Taxonomy & naming
Nichols and Raven described the species in 1934. It belongs to Craterocephalus, the hardyheads, which sit in Craterocephalidae, a family of small silverside-like fishes of Australia and New Guinea that the Catalog of Fishes now separates from Atherinidae.
Morphology
A slender, silvery silverside-type fish. FishBase gives a maximum of 3 in SL for males or unsexed fish. Detailed colour and fin descriptions are not recorded in the sources available to the atlas.
Habitat
FishBase lists it as a freshwater, benthopelagic fish of the tropics, found in central-southern New Guinea between the Kubuna River in Papua New Guinea and Lake Jamur in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It also occurs in Balimo Lagoon and in the upper Fly-Strickland, Morehead and Bensbach systems of Papua New Guinea. It inhabits clear rivers and small tributary streams over mud, sand and rocky bottoms.
Feeding
The diet is not documented for this species. Hardyheads in general take small invertebrates and plankton from the water column and surface.
Mating
Courtship has not been described for this species.
Breeding
Breeding has not been documented for this species, and FishBase records no reproduction data. Related hardyheads scatter adhesive eggs among plants and roots.
In the aquarium
Sold by partner stores among New Guinea rainbowfish and relatives. A group in a long, well-oxygenated tank with open swimming space, fine gravel and some current suits a hardyhead. FishBase gives no temperature, pH or hardness range for the species, and the atlas records none.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List classes Craterocephalus randi as Least Concern, assessed in December 2019.