Guppy
species of fish, the guppy
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also known as the millionfish or rainbow fish, is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, akin to most New World members of the family, is classified as a livebearer. Male guppies, which are smaller than females, have ornamental caudal and dorsal fins. Wild guppies generally feed on a variety of food sources, including benthic algae and the larvae of aquatic insects.
Native to northeast South America, it has been introduced to many environments and are now found all over the world; guppies are now one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. They are highly adaptable and thrive in many different environmental and ecological conditions. Guppies are used as a model organism in the fields of ecology, evolution, and behavioural studies.
Taxonomy
Guppies were first described in Venezuela as Poecilia reticulata by Wilhelm Peters in 1859 and as Lebistes poecilioides in Barbados by De Filippi in 1861. It was named Girardinus guppii by Albert Günther in honour of Robert John Lechmere Guppy, who sent specimens of the species from Trinidad to the Natural History Museum in London. It was reclassified as Lebistes reticulatus by Regan in 1913. Then in 1963, Rosen and Bailey brought it back to its original name, Poecilia reticulata.
The public source identifies “Guppy” as species of fish, the guppy. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Guppy, species and fish.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q178202. The Library of Congress control number is sh85057955. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1859, 1861, 1913 and 1963.
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This entry incorporates text from “Guppy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.