Julius GOLLMER, a German pharmacist living in Venezuela, took pride in his pastime, biology. Between 1857 and 1858, he sent several shipments of various insects, animals, fish and plants to the Zoological Museum, the Zoological Park and the Botanical Garden in Berlin. GOLLMER's first shipment to the Museum was well received and he was paid 100 "Reichstaler", but the Museum took less notice of his subsequent deliveries that included 61 colourful fish, caught in the Rio Guayre near his home in Caracas during 1856, and these were condemned in the archives. GOLLMER was naturally unhappy about this and over the years contact between GOLLMER and the Museum faded until GOLLMER eventually died in 1861.

In 1857 the Museum underwent a change of curator in the form of W PETERS, who succeeded Heir LIECHTENSTEIN who died that year. It wasn't until 1859 that PETERS examined the fish in the archives and made the first scientific description of them. He named the species Poecilia reticulata, but amazingly he only described the females. GOLLMER had sent males and females to Germany.

Meanwhile in 1866, Reverend John Lechmere GUPPY, another collector from Trinidad, sent some fish to the London Museum, where A. GÜNTHER named the species Giradinus guppyi, not recognising PETERS earlier description because PETERS had only described the females.

Back in Berlin, where GOLLMER's (female) fish were listed as Poecilia reticulata, two other jars that also contained males were eventually registered as Giradinus guppyi. This obviously could only have happened after 1866.

The reason for the delay in describing the males by PETERS is not clearly understood. It is known that GOLLMER had shipped males and females in the same jars and although he may have been no ichthyologist, when catching the fish he should have noticed the obvious colour differences between the two sexes and put them in separate jars. Despite this, PETERS, who was educated in ichthyology, should have certainly known about the sexual dimorphism of Poecilids as HECKEL had described the two sexes of the green swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri) as early as 1848. The labelling of GOLLMER's jars, the lack of communication between Berlin and GOLLMER and the theory that PETERS did not know that the fish are livebearing, may have compounded the confusion. The latter fact wasn't recognised until much later when Poecilids were kept in by hobbyists in aquaria.

By 1853, zoos in Britain, France, Germany, and elsewhere were featuring aquariums with fish. Subsequently several people were among the first to 'discover' the Guppy between 1853 and 1859 and numerous synonyms for the Guppy were born.

1908 saw the first import of living Guppies (as Giradinus guppyi) to Germany by SIGGELKOW and in the following years the fish itself and the common name Guppy spread worldwide.

During REGAN's revision of the Genus Poecilidae in 1913 both stocks from the Berlin and London Museums were recognised to be the same species and renamed Lebistes reticulatus (acknowledging PETERS description as the first valid one). A further revision by ROSEN and BAILEY in 1963 changed the species name Poecilia reticulata, making PETERS 1859 description valid again.

The story unfortunately does not end here. Again Poecilidae is under review and a return to the name Lebistes reticulatus looks imminent for the Guppy. But who knows, maybe in a quirky twist of fate some scientist somewhere may acknowledge the contribution originally made by GOLLMER and rename the species Poecilia gollmer.