On a trip to the upper Fly River, Papua New Guinea,
in 1982, Allen and Paska discovered a new blue-eye
near the town of Kiunga. They took some specimens
to Australia, but the fish survived only a few weeks. In
1983, due to certain differences between these animals
and Pseudomugil specimens, Allen erected the new genus
Kiunga after the town of the same name and described
the species as Kiunga ballochi, the Glass Blue-Eye. This
fish is an absolute dream, but whether I will ever be able
to enjoy it is written in the stars—it is very sensitive to
transport and stress. The biggest problem, however, is
that there is mineral mining going on there and collec-
tors are forbidden to enter the region.
An interesting blue-eye was discovered by Allen and
Bleher in November 1982 in a small tributary of Lake
Ajamaru on the Vogelkop peninsula in West Papua.
Allen and Ivantsoff described this fish as Pseudomugil
reticulatus based on a female specimen. In the second
revised edition (1996) of Allen’s book, on page 167,
there was a picture of a fish called P. reticulatus; this
surprised blue-eye fans, especially since the fish shown
had been caught in the Timika region. Finally, in 1999,
Heiko Bleher was able to eliminate any ambiguity by
catching specimens of P. reticulatus on a trip to Lake
Ajamaru and taking them to Europe. This proved that
Pseudomugil does not occur in the Timika region, and
the fish caught there and shown by Allen had to be a
new species—but more on that later.
In 1983, biologist David Balloch, who was employed
by a mining company, and Allen discovered a small
blue-eye that looked very similar to P. gertrudae. Thetype locality is located just north of Kiunga. Its descrip-
tion as Pseudomugil paskai was published in 1986 by
Allen and Ivantsoff. Aquarists call it the Red Neon Blue-
Eye, but we have the same problem procuring this spe-
cies as we do with Kiunga ballochi: the area is off limits.Growth of the family
In 1989 the systematics of blue-eyes was rearranged.
The blue-eyes were separated from the rainbowfishes
(Melanotaeniidae) and placed in their own family, the
Pseudomugilidae. At that time, after several synonyms
were invalidated, the family contained only two genera,
Pseudomugil and Kiunga.
Just a year later, a small, inconspicuous fish with
blue eyes showed up to complicate the newly organized
systematics. It was caught by Peter Unmack in small
spring ponds on a cattle farm near Edgbaston Station
in Aramac, Queensland. These ponds are very shal-
low and exposed to the sun all day. In November, the
water temperature reaches 100.4°F (38°C.) In 1991 the
species was described under the tongue-twisting name
Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis. The generic name means
“fish from bubbling springs.” In 1994, S. vermeilipinnis
was placed on the Australian list of endangered animals,
and can no longer be collected from the wild. In 1995,
as a thank-you for organizing the annual IRG meeting
in Flensburg, I received a plastic container from IRG
member Norbert Grunwald that contained six offspring
of this blue-eye. Before the listing, he had brought the
species home from a trip to Australia and bred it. At
that time, these animals were a rarity; unfortunately,AMAZONAS
F. WANG
Pseudomugil gertrudae,
known as the Spotted
Blue-Eye, is very popular.