Norman's Lamp Eye Killifish (Pair)

The eyes genuinely glow. The upper half of the iris carries a reflective layer that throws back light as electric blue-white, so a shoal of Norman's Lampeyes in a dim tank reads as a drifting constellation of tiny headlights. It is not pigment and it is not a trick of marketing photography — it is a structural reflector, and it looks exactly like that in person.

The body is understated by comparison: translucent silver with a faint blue sheen, and males carrying delicate yellow and white edging on the fins. That restraint is the point. This is a fish for a shaded, planted, blackwater-style tank where forty tiny blue lights moving together does more than any amount of colour would. Unusually for a killifish, it is a true shoaling species — and unusually again, it is not annual, so a well-kept group lives for years.

Care Snapshot

Scientific name	Poropanchax normani
Also known as	Norman's Lampeye, Blue-eye Lampeye; formerly Aplocheilichthys normani
Family	Procatopodidae — African lampeyes
Origin	Tank-bred; widespread across West and Central Africa
Adult size	3.5–4.5 cm
Lifespan	2–3 years — not an annual killifish
Minimum tank	60 litres, minimum 60 cm length for a proper group
Temperature	22–27 °C
pH	6.0–7.5
Hardness	2–15 dGH — soft to moderately hard
Diet	Micropredator — very small foods only
Temperament	Peaceful and timid; shoaling, keep 10+
Care level	Moderate — easy once settled, fragile on arrival
Swimming zone	Upper and middle

Setting Up For It

• Dim the tank and darken the background. The eye is reflective, so it shows best in subdued light against dark substrate and a dark backdrop. Under a bright white LED over pale gravel the effect largely disappears. This is the one decision that determines whether you got what you paid for.
• Floating plants and planted edges. A timid upper-water shoal needs overhead cover before it will use the open front of the tank. Salvinia, frogbit or water sprite across part of the surface.
• Gentle flow. Small, lightly built fish. A sponge filter or a baffled outlet suits them.
• Mature tank only. They are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite and to unstable conditions. Do not add them to a tank under two months old, and keep up with water changes.
• Tannins suit them. Catappa leaves and driftwood soften the water, dim the light and settle the shoal — and the warm tint flatters the blue.
• Tight lid. Surface-oriented and capable of jumping when startled.

Tank Mates

Adult dwarf shrimp are safe; shrimplets may occasionally be taken.

Feeding — The Mouth Is Tiny

This is where lampeyes are lost. The mouth is minute and upturned, and standard flake or 1 mm pellets are simply too large to be eaten. A shoal can starve slowly in a tank where the owner is feeding generously every day, and because the fish are small and thin to begin with, it is hard to spot until too late.

Feed small, slow-sinking particles two or three times a day. From the AQA range, use the finest-grade micro granule or crushed flake as the daily staple, and rotate in small live and frozen foods for condition and colour.

Foods they take enthusiastically: baby brine shrimp, microworm, grindal worm, cyclops, moina, finely sieved daphnia.

Sexing & Breeding

Males have longer, more pointed dorsal and anal fins edged in yellow, orange or white, and display at one another constantly in a group. Females are slightly smaller, rounder in the belly and plainer-finned. Both sexes carry the reflective eye.

Unlike the annual killifish most people associate with the group, this species is a continuous plant-spawner and needs no dry incubation. A conditioned pair deposits a few eggs daily among fine-leaved plants, java moss or a spawning mop. Lift the mop into a separate container every few days, as the adults eat the eggs. Hatching takes around ten to fourteen days — slower than most community fish — and the fry are exceptionally small, needing infusoria or a liquid fry food before they can manage microworm or baby brine shrimp.

Keeping It In Indian Conditions

• Room temperature works for most of the year across most of India, so a heater is needed only in northern and hill-station winters.
• Watch the summer ceiling. These are small fish with little reserve, and above 27 °C they become noticeably less robust. Increase surface agitation and run a fan across the water through April and May.
• Hard alkaline tap water is workable for tank-bred stock, though colour and breeding response improve markedly with catappa leaves, driftwood or a share of RO water.
• Sort out micro food before the fish arrive. Frozen cyclops and baby brine shrimp are available in most Indian cities; microworm and grindal cultures are not, and take a few weeks to establish. A shoal waiting on your food supply is a shoal losing condition.