Described from a rainforest stream near the settlement of Mintoum, northern Gabon and has a wider distribution in the upper Ivindo River basin, a tributary of the larger Ogooué system.

Thi species was considered synonymous with the congener A. herzogi Radda 1975 for a number of years but is currently recognised as distinct.

This species’ currently accepted range stretches from eastern Nigeria (Mbam River) across central Cameroon (via the Sanaga River system of which the Mbam is a tributary) and across the border into Central African Republic (upper Mambéré basin).

It was described from ‘Jade Plateau, Cameroon’, this apparently corresponding to the Lebo River which lies in what is now the Central African Republic and presumably forms part of the Mambéré headwaters.

Type locality is Malinga, located in the middle of the Du Chaillu mountain range in Ngounié province, southern Ghana. This lies very close to Republic of the Congo, and the species may also occur across the border.

This fish may be synonymous with the congener A. castaneum.

Collected for the aquarium hobby in 1991 from close to the town of Oyo, Cuvette department, Republic of the Congo. The town lies on the Alima River, a right bank tributary of the middle Congo system.

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…

The majority of original populations have already been extirpated due to introduction of invasive species such as Gambusia holbrooki and Poecilia reticulata, ongoing deforestation of the Ambohitra Massif, and physical diversion of the source of the Sakaramy River for domestic use by locals.

An additional population may exist in a stream on the southern slope of the Ambohitra Massif on the road between Bobasokoa and Anivorano, near the village of Andranotohiliny, but this requires verification.

For a number of decades this species was thought to occur throughout much of Madagsacar’s western slope but populations immediately to the north and south of the range described above (see ‘Distribution’) are currently considered to represent unidentified species, while a number of populations from the Mahavavy du Sud and Betsiboka riv…

Type locality is given simply as ‘Seychelles’ and this species was originally endemic to the Granitic Seychelles, i.e., those islands in the centre of the group composed chiefly of granite rock.

A translocated population now exists on Zanzibar while in the Seychelles it’s known from the islands of Mahé, Praslin, Silhouette and La Digue.

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’.