‘Large’-eyed creature with ‘gem’-like pattern found in pond. It’s a new species
Near a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo sat a seasonal pond, formed during the wet season and already shrinking. Inside swam an “iridescent” creature with a “gem”-like pattern. Something about it caught the attention of visiting scientists — and for good reason.
It turned out to be a new species.
Béla Nagy and a team of “colleagues from the University of Lubumbashi” spent seven years visiting rivers in southern Africa, Nagy wrote in a study published June 30 in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Diversity.
Researchers were primarily interested in a group of “seasonal” fish known as killifish but, during their 2023 surveys, came across a different type of fish known as a lampeye because of “the reflective pigments” in its eye, the study said.
Intrigued by the fish, researchers caught several specimens for a closer look, analyzed their DNA and realized they’d discovered a new species: Lacustricola gemma, or the gem lampeye fish.
Gem lampeyes are considered “small,” reaching about an inch long, the study said. They have “short” heads with a “rounded” snout and “large” “silver” eyes.
Photos show the “iridescent” coloring of the new species. Each of its scales has a “diamond-shaped, light blue” spot in the center, “creating an irregular reflective pattern,” the study said.
Researchers said they named the new species after the ancient Greek word for “‘precious stone’ or ‘gem’” because it has “the appearance of tiny gems.”
Like other lampeyes, the new species lives “near the surface of large bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes,” but “migrate to breed in flooded areas of shallow, typically seasonal wetland habitats at the onset of the rainy season,” the study said.
Gem lampeye fish were found in a small pond left from “a drying ephemeral riverbed,” researchers said. The water was cloudy and “overgrown by grass” on the edge.
Researchers kept a few of these fish in an aquarium for further observation and saw them spawning “relatively large” eggs, the study said.
So far, the new species has only been found at two sites in the southern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The country is in central Africa and borders Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Researchers believe the new species is vulnerable to extinction because of its limited distribution and “the risk of continuous decline of the known wetland habitats in which it is known to live.”
The new species was identified by its DNA, coloring, body proportions and other subtle physical features, the study said.
Nagy also discovered four more new species of fish, including the rainbow seasonal killifish.
This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 1:01 PM.
