These species were formerly placed in Simpsonichthys, but in 2006, Dr. W. Costa attributed these species in his newly established subgenus Ophthalmolebias. Costa upgrades the subgenus to full genus status in 2010, based on distribution, a move not followed by Huber in his site "Killi Data" and maintained as a subgenus until solid evidence is provided. The type species is O. constanciae (Myers, 1942). The genus Ophthalmolebias with its six species is very prolific, and some species are therefore popular with beginning Killi enthusiasts. They are beautiful fish with interesting behavior, but not always spectacular colored. Some of the species such as the type species S. constanciae have a beautiful fin system with long filamented fin rays in the dorsal and anal fin. A real danger for maintaining populations among fanciers is that breeding almost always leads to large numbers of young who then have a little interest of expirienced Killi keepers. However, in the wild in Brazil, several species are under severe pressure.  Some have become entirely extinct due to the destruction of their habitat. This situation is not the result of frequent collecting by the commercial aquarium trade or Killi enthusiasts. It is the expansion of towns and villages, water extraction from the underground for monoculture farming, and clearing forested areas along the coast and more inland, between rio Cachoeira, Estado da Bahia, and rio Sao Joao, Estado do Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brasil where these species live, that bring them to extinction.

To combat the threat of extintion of species, an international database has been established where the keepers of South American Killifishes, annual- as well as non-annual Rivulids, can be reported. In this way one can keep an eye on when a species is in danger of disappearing from the hobby or when it is no longer available at the fanciers. This international database can be reached by searching the URL https://www.rivulid-conservation.org/ It is possible to enter your species file anonymously or with your name. Please help by participating this effort.

As explained above the genus Ophthalmolebias was in the first place erected as a subgenus to group some taxa within the genus Sympsonichthys (Costa 2006) and later the subgenus was elevated to the genus status also by Costa.The genus Ophthalmolebias contains the following six species to date.

O. bokermanni, O. constanciae, O. iheusensis, O. perpendicularis O. rosaceus and O. suzarti.

Behaviour:

For specific information on the care and breeding of Ophthalmolebias, check out the pages in this site. You can find those, together with other related genera, under the link "Simpsonichthys ss" in the Navigator.