noun
- plural of pupfish; small, colorful freshwater fish found in isolated desert springs and pools, often endangered
Usage: usually plural; zoology
Examples
- Pupfishes are among the rarest fish species in North America.
- The desert pupfishes have adapted to extreme conditions in isolated springs.
- Scientists work to protect endangered pupfishes from extinction.
- Several species of pupfishes live only in a single spring or pool.
- Pupfishes can survive in water with high salinity that would kill most other fish.