Taxonomy & naming
Pollimyrus eburneensis was described by the French ichthyologist Robert Bigorne in 1991, as part of a revision of the West African members of the genus Pollimyrus. The genus belongs to Mormyridae, the elephantnoses and mormyrids, within Osteoglossiformes — the bonytongues, one of the oldest surviving lineages of teleost fish. Bigorne's revision work of this period, much of it carried out through the ORSTOM hydrobiology program, focused heavily on the river systems of Côte d'Ivoire and neighboring West African countries.
The genus name Pollimyrus carries the suffix -myrus, shared by several mormyrid genera such as Marcusenius and Brienomyrus and tracing back to Mormyrus, the family's type genus, itself derived from mormyros, an ancient Greek name for a marine fish. The precise derivation of the prefix Polli- is not confirmed in the sources available for this account. The species epithet eburneensis comes from the Latin eburneus, meaning 'of ivory' — the same root behind the English name Ivory Coast for Côte d'Ivoire — and most plausibly signals the country from which the type specimens were collected, though the original description was not available to confirm this directly.
Morphology
No confirmed size measurement for Pollimyrus eburneensis could be located for this account. Congeners in the genus are uniformly small mormyrids, most under roughly 4.5 in, with a laterally compressed body, a short and blunt head, and a small mouth set low or terminally on the head rather than drawn into the long, trunk-like chin barbel — the schnauzenorgan — that distinguishes genera such as Gnathonemus and Campylomormyrus. P. eburneensis is presumed to follow this general body plan by extension from its relatives rather than from direct description.
As in every mormyrid, an electric organ near the base of the tail generates a weak, pulse-type discharge that the fish reads through electroreceptors spread across its skin. This electric sense, rather than eyesight, is the main channel mormyrids use to navigate murky water, locate prey, and — in species where the behavior has been studied — recognize other individuals of their own kind. No discharge waveform has been published specifically for P. eburneensis.
Habitat
Pollimyrus eburneensis is presumed, from its epithet and from the geographic focus of Bigorne's revision, to be native to Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa, but no specific river system, coordinate, or habitat description for the species could be confirmed for this account, and its precise range should be treated as unresolved rather than established.
The short, forest-fed coastal rivers of that part of West Africa tend to run warm and often carry a tea-colored stain from dissolved plant matter — low-visibility conditions in which a mormyrid's electric sense outperforms eyesight. Whether P. eburneensis specifically favors flowing channels, floodplain margins, or vegetated backwaters within that kind of system has not been documented in the sources available.
Feeding
No feeding study specific to Pollimyrus eburneensis appears to have been published. Small Pollimyrus species in general are bottom-foraging invertebrate feeders, using electrolocation to find insect larvae, worms, and other small invertebrates hidden in sediment before taking them with a quick strike of the mouth. P. eburneensis is presumed to feed the same way by extension from the genus, not from direct observation.
Mating
Courtship in several mormyrids is mediated by the same electric organ discharge used for navigation — a pattern documented in detail for the related Pollimyrus isidori, in which males produce distinct acoustic and electric signals during courtship. That behavior has not been demonstrated for P. eburneensis, and it would be a mistake to assume it applies here without direct evidence.
No account of courtship, pairing, or spawning behavior in the wild has been published for this species.
Breeding
Breeding in Pollimyrus eburneensis is unrecorded. No spawning account, wild or in captivity, has been published for this species, and it does not appear to have been kept or bred in the aquarium hobby. Any description of its reproduction at present would be extrapolation from better-studied relatives rather than direct observation of the species itself.
In the aquarium
Pollimyrus eburneensis has essentially no track record in the aquarium trade. It is not a species hobbyists are likely to encounter, and no husbandry account specific to it could be located for this article. If it were ever kept, general mormyrid practice would apply: a soft substrate for probing, dim lighting, ample cover, and stable, clean water, since mormyrids as a group tolerate poor water quality and many common medications poorly.
Feeding would need to rely on live or frozen invertebrate foods such as bloodworm and brine shrimp, offered after dark to suit a fish that forages by electrolocation rather than sight; dried foods are typically refused by mormyrids. Until specimens are documented in captivity, any care guidance for this particular species remains an inference from its relatives rather than established practice.
Conservation
No IUCN Red List assessment for Pollimyrus eburneensis could be confirmed for this account, and its status is best treated as not evaluated rather than assumed safe. Its range appears narrow — plausibly restricted to a single West African country based on its epithet — and narrow-range freshwater fish in that region face generic pressures from deforestation, agricultural runoff, and water abstraction in coastal river systems, though no threat has been documented specifically for this species.