Guppy, Poecilia reticulata Peters 1859

Other Names: One-spot Livebearer

Summary:

This popular aquarium fish has been introduced from South America via the aquarium trade. Guppies have been released into the wild in several Australian states and territories, where they out-compete many native fishes.

Cite this page as:

Gomon, M.F. & Bray, D.J. 2020, Poecilia reticulata in Fishes of Australia, accessed 25 Jan 2025, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/Home/species/3637

Guppy, Poecilia reticulata Peters 1859

More Info

Distribution	Introduced from South America (via the aquarium trade). Recorded from North West Cape, Western Australia, the Darwin area and the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory, and from Cairns to Brisbane, Queensland. Guppies have also been recorded north of Robe, South Australia. The species has also been released on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean, and on Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea. Guppies form shoals in warm, slow-flowing or still freshwaters near pool margins, usually amongst aquatic vegetation.
Features	Dorsal fin 7-8; Anal fin 8-10; Gill rakers 13-16; Horizontal scales 25-29. Body stout and compressed towards tail; back arched in front of dorsal fin and belly deeper in front of vent, particularly in females; mouth small, upturned and protrusible, lower jaw a little longer than upper, eyes large; gill rakers slender and well-spaced. Scales on head and trunk large; lateral line absent. Single, soft-rayed dorsal fin just behind middle of body, small and angular in female, but longer, almost flag-like in males; caudal fin rounded and may also be enlarged and flag-like in males; anal fin origin below dorsal fin.
Size	Females to 6 cm SL; Males to 3 cm SL
Colour	Female are silvery grey with dark scale margins, giving a hatched appearance; somewhat darker dorsally, belly silvery white; fins transparent to greyish, sometimes with fine speckling; a darker grey-black blotch on lower abdomen before vent. The brightly-coloured males are highly variable with irregular and varied markings of green, turquoise, blue, red, orange and yellow with a pearly iridescence and black spots.
Feeding	Omnivore - feeds on a variety of small terrestrial insects and aquatic invertebrates.
Biology	Live-bearers. The front rays of the male’s anal fin are modified to form a gonopodium which is used to internally fertilise eggs. The fertilised eggs develop inside the female and the young are born after 3-4 weeks gestation and mature in a few weeks. If males are absent from a population, one or more females may become males.
Remarks	In Australia, wild guppy populations were established prior to the 1970s, due to the release of aquarium fish.
Species Citation	Poecilia reticulata Peters 1859, Mber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berl. 1859: 412. Type locality: Guayre River, Caracas, Venezuela.
Author	Gomon, M.F. & Bray, D.J. 2020
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Guppy, Poecilia reticulata Peters 1859

References

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Peters, W.C.H. 1859. Eine neue vor und fügte Mittheilungen über einige andere neue Fische des Zoologischen Museums. Monatsberichte der Königlichen Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1859: 411-413 See ref at BHL

Rosen, D.E. & Bailey, R.M. 1963. The poeciliid fishes (Cyprinodontiformes), their structure, zoogeography and systematics. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 126(1): 1–176

Webb, A.C. 2007. Status of non-native freshwater fishes in tropical northern Queensland, including establishment success, rates of spread, range and introduction pathways. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 140: 63–78