Care
Blue-green Lampeye is a beautiful African killifish, known from rainforest streams where there is moderate current. This species is recommended for advanced aquarists only due to the fact that it can be rather demanding of water quality in the home aquarium. P. aberrans is peaceful by nature and prefers company of its own kind; it is therefore best maintained in groups of 6 or more. Try to obtain a mixture of males and females as the males will exhibit more intense colouration in the presence of females. Unfortunately this species does tend to continually command quite a high price in the shops, so be prepared to budget for a good sized group. The aquarium should be furnished with dark substrate and background, with plenty of shady hiding places amongst driftwood and robust planting (the African Anubias species are ideal). Lighting can be quite bright to showcase the iridescent colours of these fish. Good filtration is, of course, a must, as is a regular maintenance regime - these fish are not tolerant of a build up of nitrogenous wastes. Additional flow should be provided with a powerhead in order to simulate the current and highly oxygenated waters of their natural habitat. P. aberrans is best maintained in a species-only tank, but it can be kept as part of a community of fish of similar size and temperament. Ensure that the tank has tight fitting coverslides as these fish can jump.
Feeding
Small frozen foods such as bloodworm, white mosquito larvae, daphnia, baby brineshrimp, vitamin-enriched brineshrimp etc.
Breeding
P. aberrans has been bred in the home aquarium. However, it is said to be fairly challenging, and breeders tend to have differing methods that they prefer. Some will simply allow nature to take its course in the main aquarium (which can be successful if there are plenty of intricate hiding places for tiny eggs and fry) and others choose to move conditioned fish to a separate spawning aquarium. In the breeding tank, there will be spawning material such as mops and filter foam with holes of around 1mm. The eggs will be laid and fertilised within these tiny crevices in the surface of the foam. The eggs take approximately 14-20 days to hatch, this being temperature dependent "“ the warmer the water, the quicker the eggs tend to hatch. Once free-swimming, the fry can be fed with infusoria, moving on to baby brineshrimp and finely powdered foods as they grow. As water quality is so very important, some breeders like to maintain snails such as Ramshorns in the breeding tank to "mop up" any leftover food. The snails may take some eggs, but if the right sized filter foams are utilised, the snails will not be able to get the eggs out of the little crevices. Many consider that their benefit far outweighs the loss of a few eggs.
