Banded panchax

The clown killifish, also sold as the rocket killifish or banded panchax, is a tiny surface-dwelling fish from the coastal blackwaters of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa. It barely reaches 3.5 cm, with a cream body crossed by dark bands and, on males, a small flag-like tail marked in red and blue. They hang just under the surface with their upturned mouths, looking very much like a row of little rockets, which is where the trade name comes from.

These are micropredators that pick tiny insects, larvae and zooplankton off the surface, so they do best on small live and frozen foods like baby brine shrimp, with dried food only as a supplement. They are completely peaceful but make poor general community fish: anything boisterous will outcompete them, and their mouths are too small for normal flake. Keep them in a quiet species tank or with equally tiny, gentle companions. They are nervous in open space, so floating plants and a dark substrate help them settle and show their color.

Clown killifish want soft, acidic, warm water, roughly 23 to 26°C and a pH on the acid side of neutral, ideally tannin-stained. A tight lid is essential, since surface fish jump. They will spawn readily among fine-leaved floating plants, scattering a few eggs each day rather than in one batch; the fry are tiny and need infusoria-grade food at first, but a planted, predator-free tank will often raise a handful on its own.