Care
This glowing swamp dweller was first discovered in the Timika area of West Papua. Like many tetras and rasboras, it's found in tinted water and the colours probably serve to help them in contact.
Perfectly suited to nano set ups, where they can be kept alongside shrimp and other peaceful tankmates. Like most rainbowfishes, males will display to intimidate rivals and impress females. An aquarium which enables them to get out of sight of one another will give the best results, as will keeping them in numbers sufficient to spread any aggression. Under these conditions, they will ignore most other fish and will be busy with daily rituals such as spawning.
First imported as Pseudomugil sp.'Red Neon' these fish were confused with paskai and some references conflate the two.
Feeding
Flake, micropellets, and small frozen foods such as daphnia, baby brineshrimp (Artemia nauplii), cyclops etc.
Breeding
For best results, a separate breeding aquarium should be set up, furnished with plenty of moss or floating plants with long, trailing roots or spawning mops that provide suitable egg deposition sites at all levels of the tank. Morning sunshine often triggers this species into spawning, and after an elaborate courtship dance from the male, the female/s will scatter eggs over the plants/mops. These fish are known as 'continuous spawners' which means that the eggs are deposited over a period of some days/weeks. As an alternative, the eggs, which are relatively large, can be removed to another tank (with matching water conditions) after each spawning, as otherwise the hungry parents may consume them. The eggs usually hatch within 14-21 days, the timescale being very dependent on water temperature. The fry should be offered infusoria and powdered fry foods, moving on to baby brine shrimp or microworms.
