Description

Dorsal spines (total): 1; Dorsal soft rays (total): 7; Anal spines: 1; Anal soft rays: 9.

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Cyprinodontiformes

Family: Poeciliidae

Genus: Gambusia

Species: Gambusia holbrooki Girard, 1859

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Adults occur in standing to slow-flowing water, mostly in vegetated ponds and lakes, backwaters and quiet pools of steams (Ref. 5723), typically seen shoaling at the edges (Ref. 44894). They also frequent brackish water (Ref. 5723). Adults feed on small terrestrial insects usually in the drift and amongst aquatic plants, actively selecting very small prey (Ref. 6154). Also observed to take in mosquito larvae (Ref. 41168). Introduced worldwide. Introductions to Europe have seriously threatened many endemic species (Ref. 59043). It is now widely accepted that their effect has been minimal and even may have exacerbated the problem due to their voracious appetite for natural invertebrate predators of mosquito larvae (Ref. 44894).

Habitat

brackish