When you put two words together like 'desert' and 'fish' you know you must have a highly adaptable animal. The various species of pupfish can tolerate a wide range of temperatures and high salinity. However most species of pupfish are seasonal, living their entire life cycle of only a few short months in a puddle of water that the desert sun will soon dry up.

The Desert Pupfish is also from a desert habitat but it is not one of the 'seasonal' species. This is because they don't live in water holes that dry up seasonally, and consequently they can live for upwards of two years. They do live in some stern conditions though. They are naturally occurring in hot springs and water holes where the temperatures can reach as high 113° F (45° C) and have salt concentrations up to six times greater than the ocean, up to a 20% salinity!