Above: Shown in the picture above is a young male premium quality Furcatus BlueEyes.

This fish has very unique fins with colors that add to it's beauty. These are very active fish.

Comments: This is a Premium Pet Fish, and we never see Premium Fish like these in any of the live fish stores or online stores that we visit.

Premium Pet Fish are more energetic, hardier, and have brighter colors with a beautiful metallic sheen.

Click here to learn more about Premium Pet Fish.

Origin: Their ancestors originally lived in northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea, and some surrounding islands, but now these BlueEyes are found living in aquariums throughout most of the world.

Maximum Size: In aquariums male Furcatus BlueEyes can grow to be about 2.25" long, including their tails.

Females are usually shorter and plumper when mature. Sometimes very old Furcatus BlueEyes are even slightly bigger.

Behaviors: Furcatus BlueEyes are active swimmers and are rarely aggressive, but males do quarrel with each other.

Compatibility: Some recommended tank mates include, other smallish fish like Guppies, Neon Tetras, Cory Catfish, White Clouds, Zebra Danios and many other small size aquarium fish.

Click here to read more about compatible groups of pet fish.

Temperature: BlueEyes can live pretty well from about 65 to 80 degrees F., but they're probably most comfortable at about 74 degrees F.

Click here to learn about aquarium temperature, aquarium thermometers, and aquarium heaters.

Feeding: Premium Fish Food Flakes.

Click here to learn more about and shop online for premium fish foods.

Water Conditions: BlueEyes seem to be tolerant of a wide range of water conditions.

Probably a pH of about 7 with moderate hardness is best.

Most water in the US has a higher pH and is harder but seems to be OK, so it's probably best NOT to adjust the pH or the hardness of the water.

Here in our facilities the water is hard and the pH is usually about 7.8.

We ship them in this water.

Click here for a lot more information about aquarium water conditions.

Aquarium Size: It is probably best to house the fish in at least a 20-gallon tank, but bigger is better.

Keep at most one of this BlueEyes per 2-gallons.

Decor: BlueEyes do not need gravel, and a layer of gravel more than 1/4" thick will usually fill with bits of uneaten food that will contaminate the water.

Click here for more about aquarium gravel.

Live Plants are beautiful and improve the water quality.

Aquarium Filter: Bio-Wheel Filters are highly recommended.

A Penguin 200B Filter in an aquarium with 20 to 30-gallons of water is OK, but a Penguin 350B Filter is the right size for a 30 to 60-gallon aquarium.

Click here to learn more about aquarium filters.

The addition of Lava Rocks will keep nitrates in the ideal range.

Click here to learn more about using Lava Rocks in aquariums. ]

Life Span: BlueEyes can live for a few years with good water and good food.

Gender: It's not easy to tell the males from the females when they're young.

But as they mature, males will become bigger and much more colorful with longer fins.

Females are plumper and have less color with shorter fins.

Breeding: BlueEyes scatter a large number of eggs on plants or special breeding mops made of nylon yarn.

Popularity: Furcatus BlueEyes are rarely seen in fish stores and so are not very popular, but they are wonderful small fish for small aquariums and should really be more popular.

Names: The scientific name of the Furcatus BlueEyes is Pseudomugil furcatus.

Variations: We do not know of variations in this fish, but they live across a wide area, and so there may be variations that we haven't seen yet.

There are many other species of BlueEyes with a wide variety of colors and patterns.

We hope you've enjoyed reading these comments.

DrTom - 08/31/2015