The Death Valley Pupfish is a small, silvery colored fish with 6–9 vertical dark bands on its sides.

[3] The males, often appearing in larger sizes compared to females, turn bright blue during mating season, April through October.

[1] They are thought to be the remainders of a large ecosystem of fish species that lived in Lake Manly, which dried up at the end of the last ice age leaving the present-day Death Valley.

[6] The Salt Creek subspecies is also found at River Springs and Soda Lake, in Death Valley National Park.

Numbers of individuals at the locations are highly seasonally variable, and fluctuate with water level and flow volume.