The banded lampeye (''Aplocheilichthys spilauchen'') is a species of

poeciliid Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the fam ...

that is native to Africa, ranging from

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. It is mainly found in coastal

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

habitats (only infrequently in pure fresh or salt water) such as river mouths, lagoons and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

swamps. It reaches up to in total length.

Description

Banded lampeyes are small

killifish A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish, including families Aplocheilidae, Pantanodontidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Nothobranchiidae, Profundulidae, Aphaniidae and Valenciidae. All together, there ar ...

, with an average length of with a somewhat cylindrical body and short, rounded fins. It has round scales and a dorsally flattened head with the a terminal mouth. They are a pale cream in colour with an iridescent silvery blue band running along the flanks, this band is more marked towards the tail. Males have the rear of the body, close to the tail, marked with vertical bars which are the same colour as the band along the flanks, their fins will be more intensively coloured than those of the females. There is a bright spot above the, which gives rise to the common name lampeye.

Distribution

Banded lampeyes are found in river mouths along the western coast of Africa. In

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

this species occurs from the

Senegal River The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...

to Nigeria; a second population is found around the mouth of the

Congo River The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...

and nearby estuaries and deltas from Cameroon to Angola. The southernmost records are from the Chiloango River in Cabinda and the Lower

Cuanza River The Kwanza River, also known as the Coanza, the Quanza, and the Cuanza, is the longest river in Angola. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean just south of the national capital Luanda. Geography The river is navigable for about from its mouth, l ...

near

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

Habitat and biology

The banded lampeye is a sedentary,

benthopelagic The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

fish. It is found in brackish water in coastal swamps, river mouths, lagoons and mangroves and is rarely recorded in either pure freshwater or pur marine water. It is a carnivorous species which feeds on insect larvae, small aquatic insects, small crustaceans, and worms. This species is not a live bearer and the females scatter their eggs over plants when

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

, the eggs sticking to the plants. They can live for up to five years in captivity.

Taxonomy

Currently the only member of ''Aplocheilichthys'', this genus formerly included numerous other species that now are placed in '' Foerschichthys'', ''

Lacustricola ''Lacustricola'' is a genus of poeciliids native to East Africa, East, Southern Africa, Southern and Middle Africa. Species There are currently 20 recognized species in this genus: * ''Lacustricola atripinna'' (Georg Johann Pfeffer, Pfeffer, 18 ...

'', ''

Micropanchax ''Micropanchax'' is a genus of poeciliids native to Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, ...

'', ''

Pantanodon ''Pantanodon'' is a genus of fishes native to East Africa and Madagascar. Species There are currently two recognized species in this genus: * ''Pantanodon madagascariensis'' (Jacques Arnoult, Arnoult, 1963) * ''Pantanodon stuhlmanni'' (Ernst Ah ...

'', '' Plataplochilus'', '' Poropanchax'' and '' Rhexipanchax''.Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2017)
Scientific Names where Genus Equals ''Aplocheilichthys'' in FishBase.
!-- search for "Aplocheilichthys" in Genus box --> April 2017 version. The 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' places the genus ''Aplocheilichthys'' in the

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Aplocheilichythinae but other authorities place this taxon in the family

Procatopodidae Procatopodidae, the African lampeyes, is a family of ray-finned fish in the order Cyprinodontiformes. It was formerly treated as a subfamily (Procatopodinae) of the Poecilidae. Despite containing mostly African genera (including ''Pantanodon'') ...

. Abstract

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1768407 Poeciliidae Freshwater fish genera Freshwater fish of Africa Fish described in 1861 Taxa named by Auguste Duméril Taxonomy articles created by Polbot