Poecilia vandepolli
species of live-bearing toothcarps
Poecilia vandepolli, or Van de Poll's molly, is a poeciliid fish native to the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. It is one of the most common fish in its range, inhabiting fresh, brackish, salt, and hypersaline waters such as streams, ponds, bays, salt pans, and lagoons. For much of the twentieth century, it was regarded as a subspecies or synonym of P. sphenops, but morphological and genetic studies have confirmed its status as a distinct species. The molly is highly variable in size and color, with males ranging from 2.6 to 5.3 cm and females from 3.2 to 9.6 cm, and coloration varying from grayish-brown to yellow or orange in any given population. Marine fish are generally larger, stronger, and more colorful than freshwater specimens. Males' ability to develop an intense orange coloration may make the species attractive to aquarists.
Forming shoals near the surface, mollies feed mainly on algae, detritus, and aquatic invertebrates, and are preyed upon by other fish and birds. Females produce live fry, giving the species an edge over killifish, with which it competes across its range. Successful reproduction depends on the availability of shelter for fry, most of which fall prey to adults. The species is drawn to freshwater habitats, which disappear in each dry season, killing freshwater populations; these habitats are recolonized from the sea when the rains return.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2008505. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Poecilia vandepolli” 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.