Norman's lampeye

Water parameters

Tolerated range for this species. Aim for the middle of each band rather than the extremes.

Tank and habitat

Substrate: any.

Behavior

Plant interaction: plant safe.

Typically wild-caught; acclimate slowly.

Feeding

Micro pellets, crushed flake, frozen baby brine shrimp, frozen daphnia, frozen cyclops, and live micro-foods. The mouth is small; crush food appropriately. They feed in the upper water column. In community tanks with faster feeders, they may need targeted feeding. Feed twice daily in small amounts. Live food produces the best condition and coloring.

Compatibility

• Tiny, peaceful killifish that occupies the upper water column. The glowing blue-white eye is the visual hook; in a dimly lit tank, a school of lampeyes with their eyes catching the light is distinctive.
• Nano species. At 3–3.5 cm, they belong with other small, calm fish: ember tetras, chili rasboras, pygmy corys, and shrimp. Larger or boisterous species stress them.
• Groups of 8+ for proper schooling. In small numbers they scatter and hide. In larger groups they hover in the open and the eye-glow effect is amplified.
• Not a typical killifish in behavior; they're schooling fish that shoal in the upper midwater, not territorial cave-dwellers or surface-lurking predators.

Origin and habitat

Poropanchax normani, Norman's lampeye, is one of the most widespread African lampeye fishes, ranging across West and Central Africa from Senegal and Gambia east to Chad and the Central African Republic, and into the White Nile in Sudan, in the well-vegetated edges of small rivers, streams, and savannah swamps. Ernst Ahl described it in 1928 from specimens sent by the British Museum ichthyologist John Roxborough Norman, after whom it is named. It was first placed in Aplocheilichthys and now sits in Poropanchax, in the family Procatopodidae, the African lampeyes. The name comes from its one unmistakable feature: a brilliant iridescent blue crescent on the upper part of the eye that catches the light and appears to glow, an effect visible even in days-old fry. It is a small, peaceful, shoaling fish of the upper water, growing to under 4 cm, and unlike many killifish it is a social schooler rather than a territorial or surface-lurking type. A group hanging in open water with their eyes lit up is the whole appeal.

Breeding

An egg depositor that spawns readily in a planted tank, scattering relatively large adhesive eggs among java moss, fine plants, or spawning mops over a period of days. A conditioned group, ideally a male with two or three females, keeps producing a few eggs at a time. The adults eat eggs, so dense cover or moving the eggs raises survival. Incubation is fairly long for such a small fish, usually around twelve to fourteen days, though reports vary, and the fry are tiny and need infusoria-grade food before baby brine shrimp. In a well-planted species tank young appear on their own from time to time, while a separate tank with regular egg collection gives a bigger yield.

Common problems

They are a touch more sensitive to water quality than the average community fish, so a mature, stable tank suits them and ammonia or nitrite spikes hit them hard. New arrivals can break out with ich, treatable with a gentle temperature rise. The other thing to know is purely about appearance: the glowing eye does not show in a bright store tank or in photographs, so the fish looks dull at the point of sale and only comes into its own under dim light in a planted home tank. With a typical lifespan of only a couple of years, keeping a group going means breeding replacements.

Bioload

Further reading

• How to cycle a fish tank
• Stocking ideas by tank size