AMAZONAS
animals from Aquarium Dietzenbach and compared
them with pictures of P. paskai. The new fish looked
different from my P. paskai from 1995. But in Allen’s
Freshwater Fishes of the Timika Region, New Guinea there
was a picture of this new fish in the description of P.
paskai. Was it a local variant of P. paskai from Timika?
In the middle of 2012, Johannes Graf sent animals
from my stock to Peter Unmack, who carried out DNA
testing, which indicated that this fish is closely related
to P. gertrudae and P. paskai but constitutes its own spe-
cies. In subsequent years, this species was offered under
different names. A scientific description was not pos-
sible, since the exact location was not known. It was not
until the beginning of 2015 that Hans-Georg Evers was
able to pinpoint the place of discovery on a trip to the
Timika region and to inform the Australian scientist. At
the beginning of 2016, the species was described by Al-
len, Unmack, and Hadiaty under the name P. luminatus,
the Red Neon Blue-Eye. This glorious fish has inspired
not only me, but also many other aquarists, and has
reawakened much excitement about these “aquarium
butterflies,” the blue-eyes.Outlook
I am sure that in the next few years, we can count on
more new blue-eye species coming out of New Guinea,
and I hope that adventurous aquarists will continue to
be driven to travel and penetrate new regions where they
suspect new species lurk. Hopefully, this will happen
before pollution, clearing of the rainforest, and mining
wipes out their habitats.REFERENCES
Allen, G.R. 1991. Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of New Guinea.
Christensen Research Institute, Madang, Papua New Guinea.
———, K.G. Hortle, and S.J. Renyaan. 2000. Freshwater Fishes of the Timika
Region, New Guinea. PT Freeport Indonesia, Timika.
Allen, G.R. 1996. Rainbowfishes in Nature and in the Aquarium. TFH,
Neptune City, New Jersey.
Allen, G.R. and Norber Cross. 1982. Rainbowfishes of Australia and Papua
New Guinea. TFH, Neptune City, New Jersey.ONLINE
Rainbowfish. The definitive Blue-Eye and Rainbowfishes website.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.auTop: One of the most beautiful
discoveries in recent years is
Pseudomugil luminatus.
Bottom: Pseudomugil pellucidus from
the Timika region has been imported
more regularly in recent years.H. H. BOECK