TOP: R. LUNDKVIST; BOTTOM: R. HUSSMANNAMAZONAS
After an hour, we returned and
found fishes in the trap and around
it. Ordinary gray Platys were espe-
cially abundant. They had probably
escaped from a tropical fish farm or
been released by an aquarist. In any
case, they have infested the entire
river system. Unfortunately, I found
no blue-eyes in the trap. MacCull-
och’s Dwarf Rainbowfish, Melano-
taenia maccullochi, were numerous,
and the specimens we saw were very
colorful. In this habitat one can
sometimes see Eastern Rainbowfish,
Melanotaenia splendida splendida, and,
with some luck, the Cairns Rainbow,
Cairnsichthys rhombosomoides. The
vegetation here is quite dense and
the visibility in the water is low.
On the way back, we also emp-
tied the traps that we had set at the
Eubenangee Swamp. They contained
lots of crabs and fishes, including
Pseudomugil gertrudae, a species I had
never seen alive before. It is a fairly
small bluish species with dark spots.
There were also rainbowfishes here,
predominantly Melanotaenia maccullochi and occasionally M.
splendida splendida and Cairnsichthys rhombosomoides.
Many aquarists can only dream of spending a day this
way. Now that I’ve seen these fishes in the wild, my interest
in keeping blue-eyes will last forever. Representatives of the
genus Pseudomugil are true jewels in the aquarium!Above: Babinda Creek with invasive Hygrophila.
Cairnsichthys rhombosomoides was first
collected in this creek in 1921 and described
in 1928.
Below: Pseudomugil gertrudae, the Spotted
Blue-Eye—a beautiful species often found in the
biotopes around Cairns.