Taxonomy & naming
Weber described the species in 1907 from Lake Sentani, the Sekanto, Moso and Tawarin rivers in Irian Jaya. It belongs to Apogonidae, the cardinalfishes, a mostly marine family with a handful of freshwater species in New Guinea and Australia.
Morphology
A stout-bodied, large-mouthed cardinalfish. FishBase gives a maximum of 7 in SL for males or unsexed fish.
Habitat
Northern New Guinea, from the Tawarin River in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, east to the Bewani Mountains in northern Papua New Guinea. FishBase calls it a freshwater, demersal fish of the tropics.
Feeding
Diet is not documented for this species. The large mouth and the habits of related Glossamia point to a fish that takes smaller fishes and crustaceans at night.
Mating
FishBase records distinct pairing during courtship and spawning.
Breeding
FishBase records the species as a mouthbrooder. The eggs are carried in the mouth of the brooding parent until they hatch.
In the aquarium
Sold by two of the partner stores. A predator by build, it should not share a tank with fishes small enough to swallow. FishBase gives no temperature, pH or hardness range for the species, and the atlas records none.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List classes Glossamia wichmanni as Near Threatened, meaning it is close to qualifying for a threatened category. No assessment year is recorded in the sources available to the atlas.