This species habitat is from Northern New Guinea, in Lake Sentani and surrounding area. They are a peaceful, timid and active schooling fish.

The male has a higher back and fins and a pink to red body. The female has a more elongated, yellow-olive body with golden yellow scales and transparent yellow fins. The coloration of the male depends on their mood. Subordinate males do not display bright colours. These rainbow fish are sometimes called "children of the morning sun" because the male generally preforms his courtship display in the mornings. Their colours aremuch more brilliant in the afternoon.

I found them very easy to spawn. They prefer hard water 18-25 of GH, PH 7.0 and a temperature of 72-79 degrees F. The tank I set up was bare with loosely planted cushions of Java Moss for a bottom medium. A wool mop can also be included. This is good spawning substrate. These fish are continuous spawners. Eggs are deposited on the java moss or wool mop. Once or twice a week I took out the java moss and squeezed it out. Any eggs I found were picked out and placed on a small piece of java moss and placed into a rearing tank. References suggested using the same water as the maintenance tank, but I used clean hard water, a sponge filter and an air stone. The eggs are sticky and clear as glass. They hatch after one week or more. The fry will swim below the water surface and immediately start taking food. I fed dry fry food and later live brine shrimp. They also like a mixture of green vegetables. The fry grow slowly, are very active and enormous eaters. The males will begin to change to brighter colours after reaching a length of two inches.

I spawned them twice, then returned them to my 40 gallon rainbow tank. Then I got greedy and decided to spawn them one more time. But after transferring them back into a breeding tank, the female was very unhappy and upset. A few days later she died. No more eggs were found. I would like to find another mature female, but right now I have my fry over two months old. I enjoyed spawning these fish and appreciate the knowledge and experience I have again gained in this fabulous hobby of spawning tropical fish.