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Ambassis agassizii
Ambassis agassizii — photo © Neil Armstrong

Glassfishes (family Ambassidae) are small, often near-transparent perch-like fishes found across Australia and New Guinea, several of which are kept alongside rainbowfishes. You can access species accounts below by clicking on the links in the list of species for each genus.

Ambassis

Most of Australia and New Guinea's glassfish species and diversity sit in this genus; the taxonomy of several northern species remains unsettled. A. elongatus, A. interruptus and A. miops are seldom collected or kept and have little recorded in the broader literature; the widespread northern form long called Ambassis muelleri turned out, once its type material was properly checked, not to be validly named at all, and is now referred to simply as Ambassis sp. “NW” (North-west Glassfish) pending a formal description.

Denariusa

A single Australia–New Guinea species, long known by its junior synonym.

Parambassis

Three Australia–New Guinea species; only the largest, P. gulliveri, is a familiar aquarium fish. P. altipinnis and P. confinis are New Guinea species with nothing recorded of them in the broader literature so far.

Tetracentrum

Three species, all endemic to New Guinea; essentially unrecorded in Australian aquarium literature. The only trace of them in ANGFA’s archives is a bare locality list: T. apogonoides from the Brown River, T. caudovittatus from the Kokoda/Moni River area, and T. honessi also from the Moni River.