THE NOTHOBRANCHIUS SITE

ZFMK 13941, holotype, male, 33.6 mm SL; Tanzania: 40 km south of Dar-es-Salaam, under the bridge over the Mbezi along the road to Kibiti; collected by H. J. Wischmann & L. Seegers, Jan 1983, [field code: TZ 83-5].

MRAC [KTZ 85/28; these specimens belong now to N. cardinalis] (4); NRM (4); ZFMK 13942-46 (5), 13947-49 (3); ZMB 31546-47 (4)

Es handelt sich um eine rotschwänzige, kleinbleibende Nothobranchius-Art aus dem N. guentheri-Formenkreis (Seegers, 1986).

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Nothobranchius rubripinnis males are characterized by pale green to bronze body colouration, with narrow red scale borders, creating chevron-like vertical crossbars on the posterior part of the body. The dorsal fin is light green to bronze, with brown spots and stripes. The anterior part of the head, snout and throat are red. The anal and caudal fins are red, with a narrow black distal margin on caudal fin.

Subgenus: Adiniops

Species group: N. guentheri group

Nothobranchius rubripinnis was established as a species by Seegers in 1986, and that status has since been accepted by all authors. Populations from the Mbwemkuru River in south-eastern Tanzania were initially proposed to belong to N. rubripinnis but subsequent studies showed it to be a distinct species that was described as N. cardinalis by Watters, Cooper & Wildekamp in 2008.

Tanzania: 40 km south of Dar-es-Salaam, under the bridge over the Mbezi along the road to Kibiti.

This species is endemic to seasonal freshwater habitats in coastal Tanzania. It is known from seasonal pools and swamps in the drainages of the Mbezi and Luhule/Luhute river systems, south of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Coastal East Africa (564)

22–99 m

Water parameters (Watters personal data) are as follows: temperature of 22–29°C; pH of 6.9–8.0; conductivity of 60–620 µS; and typically turbid (Nagy & Watters, 2019).

N. melanospilus - 50%

N. luekei - 41%

N. ruudwildekampi - 36%

N. lucius - 18%

N. albimarginatus - 5%

N. lourensi - 5%​

This species has a semi-annual life cycle.

Embryonic development under captive conditions in peat moss is about two to four months at room temperature.

Maximum size reported: 36.1 mm SL (ZFMK 13942-6)

Diploid chromosome number 2n = 36, NF 38, karyotype structure 2m+34st/a (Krysanov & Demidova, 2018).

Diploid chromosome number and karyotype structure shared with some other members of the N. guentheri species group in Adiniops subgenus.

The specific name is formed from rubeo (Latin for red) and pinna (Latin for fins), and refers to the male colour pattern of the unpaired fins.

Endangered B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) (Nagy & Watters, 2019);

Previous assessment: Vulnerable D2 (Hanssens & Snoeks, 2006)

    Seegers, L. 1986. Beschreibung von Nothobranchius rubripinnis spec. nov. aus Tanzania. Ichthyologische Ergebnisse aus Tanza­nia, VII. Die Aquarien und Terrarien Zeitschrift, 39 (1): 18–22. [taxonomy as Nothobranchius rubripinnis]

​    Watters, B. R., B. J. Cooper & R. H. Wildekamp. 2008. Description of Nothobranchius cardinalis spec. nov. (Cyprinodontiformes: Aplocheilidae), an annual fish from the Mbwemkuru River basin, Tanzania. Journal of the American Killifish Association, 40 (5–6): 129–145. [systematics]

    Nagy, B. & B. R. Watters. 2019. Nothobranchius rubripinnis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T141974769A47184187. [conservation]

    van der Merwe, P.  D. W., F. P. D. Cotterill, M. Kandziora, B. R. Watters, B. Nagy, T. Genade, T. J. Flügel, D. S. Svendsen, & D. U. Bellstedt. 2020. Genomic Fingerprints of Palaeogeographic History: The tempo and mode of Rift tectonics across tropical Africa has shaped the diversification of the killifish genus Nothobranchius (Teleostei:  Cyprinodontiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 158: 106988. [phylogeny]

    Nagy, B. & B. R. Watters, 2021. A review of the conservation status of seasonal Nothobranchius fishes (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes), a genus with a high level of threat, inhabiting ephemeral wetland habitats in Africa. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 1–18. [conservation]