Original description as Poecilia sphenops:
- Cuvier, Georges & A. Valenciennes. 1846. "Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome dix-huitième. Suite du livre dix-huitième. Cyprinoïdes. Livre dix-neuvième. Des Ésoces ou Lucioïdes". Histoire naturelle des poissons. 18:1-505 (ffm00015)
Synonyms (2):
- Molinesia surinamensis Müller & Troschel, 1844, with type locality at Mexico. Determiner: Poeser, 2003
- Gambusia plumbea Troschel, 1865, with type locality at Mexico. Determiner: Rosen & Bailey, 1963
- Poecilia spilurus Günther, 1866, with type locality at Central America. Determiner: Rosen & Bailey, 1963
- Mollienesia sphenops macrura Hubbs, 1935, with type locality at Río San Pedro de Mártir, at El Paso de Los Caballos, Guatemala. Determiner: Rosen & Bailey, 1963
- Mollienesia sphenops vantynei Hubbs, 1935, with type locality at Río Hondo basin, Uaxactún, Guatemala. Determiner: Rosen & Bailey, 1963
- Mollienesia sphenops altissima Hubbs, 1936, with type locality at Miramar Spring, 1 kilometer southwest of Talcha, Yucatán, Mexico. Determiner: Poeser, 2003
- Mollienesia sphenops pallida de Buen, 1943, with type locality at Plaza La Bocana del Río Marqués, Mexico. Determiner: Poeser, 2003
Conservation: Poecilia sphenops is not evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species.