R.(2010):Rainbowfishes.Theircare&
keeping incaptivity.ArtPublications,493pp.
