Poecilia picta
species of fish
Poecilia picta, the swamp guppy, is a species of livebearer fish found in South America. It is closely related to the common guppy, P. reticulata, and shares its geographic range but tends to be found in more brackish environments.
Taxonomy
P. picta forms a clade with P. parae that is a sister taxon to the common guppy, P. reticulata. Some authorities place the species in the genus Poecilia, subgenus Lebistes, along with P. reticulata, P. parae, P. branneri, and P. amazonica; others place it in the genus Micropoecilia along with P. parae and P. branneri.
Description
Males grow to about 18 mm; females reach sexual maturity at that size too but, as in most other poeciliids, continue to grow, reaching 20 mm. Males also differ from females by being more colorful, with black-spotted bodies and black, yellow, or orange coloration in their dorsal and caudal fins. Three color morphs exist in the wild among males: standard, red, and gold. The colorful forms are known from mainland populations but not from the insular.
Distribution and habitat
P. picta is distributed throughout northeastern South America, including Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela, and the Caribbean islands, a range it shares with the closely related guppies P. reticulata and P. parae.
P. picta occurs in lowland habitats such as slowly-flowing waters at stream mouths and still water lagoons.
The public source identifies “Poecilia picta” as species of fish. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Poecilia, picta and species.
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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 Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q106389620. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Poecilia picta” 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.