Honey Blue Eye

The honey blue-eye is a small, pale honey coloured fish that can attain up to 2.5–3 cm (1–1+1⁄8 in) in length as an adult, with the largest recorded being a male of 3.8 cm (1+1⁄2 in). As the common name suggests, the honey blue-eye has blue eyes. It has blue cheeks and a single fine midlateral line running along its body from the tip of the pectoral fin backwards. The female has clear fins. Male honey blue-eyes have distinct black submarginal bands and white margins on their dorsal, anal and caudal fins. Honey blue-eyes form schools from about 25 to 70 individuals.

The honey blue-eye is found in two disjunct areas of in wallum heathland in central and southeastern Queensland: in Dismal Swamp 70 km northeast of Rockhampton, and then from lakes and streams around Tin Can Bay south to Tibrogargan Creek 45 km north of Brisbane. It is found on Fraser Island but not other islands off the Queensland coast. Within its range its occurrence is patchy—it is found in 18 scattered localities. The water it is found in is generally slow-moving, mildly acidic (pH 4.4–6.8), and either clear or stained with tannin. Fish species it is commonly found with include ornate rainbowfish (Rhadinocentrus ornatus), crimson-spotted rainbowfish (Melanotaenia duboulayi), empire gudgeon (Hypseleotris compressa), firetailed gudgeon (Hypseleotris galii), and western carp gudgeon (Hypseleotris klunzingeri), and occasionally with the Oxleyan pygmy perch (Nannoperca oxleyana) or Pacific blue-eye.

Algae form the bulk of the diet of the honey blue-eye, with the remainder made up of insects and other aquatic invertebrates. The honey blue-eye generally forages at the surface of the water.