Aquarist Atlas
Aquarist Atlas · rainbowfishes & blue-eyes

Rainbowfish

The rainbowfishes and their allies are the jewel-coloured silversides of the Australasian region. The true rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) — Melanotaenia, Glossolepis, and the delicate threadfin (Iriatherina werneri) — radiate across the rivers and rainforest lakes of New Guinea and Australia, where isolated drainages have produced a dazzle of local colour forms. Alongside them sit the sparkling blue-eyes (Pseudomugilidae), the Sulawesi sailfin silversides (Telmatherinidae), and the embattled endemic rainbowfishes of Madagascar (Bedotiidae). This section is an atlas of those families built to the same standard as the cichlid, cory, and pleco pages: researched, cited species accounts with no Wikipedia and no invented facts — now covering every valid species across all four families.

© Adobe Stock

Many rainbowfishes are traded and tracked by collection locality rather than by a formal code: an isolated river or lake population — “Mamberamo”, “Lake Kurumoi”, “Goyder River” — can differ markedly in colour from the next drainage over. Where a species or population carries such a locality label, it is shown on that species' page, because for rainbowfish the locality is often the most meaningful unit of identity in the hobby.

A mixed shoal of brightly coloured rainbowfish swimming together near the surface of a planted aquarium
Rainbowfish are restless, open-water shoalers — kept in groups the males chase and display constantly, and colour deepens with the competition.
Close view of a small rainbowfish whose scales scatter an electric blue-green sheen, with red-edged fins
The sheen is structural colour: light scattering off guanine crystals in the scales, not pigment — so it flares and shifts with the angle of the light.
A dominant male rainbowfish in full nuptial colour against dark water, fins flared in display
Dominant males flush their deepest colour at dawn, when spawning peaks; the same fish can look washed-out an hour later.

Photos © Adobe Stock

166 species in the atlas

That is every valid species in the four rainbowfish families — Melanotaeniidae, Pseudomugilidae, Bedotiidae, and Telmatherinidae — following the Catalog of Fishes and FishBase. The radiation is still growing, with new Melanotaenia described as remote New Guinea drainages are surveyed; new accounts are added as those species are named.

Species

166 of 166 species

Melanotaeniidae · 114

The true rainbowfishes — the largest family, including Melanotaenia, Glossolepis, the threadfins (Iriatherina) and allies of New Guinea and Australia.

Pseudomugilidae · 19

The blue-eyes (Pseudomugil and allies) — small, sparkling schooling fishes of Australasian fresh and brackish waters.

Bedotiidae · 16

The Madagascar rainbowfishes (Bedotia, Rheocles) — an endemic Malagasy radiation, many highly threatened.

Telmatherinidae · 17

The sailfin silversides (Telmatherina, Marosatherina) — the Sulawesi-lakes radiation, including the Celebes rainbowfish.