Gambusia holbrooki
Eastern Mosquitofish
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
There are no photos available for this taxon yet.
Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Cyprinodontiformes
Poeciliidae (Livebearers)
Gambusia
Gambusia holbrooki (Eastern Mosquitofish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
FishBase (Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2025. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version 04/2025.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
Learn more about our species accounts.
Characters
Body shape: fusiform / normal.
Distribution
Introduced worldwide in tropical and subtropical countries. North America: Atlantic and Gulf Slope drainages from New Jersey south to Alabama in USA (Ref. 5723). Established throughout southern Europe (Ref. 59043). Introduced for mosquito control, but had rare to non-existing effects on mosquitoes, and negative to perhaps neutral impact on native fishes (Ref. 12217).
Habitat Associations
Freshwater, brackish. benthopelagic. Found in: streams.
Biology
Adults occur in standing to slow-flowing water, mostly in vegetated ponds and lakes, backwaters and quiet pools of steams (Ref. 5723), typically seen shoaling at the edges (Ref. 44894). They also frequent brackish water (Ref. 5723). Adults feed on small terrestrial insects usually in the drift and amongst aquatic plants, actively selecting very small prey (Ref. 6154). Also observed to take in mosquito larvae (Ref. 41168). Introduced worldwide. Introductions to Europe have seriously threatened many endemic species (Ref. 59043). It is now widely accepted that their effect has been minimal and even may have exacerbated the problem due to their voracious appetite for natural invertebrate predators of mosquito larvae (Ref. 44894).
Max length: 4.7 cm TL; max age: 1 years.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: internal (oviduct); bearers (internal live bearers); parental care: maternal. Matures at 4-6 weeks; 3 generations can be produced in one year. Gestation lasts 3-4 weeks. Brood may reach up to 354 young, but is generally around 40-60 (Ref. 1672, 59043).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-02-06. Resilience: High (tm<1; multiple spawning per year).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: commercial; aquarium: commercial.
References
Spillman, C.-J. (1961) Faune de France: Poissons d'eau douce. Fédération Française des Sociétés Naturelles,Tome 65. Paris. 303 p.
Page, L.M. and B.M. Burr (1991) A field guide to freshwater fishes of North America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 432 p.
Arthington, A.H. (1989) Diet of Gambusia affinis holbrooki, Xiphophorus helleri, X. maculatus, and Poecilia reticulata (Pisces: Poeciliidae) in streams of southeastern Queensland, Australia. Asian Fish. Sci. 2:193-212.
Wischnath, L. (1993) Atlas of livebearers of the world. T.F.H. Publications, Inc., United States of America. 336 p.
García-Berthou, E. (1999) Food of introduced mosquitofish: ontogenetic diet shift and prey selection. J. Fish Biol. 55(1):135-147.
Avise, J.C., A.G. Jones, D. Walker, J.A. DeWoody, B. Dakin, A. Fiumera, D. Fletcher, M. Mackiwicz, D. Pearse, B. Porter and S.D. Wilkins (2002) Genetic mating systems and reproductive natural histories of fishes: lessons for ecology and evolution. Annu. Rev. Genet. 36:19-45.
Tarkan, A.S., O. Gaygusuz, H. Acipinar, C. Gürsoy and M. Ozulug (2006) Length-weight relationship of fishes from the Marmara region (NW-Turkey). J. Appl. Ichthyol. 22:271-273.
Comments On Gambusia holbrooki