Alternative name Rivulus (Oditichthys) tessellatus.

Huber described the species from preserved material available at the Philadelphia museum (ANSP) nr. 139468.

The discoverers were: Prof. James E. Boehlke, Neal Foster and Prof. Jamie Thomerson. They found the species at the western tip of Lake Mozambique on the Hacienda Mozambique, also called Hacienda Cumacita (erroniously written as "Humacita" by Huber in his description in 1992.)

During my second collecting expedition in Colombia (2008) I visited this huge ranch in the remote Llanos of the rio Meta and was not able to collect Rivulus tessellatus despite enormous efforts to get to the location. I like to thank the caretaker of the ranch and his wife for the help they provided to find the spot on their ranch. I returned to this place 2 times after the first visit and only in the last visit I was able to find the fishes in a small swampy place with little to no current in a patch of forrest aside the Lake Mozambique.

Keeping and breeding of this species is easy like most Rivulus in this assemblage but a good cover of the aquarium is necessary because there ability to jump, even true the smallest opening, is unbelievable. This species is not for beginning hobbyists.

Remarks :

I am working on a re-description of this species.

This lake is called Lake "Mozambique" by the German Co-owner of the nearby ranch, Mr. Smidt that lived in Mozambique Africa before. It was the place a rivulid fish new to science now known as Anablepsoides tessellatus was described by J.H Huber in 1992. I visited that place in 2008 to recollect the species but could not find it.  

Max. size 4.5 cm.
Dorsal (average) 8,
Anal (average) 13,
D/A 10,
LL scale count (average)35
Pre- dorsal length to % SL (average) 70 %
Depth to % SL – 23.1 %