New livebearer described from Costa Rica

82f0fe2a-de03-4b75-a58a-0f9ed3f91151

Editor's Picks
Practical Fishkeeping Readers' Poll 2023
Fishkeeping News Post
Readers' Poll 2023
07 August 2023
Fishkeeping News Post
Countdown for Finest Fest 2023
20 April 2023
Fishkeeping News Post
Pacific Garbage Patch becomes its own ecosystem
20 April 2023
Fishkeeping News Post
Newly described snails may already be extinct
20 April 2023


Costa Rican ichthyologist William Bussing has described a new species of livebearer from northwestern Costa Rica.

Describing Poeciliopsis santaelena as a member of the P. gracilis species complex in a recent issue of the journal Revista de Biologia Tropical, he distinguishes it from congeners in lacking lateral and ventral markings, having higher pectoral and caudal fin rays and with the dorsal fin more posteriorly displaced.

Poeciliopsis santaelena is named for the Peninsula Santa Elena that contains the Ro Potrero Grande, the only known locality of the new species.

The new species was collected in large shallow pools, along with the shrimps Macrobrachium americanum and Atya innocuous and the following species of fishes: Gobiomorus maculatus, Sicydium salvini, Agonostomus monticola and Eleotris picta.

For more information, see the paper: Bussing, WA (2008) A new species of poeciliid fish, Poeciliopsis santaelena, from Peninsula Santa Elena, Area de Conservacin Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Revista de Biologia Tropical 56, pp. 829"838.