they are no more. I was not able to maintain the
species, nor was anyone else. We suspect that suc-
cessful breeding may only work in larger shoals.
Thus, the only blue-eye species occurring further
inland is threatened with extinction, and the
biotopes have been under a protection program
since 2009 to preserve Australia’s rarest fishes. In
September 2012, S. vermeilipinnis, the Redfinned
Blue-Eye, was classified as one of the 100 most
endangered species. I fear that we will never admire
this fish in an aquarium again.New Kiunga: Heiko’s Blue-Eye
In 1991, Heiko Bleher set off on a trip to Papua
New Guinea to attempt to catch Kiunga ballochi and
bring it back to Europe. He did not succeed—was the
species extinct? But Bleher also investigated other
biotopes, and about 9 miles (15 km) from Kiunga
he discovered a new Kiunga species in Tare Creek. He
was able to produce three offspring from the ani-
mals he brought home, but this was not enough for
further breeding. For 13 years the species was known
as Kiunga sp., until 2004, when Allen gave it the
name K. bleheri in recognition of the many blue-eyes
and rainbows that Bleher has caught.
Chuck Nishihira of Hawaii, who also searched for
K. ballochi near Kiunga in 1994, discovered a blue-eye
that was very similar to K. ballochi. The difference lay
in the size of the fins. Nishihira considered the fish a
new Kiunga species, which has not been described yet.
Many doubt that it really was a new species. A few
years ago Mark Allen, Gerald Allen’s son, found this
coveted fish near Kiunga, but he did not succeed in
bringing live specimens to Australia.Difficult species determination
Wim Heemskerk brought two species of blue-eyes
back to Europe from a trip to the United States in
1994: P. paskai from Chuck Nishihira and P. pel-
lucidus from Neil Ojama. At the end of that year, I
brought both species to Flensburg and bred them.
In 1995, near the town of Timika in southern
West Papua, Allen caught a blue-eye that he believed
was P. reticulatus. But the site was located 435 miles
(700 km) from the place where the species was
known to live, so the new fish was identified as Pseu-
domugil sp. “Timika.” Many blue-eye experts, includ-
ing Heiko Bleher, were of the opinion that it was not
P. reticulatus. Bleher took some specimens, including
males, of P. reticulatus back to Europe from Lake
Ajamaru in 1999. A detailed investigation showed
that the two species were different. The description
of Pseudomugil sp. “Timika” was published in 1995
by Allen and Renyaan as P. ivantsoffi. Later trips to
Timika yielded different local variants of the species,
which apparently is highly variable. The offspring of TOP: R. HUSSMANN; MIDDLE TOP: H. H. BOECK; MIDDLE BOTTOM: H. BLEHER; BOTTOM: H.-G. EVERSAMAZONAS
yPseudomugil furcatus,
the Forktail Blue-Eye, is
commonly available.Because of its modest color, specialists are
most likely to keep Pseudomugil paludicola.Kiunga ballochi is one of
the rarest blue-eyes known.Pseudomugil connieae is similar
to P. furcatus, but differs in having
a black and white anal fin.