feeder guppies

[stik6shift98]

anyone breed them.....do some turn out to look like fancy ones?

[Stephen]

From my experience the fry never get very big and they have small numbers. The bigger the guppy the more fry usually. I've also read feeder guppies are usually wild guppies grown in large numbers in ponds, extremely inbred, and not at all healthy. I'm sure there are fancy guppies produced in this way also though. From the batches I had of feeder guppies breeding the adult fish were always small, and at least half the batch never made it to adulthood.

If you're interested in breeding guppies. Go for the fancy guppies. They are usually much larger, more colorful, bigger batches of fry, healthier babies and adults, and you can limit what male breeds your female. Just keep in mind a female can produce fry by saving sperm. From what I've read they can have up to 5 batches from one insemination. You can also work for a certain color strain if you're willing to devote the time and effort and reduce inbreeding.

I've seen some pretty male feeder guppies though. Just they are always so small. The females are usually the same.

If you just want something cheap, easy to breed, and you don't care about the results then by all means. Feeder guppies...

[ChilDawg]

I am sure that, since they are wild-type, as Firefighter says, you could eventually get fancy-looking fancy strains of guppies, but that would be a long time in coming. Fancy guppies would be easier to breed those traits in, since they are already there.

One thing about fancy guppies--according to the April '03 issue of AFM (no, I am not mis-typing, April '03!), most are kept in near-seawater salinity on Oriental fish farms. This is one of the leading causes of fin deterioration in males (and later, females, too!), since hobbyists tend to keep them in normal tap water, dechlorinated, of course.

[O-man21]

I breed them, e-mail me if you want some, there not near as pretty as the store bought delta-tailed guppys, they look more like the esties (ester..I unno) livebearers. I'll have pics of them too.

[stik6shift98]

ya send me pics...

the reason im asking is i wanna have food for my fish all the time and maybe i was thinking id get a couple fancies or something out of it as well....

thanks