Lambert's lampeye

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a rarely seen, peaceful schooling fish that should be kept in a group of eight or more in a calm, planted tank. It swims in the middle water and stays bolder and better colored when it has company of its own kind and quiet surroundings. Choose small, gentle tankmates and avoid anything fast or greedy that will beat it to food. Feed small foods such as fine flake, micro pellets, and live or frozen daphnia and cyclops, with baby brine shrimp, spread over the day. A group does well in a tank of around 54 liters with soft, clean water and gentle flow.

In the wild

Lambert's lampeye lives in clear forest brooks of the upper Gambia, Bafing, and Konkoure river systems in Guinea, running through the highlands of Upper Guinea. Give it soft to neutral water around pH 6.0 to 7.5 and a temperature of 22 to 26 C, on the cooler side of that band. A dark substrate, fine plants, driftwood, and steady, gentle flow reproduce the shaded stream it comes from.

Good to know

This lampeye is part of Procatopodidae and reaches about 4.5 cm. It sits in the genus Rhexipanchax, a group of West African highland lampeyes that Huber separated in 1999 from the broad old Aplocheilichthys assemblage. Like its relatives it is a continuous plant spawner of moderate difficulty, laying small numbers of eggs among fine plants over many days, with fry that are small and slow to grow.

Did you know

Its home waters rise in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea, the same uplands that feed the Gambia and, through the Bafing, the Senegal river, which helps explain why this lampeye is so seldom exported.

Tank mates

Lambert's lampeye is a peaceful, schooling species that keeps to the middle. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.

• 

  Vestitus otocinclus

  Otocinclus vestitus

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
• Black otocinclus

  Hisonotus notatus

  Freshwater

  2 in (5 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)

• 

  Tweedie's hillstream loach

  Homalopteroides tweediei

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)14 gal (54 L)70–79°F (21–26°C)

• 

  Indian ricefish

  Oryzias dancena

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Black arrow tetra

  Inpaichthys luizae

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
• Blackline mosquitofish

  Gambusia vittata

  Freshwater

  1.8 in (4.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

Related species

• Mount Nimba lampeye

  Rhexipanchax nimbaensis

  Freshwater

  1.8 in (4.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–75°F (20–24°C)

• 

  Filamentous lampeye

  Poropanchax luxophthalmus

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Scheel's lampeye

  Poropanchax scheeli

  Freshwater

  1.6 in (4 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Blue-green lampeye

  Procatopus aberrans

  Freshwater

  2.2 in (5.5 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Amber-finned lampeye

  Foerschichthys flavipinnis

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)11 gal (40 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Nototaenia lampeye

  Procatopus nototaenia

  Freshwater

  2.4 in (6 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)