Any colour you like: new records of ornamental livebearers (Poeciliidae: Cyprinodontiformes) from freshwaters of Argentina.
Author
Terán, Guillermo E.
Fundación Miguel Lillo, Unidad Ejecutora Lillo (CONICET-FML), Miguel Lillo 251, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán
guilloteran@gmail.com
Author
Koerber, Stefan
Independent researcher. Friesenstr. 11, 45476 Muelheim, Germany. pecescriollos @ koerber-germany. de
pecescriollos@koerber-germany.de
Author
Stazzonelli, Juan Carlos
Fundación Miguel Lillo, Miguel Lillo 251, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
Author
Aguilera, Gastón
Fundación Miguel Lillo, Unidad Ejecutora Lillo (CONICET-FML), Miguel Lillo 251, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán
Author
Mirande, J. Marcos
Fundación Miguel Lillo, Unidad Ejecutora Lillo (CONICET-FML), Miguel Lillo 251, 4000 San Miguel de Tucumán
text
Ichthyological Contributions of PecesCriollos
2022
2022-03-15
80
1
8
journal article
298606
10.5281/zenodo.11558417
d37631a4-f113-42bf-abd6-10f034777748
1868-3703
11558417
Poecilia reticulata
and
Xiphophorus hellerii
– widely introduced around the globe
Among the family
Poeciliidae
,
Poecilia
Bloch & Schneider, 1801
, is the most diverse genus represented by 75 species (
Huber 2019
;
Fricke et al. 2022
), from which the guppy,
Poecilia reticulata
Peters, 1859
, is one of the most popular aquarium fish in the world (
fig. 22
;
Lucinda & Van der Sleen 2018
). This species is native from Northeastern South America and
Trinidad and Tobago
, with the
type
locality in the Guayre River in
Venezuela
. The native range of this species includes
Brazil
,
Guyana
,
Surinam
(
fig. 21
),
Venezuela
, and
Trinidad and Tobago
(Rosen & Bayley 1963;
Bragança et al. 2020
). Currently, its presence in natural environments is known to occur in almost 70 countries outside of the species’ native range (
Deacon et al. 2011
). Non-native populations are known from Asia, Africa, Australasia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and South America (
GBIF
2016). In South America,
Poecilia reticulata
has been recorded mostly in the northern region of the continent. The presence of this invasive species was confirmed from
Paraguay
(
Lucinda 2017
) and
Argentina
(
Rosso et al. 2017
), both records from the
Paraguay
River basin. The capacity of guppies to form large populations within the environment to which it was introduced could produce an increasing in competition with native fishes for food resources and changing rates of nutrient and/or organic-matter cycling (
López-Fuentes et al. 2021
).
Species of the genus
Xiphophorus
are native from
Belize
,
Guatemala
,
Honduras
, and especially
Mexico
. Nevertheless, two species of platies,
X. maculatus
(Günther, 1866)
and
X. variegatus
(Meek, 1904)
, and the swordtail
X. hellerii
Heckel, 1848
, have been introduced globally in many different countries and environments.
Xiphophorus hellerii
today is found as an introduced non-native species in self-substaining populations in over 30 countries, sometimes from multiple introductions in different places as e.g. in several distinct states of
Australia
or the
US
(
Maddern et al. 2011
;
Nico et al. 2021
). Most of these introductions have happened in areas with tropical or subtropical climate. Yet, the species is also found in colder areas where is has been introduced in thermal waters, as e.g. in
Hungary
(
Pandakov et al. 2021
), where it could surely not survive the harsh winters in natural ’unheated‘ water bodies which may even feature a frozen surface during winter.
In the present contribution we report for the first time the presence of
Xiphophorus hellerii
for
Argentina
and of
Poecilia reticulata
from
Tucumán
,
Argentina
.