Guppy Poecilia reticulata

The most popular and best known fish, ever, is named after Robert John Lechmere Guppy who discovered it in Trinidad in 1866, and although it had actually been identified earlier in America, the name stuck.

Native to most of Central America the Guppy has been introduced to every other continent on earth with the exception of Antarctica, in the largely mistaken belief that it might reduce Malaria by eating the larva of the mosquito which carry the virus.

Guppies are highly prolific livebearers with an average >gestation period of about 28 days. Males possess a modified tubular anal fin called a gonopodium located directly behind the ventral fin which is flexed forward and used as a delivery mechanism for one or more balls of >spermatozoa. The male will approach a female and will flex his gonopodium forward before thrusting it into her and ejecting these balls (females may store these for months afterward, being able to give birth long after isolation from any male guppy). After the female guppy is inseminated, a dark area near the anus, known as the gravid spot, will enlarge and darken. When birth occurs, individual offspring are dropped in sequence over the course of an hour or so. Guppies prefer water temperatures of about 26 °C (79 °F) for reproduction