Taxonomy & naming
Aphyosemion koungueense (Sonnenberg, 2007) is the valid name in the Catalog of Fishes. The parentheses show it was described in a different genus or subgenus and later moved to Aphyosemion. The store listing 'Aphyosemion kounguense' is a misspelling; the correct epithet is koungueense. It belongs to the family Nothobranchiidae.
Morphology
FishBase gives a maximum of 1 in SL for males or unsexed fish. See Sonnenberg's description for diagnostic characters.
Habitat
The type locality is the River Koungué, a small river in forest near the village of Koungué Ndonga, on the road from Edéa to Dizangué and Ndonga, Cameroon (about 3°49'N, 9°55'E) in the lowland coastal forest zone. FishBase describes it as about 10 ft wide and 1 ft deep, with a muddy bottom over sand covered in decomposing leaves. It lists water at pH 4.9 or higher and 79 °F or warmer, without an upper limit for either. The species is endemic to Cameroon, known from north of Kribi up to Douala at the Wouri.
Feeding
Aphyosemion are small carnivores taking insect larvae and crustaceans; in aquaria they take live and frozen foods such as brine shrimp and daphnia.
Mating
Males are expected to be the more brightly coloured sex, as in related Aphyosemion; courtship for this species is not specifically recorded.
Breeding
Closely related Aphyosemion are typically plant or mop spawners laying adhesive eggs over days. Details for this species are not recorded.
In the aquarium
Sold by Wet Spot. Keep small groups in soft, acidic, tannin-stained water with a mop or plant spawning site and a tight lid. Little husbandry data has been published for this species.
Conservation
Not evaluated by the IUCN Red List as far as the atlas knows. Small forest-stream killifish in the Cameroonian lowlands are exposed to forest clearance, but no species-level assessment is available.