Australian Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida)
Melanotaenia splendida is the Australian rainbow with a shoulder: a deep-bodied river schooler that needs a metre of swimming room, a real filter,…
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Pacific Blue-eye (Pseudomugil signifer)
Pseudomugil signifer males grow filamentous fins for a surface dance — a thumbnail Australian blue-eye that only works as a covered school with f…
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Madagascar Rainbowfish (Bedotia madagascariensis)
Bedotia madagascariensis is Madagascar’s zona, not a New Guinea Melanotaenia: a surface school with a red-tailed male, a lid with no gaps, and an…
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Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox)
Melanotaenia praecox is the rainbow that actually fits a modest tank — 5–6 cm of blue and red that appear when the school is eight or more and…
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Skunk Loach (Yasuhikotakia morleti)
Yasuhikotakia morleti wears a dorsal skunk stripe and a subocular spine: a Mekong loach to keep as five-plus (or one), under a latched lid, and nev…
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Elephantnose Fish (Gnathonemus petersii)
Gnathonemus petersii hunts with a weakly electric chin in the dark: sand, dim cover, meat at dusk, and a tank without stray voltage or a bully on t…
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Whiptail Catfish (Rineloricaria lanceolata)
Rineloricaria lanceolata lies on sand like a walking leaf — a quiet South American whiptail that wants litter, a spawning tube, night-time wafers…
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Bristlenose Pleco (Ancistrus cirrhosus)
Ancistrus cirrhosus is the pleco that still fits: wood to rasp, vegetables every week, a cave for the bristled male, and fry in the doorway whether…
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Otocinclus Vittatus (Otocinclus vittatus)
Otocinclus vittatus rasps biofilm, not leftover flake: a 4 cm school of grazing catfish for a tank that is already established, already planted, an…
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Empire Gudgeon (Hypseleotris compressa)
Hypseleotris compressa males look painted when they colour up: an Australian gudgeon of 10–12 cm that sits, lunges, and does not belong in a nano…
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Knight Goby (Stigmatogobius sadanundio)
Stigmatogobius sadanundio, the knight goby, is an estuarine sentry — spotted, territorial, meat-eating — that wants hard freshwater or honest b…
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Badis Badis (Badis badis)
Badis badis is a Ganges micropredator that starves beside fast tetras: a chameleon that turns blue in a weedy cave if you feed it what still wriggl…
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Orange Chromide (Etroplus maculatus)
Etroplus maculatus, the orange chromide of India and Sri Lanka, colours like a sunset when the pair and the hardness are right, with optional brack…
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Jewel Cichlid (Hemichromis lifalili)
Hemichromis lifalili is a Congo jewel the size of a hand and the confidence of a much larger cichlid — red, turquoise-spangled, and territorial t…
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Blockhead Cichlid (Steatocranus casuarius)
Steatocranus casuarius hops through Congo rapids more than it swims: a reduced swim bladder, a nuchal hump on the male, and an aquarium built of cu…
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Pelvicachromis Taeniatus (Pelvicachromis taeniatus)
Moliwe, Nigerian red, Wouri — Pelvicachromis taeniatus is a West African cave cichlid whose locality name is the point, not a generic krib in a d…
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Kribensis (Pelvicachromis pulcher)
Kribensis is West Africa’s household cave cichlid: a pair that chose each other, a pot they both approve of, and a pink belly that means the rest…
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Apistogramma Macmasteri (Apistogramma macmasteri)
Apistogramma macmasteri arrives looking like cardboard and turns red-orange only in tea-stained creek water, with a clay pot and a tank that belong…
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Apistogramma Trifasciata (Apistogramma trifasciata)
Three dark lines down the flank are both the field mark and a mood meter for Apistogramma trifasciata, a shy Paraguay-basin dwarf cichlid that want…
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Apistogramma Borellii (Apistogramma borellii)
Apistogramma borellii is the yellow dwarf of the Paraná floodplain, more forgiving of hardness than most apistos, and at its best when one male ha…
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Ophthalmotilapia Ventralis (Ophthalmotilapia ventralis)
Males of Ophthalmotilapia ventralis trail yellow egg-spots on elongated ventrals and hold leks over Tanganyika sand — a featherfin that needs vol…
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Cyprichromis Leptosoma (Cyprichromis leptosoma)
Cyprichromis leptosoma is Tanganyika’s open-water sardine cichlid: a school in empty hard water, hanging at an angle, mouthbrooding in the blue.
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Calvus Cichlid (Altolamprologus calvus)
Calvus is a compressed, pearly Tanganyikan that slides into fissures and hunts whatever fits. The female spawns where the male cannot follow.
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Lemon Cichlid (Neolamprologus leleupi)
Lemon cichlids stay lemon when a Tanganyikan cave pair gets crustacean-rich food and a hole they actually own. Beige is usually the tank talking, n…
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