Perhaps looks best in a heavily-planted set-up or natural-style arrangement comprising a sandy substrate plus some driftwood roots and branches.

The addition of dried leaf litter would further emphasise the natural feel and as well as offering additional cover for the fish brings with it the growth of microbe colonies as decomposition occurs.

These can provide a valuable secondary food source for fry and the humic su…

Described from close to the city of Beira, Mozambique and for many years thought widely-distributed between the Kruger National Park, South Africa to the Kwa-Kwa River north of the Zambezi delta.

Populations from the south and north of this range exhibiting differences in colour pattern and morphology have now been described as N. pienaari and N. krysanovi, respectively, meaning N. rachovii sensu stricto is restricted to the area between the lower Pungwe and Zambezi river basins in eastern Mozambique.

Type locality is ‘Rufiji River near Utete, eastern Tanzania’, and this species is apparently endemic to the lower Rufiji including the Selous Game Reserve and freshwater parts of the Rufiji delta region.

Populations in the aquarium hobby include ‘Rufiji river camp’, ‘Kikongono’, ‘Ruhoi River’, ‘Kanga’, ‘Utete’, ‘Saadani Game Reserve’, ‘Ruvu River’, ‘Bagamoyo’, ‘Makurunge’, ‘Killimani’, ‘Chamakwese’, ‘Nyamwage’, ‘Mohoro’, and ‘Ukuni’.

Inhabits ephemeral, water-filled depressions, pools and swamps mostly located in lowland floodplains. Water levels in these seasonally-variable habitats typically decrease during the dry season and eventually become completely dessicated for several months each year.

Near Bagamoyo it’s been collected from pools of a flat, grassy floodplain alongside the congeners N. annectens, N. janpapi and N. melanospilus, while at Soga it occus together with N. janpapi and N. ocellatus. Most habitats appear to be heavily overgrown with terrestrial vegetation.

This species is also known as ‘Gardner’s Killi’ and ‘blue lyretail’ and the commonly-available aquarium forms are perhaps among the best choices for those new to keeping killifishes being relatively hardy, colourful and easy to breed.

A number of ornamental strains have also been line-bred by aquarists including ‘gold’ and ‘albino’.

This species is also known as ‘Daget’s panchax’, ‘black-lipped panchax’, ‘orange-throated panchax’ or ‘firemouth killifish’ and is an aquarium stalwart with the red-throated form having first been exported in 1908.

It’s an excellent choice for those new to killifishes or egg-laying species in general since the aquarium strain is well-established, quite hardy and easy to breed.

There was some initial confusion after Belgian ich…

Distributed throughout coastal regions north and westwards from Gabon through Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Togo as far as Ghana although some consider it restricted to northwestern Gabon and Equatorial Guinea with the remaining populations representing various subspecies (see ‘Notes’).

Type locality is ‘Gaboon River’, which presumably refe…

Appears restricted to the area between the lower Mitmele River, Equatorial Guinea and the lower Ogooué basin in Gabon, including coastal drainages such as the Mbei, Komo and Gabon watersheds in between.

Type locality is ‘Abanga River, between first and second rapids, Ogowe River system, Gabon’, corresponding to the Abanga River bas…

A. gabunense is a good beginner’s killifish as it is not an annual species, being found in permanent bodies of water in nature. It exists in several geographical colour forms which are sometimes referred to the subspecies Aphyosemion gabunense gabunense, A. g. boehmi and A. g. marginatum. The latter two are slightly smaller with a maximum standard lenth around 45 mm, and all three can be told apart by differences in colour pattern.

This species is not an annual fish, being found in permanent bodies of water in nature. Over 20 different forms of it have been discovered at different localities and a handful have been given subspecific names. The most popular in the aquarium hobby include A. o. ottogartneri and A. o. pyrophore, both of which were initially described as separate species.