cool Gambusia Affins or Holbrooki

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How much difference is there between these two gambusia? I have been catching what i assume to be Gambusia affinis for many years probably many thousands of them as fish food, I've seen maybe two or three females with spots. I have seen the top minnows with spots but not in the wild. I've caught one melanistic red fin pickerel. He was really cool, I wanted to add him to my breeding stock but he jumped out of the quarantine tank through a small hole I was unaware of.
 
Affins/holbrooki are more common species in everywhere than rhizophorae which know as MANGROVE mosquitofish which are brackish water but can adapted to freshwater life. Mangrove mosquitofish males are much bigger than the affinis/holbrooki males and the mangrove are colorful (blue, yellow, red speen on its fins0 and has spotted pattern on non melanistic ones. Here the picture of normal colored Gambusia rhizophorae.

normalone.jpg
 
I saw a Mosquitofish like that in a dirty drainage dith in Florida. Near a Church there's a little gulley thats definately drainage (it is muddy, overgrown, and about 8 feet wide and it runs uder the road. I was with my Mom. We ran and got breakfast, and while we were there I ordered 2 slices of bread to feed the fish in the gulley, cuz I had seen 2 big fish chasing eachother around. (Originally I thought they were Sunfish, but now I'm thinking Cichlid, like Firemouth. I'm gonna have to go fishing there next year.) Anway, only tiny Mosquitofish took the bread. Swarms of them! (When I was bored in school I drew a Jaws! cover title but with Gambusias dragging down bread.) I saw what I assumed was a Molly or Platie (Platy?) mixed in with the Mosquitofish, it had black spots. I was pretty far away, but could easily make it out. (It seemed to everywhere, so I guess there were more than 1 and I just thought it was one, like the Three Amigos) I wished that I had brought a dipnet. I would've tried hand catching....it worked for me once when Killifish were thick in Cape Cod...but I was afraid of Alligators, Turtles, Crocodiles, Loveland Frog...
etc etc. It was probably man made, maybe connected to a water way (it was pretty stagnant) but Im thinking Mosquitofish may have traveled thru it during rainstorms and the Firemouths? were dumped.
 
BTW if you like Mosquitofish, go to Punta Gorda. They won't let you siene, but you can net off your own property ( long-handled, fine-meshed, wide mouthed dipnet) or I guess if you're staying in someone's house. (Staying there with their permission, of course.:ROFL:)
In SW canals you can find Mangrove Gambusia, (but keep them in a shallow individual container. I netted one that caughed up a parasitic Sea Louse into my hand from its gill! I guess it was stressed from being out of water more than the fish so he bailed out...
In FW, where there is water, there are Livebearers.
In SW (and FW) even if you dont get Gambusia species you get stuff like Needlefish, Mojarras, baby Grouper, Snapper, Sea Catfish. In FW you get everything from every imaginable parts of the world! lol
 
MN_Rebel;2172458; said:
Affins/holbrooki are more common species in everywhere than rhizophorae which know as MANGROVE mosquitofish which are brackish water but can adapted to freshwater life. Mangrove mosquitofish males are much bigger than the affinis/holbrooki males and the mangrove are colorful (blue, yellow, red speen on its fins0 and has spotted pattern on non melanistic ones. Here the picture of normal colored Gambusia rhizophorae.
Click to expand...
I caught a Mangrove Gambusia and it was dark Grayish Blue with a black spot, just like G. Affins. I guess its possible that ir was a G. Holbrooki or Affins, but the canal is all-salt. Affins/Holbrooki can live in salt, right?
 
Affinis/holbrooki can surivive in brackish water to full marine saltwater and even reproduce in it. So its possible that you caught a holbrooki.
 
Old post. Forgive me! But I have some new info. Some melanistic males may be supermales, Mosquitofish that turn into males and pick up a marbled pattern along the way. BTW I say this with 2 Mosquitofish in my room (And 5 White Cloud Minnows):clap:headbang2
t-mosquitofish-supermale.jpg
Supermale!! (This site calls em Mosquitofish or "Ditch Minnows."
 
A supermale is just happened to have two Ys instead of XY gene.
 
[FONT=&quot]That is a strange place for a gonopodium.
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Roberto C. Wells;2309355; said:
[FONT=&quot]That is a strange place for a gonopodium.[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Thats because it is new species of Mosquitofish...instead of had to bend the fins to the females while sneaking up her, they can easy to copulate the female that way...Called Gambusia upsidodowna :ROFL:
 
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