I thought I’d found the world’s biggest mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) in my turtle pond, but she’s only 42.2mm in length. She looks much bigger than that. I figured that there’s a fair amount of selection pressure acting on the fish in the pond, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they grew to gigantic proportions.
My deceptively small female mosquitofish, with an Australian 5 cent coin for scale (coin is 19.4mm in diameter)
Stewart,
Just how sure are you it’s G. holbrooki, and not G. affinis?
And when you measure length, was it total length, or just to the caudal peduncle?
Cheers,
Steve
Measured to the caudal peduncle, as any true Gambusia biologist would do. I’m pretty sure it’s holbrooki, because someone older than me told me so. And if we can’t trust the elderly, who can we trust?
Stewart