the.com/guppy
a fish that gives live birth, hoards sperm, and out-breeds your patience
means A tiny, hardy freshwater fish popular in home aquariums, prized for its bright colors, easy care, and prolific breeding.
from Named after Robert John Lechmere Guppy, a 19th-century naturalist in Trinidad who sent specimens to the British Museum. The fish already had an earlier scientific name, but 'guppy' stuck — a rare case of a man's surname swimming into everyday speech and outliving the formal Latin he was credited with.
- live birth
- Delivers swimming babies, skipping eggs entirely
- sperm vault
- Females store sperm for months between mates
- mosquito killer
- Deployed worldwide to devour malaria-spreading larvae
- male flash
- Males evolve gaudy colors to seduce, risking predators
- instant cannibal
- Adults eat their own newborn fry
endler's livebearer — wild guppy species from venezuela's orinoco river, discovered 1937, more colorful than domesticated guppies
poecilia reticulata — scientific name for the domesticated guppy, native to trinidad and tobago, most popular aquarium fish worldwide
guppy plague — introduced guppies caused ecological collapse in hawaiian streams by 1950s, ate native insect larvae