In 2003 the very eager Brazilian ichtyologist COSTA described three new species in the genus Aphyolebias, which was erected by himself in 1998. The three new species are:

Aphyolebias claudiae COSTA, 2003                                   Aphyolebias manuensis COSTA, 2003                                 Aphyolebias schleseri COSTA, 2003

Aphyolebias schleseri is only known from its terra typica in Cano Lata/North Peru. This is close to the habitats of Aphyolebias peruensis.

I kept Aphyolebias schleseri in 2004 with medium success. My fishes were unhurried swimmers easily outcompeted by agile fishes like barbs. Anyway certain barbs do not make proper tank mates since they like to nip on fin filaments. Aphyolebias’ filaments could be appealing to them. A. schleseri dwells in jungle creeks with are fringed by primary rain forest. Thus the fishes prefer a shady setup. Therefore just use some floating plants, like Lemna or Ceratopteris. The fishes possess moderate to high intraspecific aggression. Two males can be put together in tanks with more than 60 liter, otherwise they really get ugly. The tank’s decoration should well arranged in order to mitigate males’ aggression.

I maintained my fishes by the water parameters below:

Temperature: 23°C                                              pH 7,5                                                      Conductivity: 586 µS/cm

As all Aphyolebias species A. schleseri belongs to the annual bottom divers. In my tanks I never saw them really diving. I used coco fibres as spawing medium, actually used for terraristic substrate purpose. The substrate container should be at least 10 cm high to ensure that the spawing pair can fully dive in the substrate. The eggs of A. schleseri are not easy to spot, because they are heavily wrapped by substrate. IMPORTANT: The substrate should not be too dry, it must contain a certain amount of moisture. It is better to store them a little more wet than too dry. Only some Nothobranchius manage to get out of stone. Once hatched the fry feeds upon freshly hatched Artemia and micro worm and are easy to raise.

Marco Endruweit, 2008-3-12I ke