Taxonomy & naming
George Albert Boulenger described Pollimyrus stappersii in 1915, during the same decades-long run of African freshwater fish descriptions, drawn largely from British Museum collections, that produced hundreds of new species under his name. The species belongs to the family Mormyridae, the elephantnoses and mormyrids, within the order Osteoglossiformes — the bonytongue fishes, one of the oldest surviving lineages of living teleosts.
The genus Pollimyrus did not exist in Boulenger's day; it was erected in 1971 by the Belgian ichthyologist Léon Taverne, who split a cluster of smaller-bodied mormyrids away from the much larger genus Marcusenius on osteological grounds, and P. stappersii was subsequently placed there — hence the parenthetical authorship. Which genus Boulenger originally used, along with the type locality and any synonymy history, is not stated in the sources reviewed for this account, so none of that is asserted here. The species epithet itself is a Latinized patronym, built with the genitive -ii ending used to name a species after a person; Boulenger named many Central African fishes in this period after the collectors and expedition naturalists who supplied his specimens, so the name most plausibly honors a person surnamed Stappers, but the dedication itself is not confirmed in the material reviewed here.
Morphology
Pollimyrus stappersii has not been the subject of a published length record in the sources reviewed for this account. Within the genus generally, species run small — most mature well under 6 in — but that is a genus-wide pattern, not a measurement taken from this species.
As in every mormyrid, a weak electric organ set in the caudal peduncle produces a pulse-type discharge, picked up by electroreceptors spread across the skin. That sense stands in for eyesight in the dark, sediment-clouded water most mormyrids favor, and it is paired with one of the largest brain-to-body ratios of any vertebrate group, driven by an enlarged cerebellum built to process the constant electrosensory stream. No discharge waveform, fin proportions, or coloration specific to Pollimyrus stappersii has been documented here.
Habitat
No confirmed collecting locality for Pollimyrus stappersii appears in the sources reviewed for this account. Pollimyrus as a genus is distributed broadly across tropical Africa — West African coastal rivers, the Congo basin, the Nile system, and parts of southern Africa all hold species — but that spread describes the genus, not a documented range for this particular fish.
Water chemistry and temperature figures specific to this species are likewise absent from the record available here. Mormyrids in general are found in slow, often turbid water with heavy cover — flooded margins, root tangles, backwaters — conditions where an electric sense outperforms vision. That is a statement about the family, not a confirmed description of where Pollimyrus stappersii itself lives.
Feeding
No dietary study of Pollimyrus stappersii has been published in the sources available for this account. Mormyrids as a family forage along the bottom for small invertebrates — insect larvae, worms, tiny crustaceans — locating them by electrolocation in mud, silt, and leaf litter before taking them with a quick strike of the mouth. This species almost certainly feeds the same way, but that inference has not been confirmed for it specifically.
Mating
Nothing has been published on courtship or mate choice in Pollimyrus stappersii. Across mormyrids generally, the electric organ discharge does more than aid navigation: its waveform varies by species and sometimes by sex, and it is thought to help fish recognize potential mates and hold shoals together. One well-studied congener, Pollimyrus isidori, pairs its electric signaling with audible grunts and moans during courtship, but that finding is specific to isidori — it has not been demonstrated in Pollimyrus stappersii and is not assumed to apply here.
Breeding
Breeding in Pollimyrus stappersii has not been recorded, in the wild or in an aquarium, in any source reviewed for this account. Nothing is known about its spawning behavior, egg deposition, or whether either parent provides care. As with most small African mormyrids, any specific claim about how this species reproduces would be invention rather than fact, so none is offered.
In the aquarium
Pollimyrus stappersii has essentially no track record in the aquarium hobby — no keeping reports, husbandry accounts, or import records specific to this species turned up in the sources reviewed here. What follows is general mormyrid practice, not anything demonstrated for this fish.
Small mormyrids generally do best over a soft, fine substrate they can probe with the snout, with heavy cover and dim lighting suited to a fish more active after dark than during the day. The family is also known for unusual sensitivity to poor water quality and to a number of common aquarium medications, so cautious, gradual dosing matters more here than with most fish, and live or frozen invertebrate foods such as bloodworm and brine shrimp are the expected diet, since mormyrids typically ignore dry foods outright. None of this has been verified for Pollimyrus stappersii specifically; it reflects how the rest of its family is kept.
Conservation
No current IUCN Red List assessment for Pollimyrus stappersii was located in the sources reviewed for this account. No population trend, range extent, or specific threat has been published for this species.
A great many small, narrow-range African mormyrids have never been formally assessed at all, and this species may simply fall into that category rather than genuinely lacking any conservation concern. Broad pressures on African freshwater systems — habitat degradation, siltation, and declining water quality — are long-term risks facing the group as a whole, but none has been documented specifically for Pollimyrus stappersii, and none is claimed here.