Mount Nimba lampeye

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a cool water schooling fish, peaceful and best kept in a group of eight or more. It lives in the middle of the tank and needs genuinely cool, oxygen rich water, so it suits an unheated room tank rather than a warm tropical community. Keep it only with other calm fish that share its taste for cooler conditions, and skip warm water species. Small foods suit it best: micro pellets, fine flake, and live or frozen daphnia, cyclops, and baby brine shrimp. A group is comfortable in a tank of about 54 liters with brisk, clean, gently flowing water.

In the wild

The Mount Nimba lampeye is found only in cool, clear mountain brooks on the Nimba massif, where Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Liberia meet. That upland setting keeps the water cooler than most tropical tanks, so aim for a temperature of about 20 to 24 C and soft to neutral water around pH 6.0 to 7.5. Steady flow, good oxygen, a dark substrate, and stream plants reproduce its home.

Good to know

A member of Procatopodidae, this lampeye reaches about 4.5 cm and is the type species of the genus Rhexipanchax, described by Daget in 1948. It is endemic to the Mount Nimba massif, a small mountain range that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. Breeding is moderately difficult: it is a continuous plant spawner that lays a few eggs at a time, and the small fry need cool, clean water and tiny foods.

Did you know

Mount Nimba is a biological island: its cool streams and forests shelter animals found nowhere else, including a toad that gives birth to live young and this narrowly endemic lampeye.

Tank mates

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

• Dwarf spineless eel

  Garo khajuriai

  Freshwater

  2.8 in (7 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Guinean panchax

  Epiplatys guineensis

  Freshwater

  2.8 in (7 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)
• Mini zebra loach

  Yunnanilus pulcherrimus

  Freshwater

  2 in (5 cm)14 gal (54 L)64–75°F (18–24°C)
• Delta killifish

  Fundulopanchax deltaensis

  Freshwater

  3.1 in (8 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)
• Paraguay black otocinclus

  Otothyropsis piribebuy

  Freshwater

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Redspotted panchax

  Epiplatys lamottei

  Freshwater

  2.8 in (7 cm)14 gal (54 L)68–77°F (20–25°C)

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Lambert's lampeye

  Rhexipanchax lamberti

  Freshwater

  1.8 in (4.5 cm)14 gal (54 L)72–79°F (22–26°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)