Alternative name Anablepsoides bahianus.

Rivulus bahianus was for the first time discovered on March 4, 1908 in Rio Catu at Alagoinhas, not far from the later type locality near Itapoa, in the surroundings of Salvador do Bahia international Airport at the coast of eastern Brasil. It was at the time of the first discovery erroneously seen as R. urophthalmus together with material from South East Brasil containing R. santensis by Henn in 1916. Huber (1986) mentionned the species named as Rivulus spec. No.1 and Rivulus spec. Bahia.

Huber places the species nearer to the R. santensis superspecies than to the R. urophthalmus superspecies group. This may be wrong but need to be confirmed by DNA sequences and other tests. The distance between the next known location of R. urophthalmus is very far ( 800 km notherly) and separated by the desertic region Sertao.

Costa wrote in his re- description in 2008 following:

< The original description of Rivulus bahianus was based on three specimens collected in the type locality and 19 specimen born in aquaria. It was brief, including a few morphometric and meristic characters and some color patterns. A detailed redescription based on numerous wild specimens is herein provided and the type locality is corrected.> (see corrected T.T. here under.)

Type locality of Rivulus bahianus, Huber 1990. is near Itapoã, city of Salvador, some hundred meters from the entry of the international Airport of Salvador do Bahia, named "Dois de Julha Airport", Salvador - the capital of the Estado de Bahia, Brazil.

Keeping and breeding is easy but a tight fitting cover on the aquarium is necessary because their ability to jump, even through the smallest opening, is unbelievable.

This species can, if there is enough space for them, be housed in a tank with more than one male and several females. If separated before and brought together again however, they can be very aggressive towards each other and fight to become the dominant fish. The best way to produce numbers of fry is to put a pair or a trio in a small tank of about 10 litres with a small filter in it or with some aeration. On the bottom of the tank place some peat moss or dark gravel and a floating "mop" to give space for laying their eggs. The fish will, if they are fed a rich variety of live food, spawn during their whole adult life and produce daily between 5 to 15 eggs.

The eggs should be collected by hand and stored for about 14 days in a small container. Eggs are 1.6 mm and amber coloured. It is wise to add an anti fungus to the water you store the eggs in, to prevent fungal attacks.

After hatching the young fry can eat fresh artemia nauplii without any problem. It takes 4 to 5 months to raise them to maturity. Often the males far out number females. For some species this can become a major problem for the breeder, as he has to raise many fry to enable distribution of a few pairs to other hobbyists. Recent personal tests found that lower pH levels during the time of hatching gave a higher percentage of females. To achieve this I used some peat moss that I added to the container with the eggs just before they were ready to hatch. This peat moss also is a good way to prevent eggs from being attacked by fungus.

Their lifespan can be up to 3 years in captivity.

Remarks :

Max. size 5.5 cm.
Dorsal 8.0,
Anal 12.0,
D/A 9.0
LL scale count (average)37.0
Pre- dorsal length to % SL – 78.0 %
Depth to % SL – 19.0 %

Huber, J.H. 1990. Description de Rivulus bahianus n. sp. de la Plaine cotiere du Bresil (Cyprinodontidae, Rivulinae). Rev. fr. Aquariol. Herpetol., 17 (1): 14, fig. 1.

Costa W.J.E.M., 2008. Redescription of Rivulus bahianus (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae), a killifish from the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil.