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Active, peaceful shoaler needing long swimming space.
37 species in our list are a good match.
Active, peaceful shoaler needing long swimming space.
Flakes, pellets, frozen foods.
Tap a food to see what it is.
Mature males are larger, brighter and much deeper-bodied than females.
Common problems. Tap one to see the signs. This is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Egg-scatterer · Moderate
Continuous spawner: a pair lays batches of sticky eggs each day for several weeks among fine-leaved plants or spawning mops. Easy to spawn, but the tiny fry can be hard to raise.
Buy 6+ young fish and let them mature; males show strong colors.
A 60-100 L tank with spawning mops and plants.
Frequent feeding with live food and fresh water changes.
Batches of eggs laid daily over several weeks; eggs hatch in 7-12 days depending on temperature. Fry first need infusoria-type food. No egg count found.
Infusoria, then baby brine shrimp. Raise colour with good food.
Known only from the Ajamaru Lakes area of New Guinea. Collected by Marinus Boeseman in 1955 and named after him when Allen & Cross described it in 1980. Collecting for the trade (once about a million fish a year) badly hurt wild stocks; it is now listed as Endangered by IUCN, and almost all aquarium fish are farm-bred.
Gerald Allen and Norbert Cross described this rainbowfish in 1980 from the Ajamaru Lakes of West Papua. Males with a blue-grey front half and orange-yellow rear made it one of the most striking rainbowfish in the hobby. Its natural range is tiny, so captive-bred fish are the main supply.
First described by Gerald R. Allen & Norbert J. Cross in 1980. Named for Named after Dutch ichthyologist Marinus Boeseman.
16 facts checked with sources
Described by Allen & Cross, 1980. No hybrid or wrong-name issues found in the sources checked.
FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summaryLegacy has no family; sourced value recorded.
FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summary · Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemaniFishBase 9.0 cm SL (males; females 7.0 cm SL), Seriously Fish 11 cm SL, ANGFA up to 12 cm (length type not stated) but usually under 10 cm. Legacy 10 cm is within the sourced spread; SL figures exclude the tail.
FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summary · Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · ANGFA (Australia New Guinea Fishes Association) rainbowfish pages: Melanotaenia boesemaniBoth sources give 27-30; legacy minimum 26 is 1 °C low. Seriously Fish: 'Strictly a tropical species.'
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summarySeriously Fish also gives 7.0-8.0.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summaryLegacy has no hardness; Seriously Fish value recorded (FishBase 9-19).
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summary120 x 30 x 30 cm = 108 L (Seriously Fish). FishBase gives only a minimum tank length of 80 cm. Legacy 200 L is more generous than the sourced minimum; keeping it as a recommendation is reasonable for an active 10 cm shoaler.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summaryNo source names a swimming level for adults (Seriously Fish notes fry stay close to the surface).
FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summarySeriously Fish rates difficulty 'Moderate'; legacy rates it easy (1). It needs warm, hard, alkaline water and a large tank.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemaniLegacy has no range. Irian Jaya is the old name for the Indonesian province(s) now called Papua/West Papua (Southwest Papua since 2022) — modern name not checked against a source.
FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summary · ANGFA (Australia New Guinea Fishes Association) rainbowfish pages: Melanotaenia boesemaniSeriously Fish describes eggs attached to plants/mops by a thread and recommends moving eggs to a separate raising tank; those details were summarised rather than quoted verbatim by the fetch tool.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summaryLegacy hatch time 6-8 days is shorter than Seriously Fish's 7-12. Legacy 'dozens of eggs' not found in any source.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemaniCaptive-bred claim verified. Correction: wild status is Endangered (IUCN 2019 via FishBase), not 'vulnerable'. The 'half blue, half orange' colour description was not checked against a source.
Seriously Fish: Melanotaenia boesemani · FishBase: Melanotaenia boesemani summary · ANGFA (Australia New Guinea Fishes Association) rainbowfish pages: Melanotaenia boesemani