Scheel's lampeye

Poropanchax scheeli

Also known as Micropanchax scheeli

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 72–79°F (22–26°C)
pH: 6.0–7.5
Adult size: 1.6 in (4 cm)
Minimum tank: 14 gal (54 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Middle
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Coastal Cameroon
Family: Procatopodidae

Overview

This is a gentle glitter schooling fish, peaceful and happiest in a group of ten or more in a calm, planted tank. It swims in the middle water and shows its blue eye shine and soft body color best over a dark substrate with floating cover overhead. Only small, quiet tankmates suit it, since brisk or greedy fish will keep it shy and underfed. Feed small foods often: fine flake, micro pellets, and little live or frozen daphnia, cyclops, and newly hatched brine shrimp. A group settles into a tank of about 54 liters with soft, clean water and gentle flow.

In the wild

Scheel's lampeye comes from gentle, shaded coastal streams of southern Nigeria and Cameroon, warm and soft with plenty of plant cover. Match that with soft to neutral water around pH 6.0 to 7.5 and a temperature of 22 to 26 C. Fine leaved plants, some floating cover to soften the light, a dark bottom, and calm, well filtered water bring out its quiet colors.

Good to know

A Procatopodidae lampeye of about 4 cm, this species honors the Danish killifish researcher Jorgen Scheel. It spawns continuously, dropping a few eggs each day into fine plants or a mop, and rates as a moderately tricky breeder because the fry are so small. As with the other small lampeyes, those fry need infusoria sized food before they can manage newly hatched brine shrimp.

Did you know

It is named for Jorgen Scheel, a Danish ichthyologist who pioneered the study of killifish chromosomes and wrote an early reference book on the group, work he did decades before modern genetic tools existed.