''Micropoecilia'' is a genus of

poeciliid The Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the family was t ...

s native to fresh and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

water from the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

. While recognized as valid by

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

, others have considered this genus as being synonymous with ''

Poecilia ''Poecilia'' is a genus of fishes in the family Poeciliidae of the order Cyprinodontiformes. These livebearers are native to fresh, brackish and salt water in the Americas, and some species in the genus are euryhaline. A few have adapted to livin ...

''.

Species

There are currently four recognized species in this genus: * '' Micropoecilia bifurca'' ( C. H. Eigenmann, 1909) * '' Micropoecilia branneri'' ( C. H. Eigenmann, 1894) (Branner's livebearer) * '' Micropoecilia minima'' ( W. J. E. M. Costa &

Sarraf Sarraf or al-Sarraf (; ) is an Arabic and Persian surname. It translates to money changer. It is considered an occupational surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Pawan Sarraf (born 2000), Nepalese cricketer *Yacoub Sarraf Yacoub R ...

, 1997) * '' Micropoecilia picta'' (

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

, 1913) (Swamp guppy) The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus is ''

Micropoecilia parae ''Micropoecilia'' is a genus of poeciliids native to fresh and brackish water from the Amazon Basin to Trinidad. While recognized as valid by FishBase, others have considered this genus as being synonymous with ''Poecilia''. Species There are c ...

'' but this is not included within the genus by Fishbase but other workers have recovered this species within the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Micropoecilia'' of ''Poecilia'', arguing that ''Micropoecilia'', alongside the subgenera '' Acanthophacelus'', ''

Limia ''Limia'' is a genus of livebearing fishes belonging to the Cyprinodontiform family Poeciliidae, which includes other livebearers such as platys, swordtails (genus ''Xiphophorous''), guppies and mollies (genus ''Poecilia''). They are found i ...

'', ''

Pamphorichthys ''Pamphorichthys'' is a genus of poeciliids native to the Amazon, Paraguay, São Francisco and Itapicuru basins in South America. Some authorities consider ''Pamphorichthys'' to be a subgenus of ''Poecilia''. Species There are currently six re ...

'' and '' Mollienesia'' should all be retained as subgenera of ''Poecilia'', which is remains a monopyletic clade in this classification. This is partly to ensure the conserving of the

guppy The guppy (), also known as millionfish and rainbow fish, is one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, like almost all ...

(''Poecilia reticulata'') as a species within the genus due to its familiarity as a study organism.

References

External links

Petfish.net: Description of the painted guppy Global Biodiversity Information Facility: Micropoecilia paraeZipcodezoo.com: Branner's Livebearer
Cyprinodontiformes Freshwater fish genera Taxa named by Carl Leavitt Hubbs Ray-finned fish genera {{Cyprinodontiformes-stub pl:Micropoecilia