So what is a pupfish ???

Magnum Man

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I was looking at some Jordanella floridae ( American Flag Fish ) & was reading somewhere, that they were KILLIFISHES... and another place, that said they were often grouped with Killi's, but are actually pupfish... my www. search was a not that informative as too the difference between Killi's and Pup's

The pupfish earned their name due to the playful way in which they frolic about like puppies
 
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Killifish isn't a scientific term, but a hobby one that's convenient for us. In all cases but one I know of (a tiny American livebearer called the 'least killifish') the fish are classified right by the hobby. Pupfish are an evolutionary sub group within the egg laying toothed carps (killies), in Cyprinidontidae. They're higher bodied and slightly dog-faced, in a bulldog way.

They're also North American. Flagfish are from Florida and are territorial egg-layers. Keeping them is completely different from African or South American killies. They like slow moving, weed choked hardwater. They're all around the drain off ditches around Orlando Airport. I almost had my rental car stolen learning that.

I have never seen one frolic, more like an alcoholic on the morning after. Mine have been kind of grouchy, although I quite liked them. They're tough little fish. Personally, I would never keep them in a community. They are for single species weedy tanks.

In one stream about twenty feet wide, they were in weed beds in the middle where I spotted them but couldn't catch them. Heterandria formosa, the least killifish from above we along the shallow, with bluefin killies in large shoals, all avoiding the weed clumps. There were also a few juvenile mollies, Poecilia latipinna, the American sailfins around.

A guy I gave some of the formosa/least killifish livebearers I caught there to gave me some of their descendants back a couple of weeks ago. I was there in 2015, so they are quite a few generations along. But I don't have flagfish. My water's too soft.
 
So, a Jordanella floridae, is not technically a pupfish???
 
It is a pupfish, but there is a fish that has the common name pupfish as well. It's a bit like there is one fish called a swordtail, but quite a few different related species with excellent swords as well.

There are also pupfish like killies in the middle east into Spain, through Iran. They used to be in the Genus Aphanius, though that has been divided up. Some are found in desert oasis habitats. They're really amazing, and in some cases (far from all) pretty.

The pupfish of the Americas and Caribbean have 120 different named species. Jordanella are included with them. A lot of them are illegal to keep, and most of the others are kind of ugly, and have no following.
 

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