Taxonomy & naming
Hypsolebias faouri Britzke, Nielsen & Oliveira, 2016 is the valid name in the Catalog of Fishes. Hypsolebias is a genus of South American annual killifish in the family Rivulidae. The authority is written without parentheses because the species was described in Hypsolebias.
Morphology
FishBase gives a maximum of 2 in SL for males or unsexed fish. See the original description for diagnostic characters.
Habitat
The type locality is the Rio Preto at Prazeres, Bahia, Rio São Francisco basin, Brazil (about 11°23'S, 44°54'W), at 1,713 ft altitude. This is semi-arid country where seasonal pools fill during the rains and dry out afterwards. Further habitat detail is not recorded in available sources.
Feeding
Annual killifish are carnivores feeding on small invertebrates such as insect larvae and crustaceans. Feeding of this species specifically is not recorded.
Mating
Males court and drive females in the usual annual-killifish way; spawning behaviour for this species is not specifically documented.
Breeding
Like other Hypsolebias, this is an annual killifish: adults die when the pool dries, and eggs survive in the mud through the dry season, hatching with the next rains. In aquaria the eggs are normally collected from peat and kept damp for a period before wetting. Details specific to this species are not recorded.
In the aquarium
Sold by Dan's Fish. Annual killifish are short-lived and are best kept as a species tank in shallow, clean, soft water with a peat-box spawning site. Little husbandry data has been published for this species.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List lists Hypsolebias faouri as Critically Endangered (CR), meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild; FishBase does not give the assessment year. Annual killifish in seasonal pools are exposed to habitat conversion and drainage.