Temperature: 20 – 26 °C

pH: 6.5 – 7.5

Hardness: 90 – 268 ppm

Diet

Feeds chiefly on floating or suspended zooplankton, phytoplankton, and invertebrates in nature, and in the aquarium must be offered items of a suitable size.

Ideally much of the diet should comprise live foods such as Daphnia, Moina, Artemia nauplii, micro worm, etc., although small/crushed floating dried foods are also accepted.

Behaviour and Compatibility

Most forms are peaceful and suitable for well-chosen community aquaria alongside fishes of comparable size, disposition, and requirements with many cyprinids, gobiids, eleotrids, and smaller melanotaeniids suitable.

P. signifer is a shoaling species and should be kept in a group of at least 8-10 specimens, ideally more. Maintaining it in such numbers will not only make the fish less nervous but result in a more effective, natural-looking display.Males will also display their best colours and some fascinating behaviour as they compete with one other for female attention.

Mature males of the larger-growing northern populations are very intolerant of one another when in spawning condition and subdominant individuals may be killed in smaller aquaria.

These should be maintained in spacious surroundings alongside other pelagic fishes such as Melanotaenia spp. in order to disperse aggression.