Has been recorded from major river channels, smaller tributaries, and floodplain lakes, many of which comprise acidic, mineral-poor blackwater environments with brownish, tannin-stained water, although it has been observed to inhabit clear waters as well.

Many of its habitats lie within the Venezuelan and Colombian llanos, a vast, highly biodiverse system of tropical savannah grasslands, seasonally-flooded plains and forests covering an area measuring almost 600,000 square kilo…

Although it does penetrate the lower basins of rivers, particularly the Amazon where it has been collected from the rio Xingu several hundred kilometres from its mouth, this species is predominantly an inhabitant of mangrove swamps, estuaries, and other such saline habitats.

It is particularly common in tidal channels, shallow inshore lagoons, and the lower reaches of rivers.

Recent genetic research has revealed there to be a possibility that although S. mapiritensis is genetically distinct from S. leucosticta, it may turn out to be conspecific with S. jurupari and S. rhynchitis. There appears to be no clear genetic separation between these three putative species nor a form known to aquarists as S. sp. ‘Negro-Alto Orinoco’ which replaces S. mapiritensis in the middle and upper Orinoco, Casiquiare Canal, and upper rio Negro.

An obligate predator by nature, but captive specimens readily accept strips of white fish, whole shrimp, earthworms, and similar once they are recognised as food.

Adult individuals are unlikely to require feeding on a daily basis with 1-2 meals per week sufficient.

Widely-distributed throughout the Amazon, Orinoco, Essequibo, and Tocantins river systems in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana.

Type locality is ‘Rio Cupai [= Rio Cupari], Rio Tapajós basin, Amazon River drainage, Pará State, Brazil’.

This species is known from the rio Negro within the Brazilan Amazon basin and upper Río Orinoco system in Venezuela.

Type locality is ‘Rio Adujá, Rio Itú, tributary of middle Rio Negro, Amazonia, Brazil’.

I. geisleri is typically exported for the aquarium trade alongside the similar-looking congener I. adujai (Géry, 1970) but can be identified by presence (vs. absence in I. adujai) of a black lateral stripe on the body beneath the red stripe, and possession of 20-25 (vs. 28-34) anal-fin rays.

Tends to be most common in brackish to hypersaline environments such as coastal salt marshes, lagoons and estuaries.

On San Salvador Island, Bahamas, it appears to be the parent of a species group occurring in sympatry and exploiting diverse but specific resources with some spectacular morphological adaptations.

Has been collected from habitats containing clear, soft, acidic, tea-coloured blackwater, most typically among leaf litter or submerged vegetation in very shallow (10-50 cm depth) water along the margins of streams and other minor tributaries.

At a village called El Niñal close to the mouth of the rio Pasimoni in the Casiquiare drainage pH was…

Known only from parts of the Río Orinoco drainage in Amazonas state, southern Venezuela.

Sometimes confused with Peckoltia lineola (Armbruster, 2008) alongside which it’s often exported for the aquarium trade.