So im trying a hybrid?

[Sunburnt]

A week ago I caught several 'mosquito eaters' from a local pond I fish at, and only decided to try to 'hybrid' because I have 3 beautiful marble males, I did take several full sized females to try with a male guppy if the male MS doesn't take to my female guppies.

So far ive just watched abuse! Its sad, but it seems all the males want to do is destroy the other males in the tanks, I took them out placing them in the treatment tank, but they are now attacking my females.

Im sad, and will be taking the males out to set free since they cant join the community, however ill try the females X male guppys sometime once the males fins heal.

Hopefully that will be soon! Pics once I can find my camera!

Opinions, suggestions, past experiences?

 

[Lab_Rat]

Don't release fish that have been in your aquarium into the wild. You can introduce all sorts of pathogens into the waterways that native fish have no resistance against.

 

[Sunburnt]

Really? Thanks for telling me.
Had I known i would not have tried this!

 

[Lab_Rat]

Yeah, in many places it's illegal to release fish from an aquarium into the wild. I would also rethink trying to cross those species, you could end up with some aggressive, not very attractive hybrids. Gambusia are not friendly fish.

 

[Khemul]

Are they chasing or actually hurting each other? Mosquito Fish are a bit more aggressive then guppies, but I've never seen actually doing any damage. Then again, I can't keep males alive in my 40 (where all the females are) and only have 1 male Mosquito Fish living with a bunch of guppies. It is a black & white though, so they may behave differently (not sure if they are a color-morph or a wild hybrid) then standard ones. It does chase the female Guppies and push the males around, but never does any damage and the chasing seems part of the breeding process.


Not sure on what combination works best. Male Mosquito Fish are about as big as female Guppies, so maybe a male Guppy/female Mosquito Fish combo would work better (although female Mosquito Fish make male Guppies look like fry :grinyes.


edit: I would agree that there isn't much point in crossing them, unless maybe you have some of the black & white varieties. Mosquito Fish basically look like colorless giant feeder guppies. Although a Giant Guppy line could be interesting, but it'd take many generations (and may not work anyways since this may have already been attempted to give Guppies their current size).

 

[Sunburnt]

Thanks for the suggestion, ill for sure rethink it, If anything comes from the time they have been together ill be sure to update this with pics,
thanks for your info!

 

[Fishfriend1]

lol, sounds like chaos... I have a female mosquito fish, it's about the same size as my mollies... but surprisingly nice, considering their reputation. She did seem to like the mollies she was with, but that could have just been due to being the same size... good luck!

~Travis

 

[jetajockey]

I don't think they are closely related enough to interbreed, but who knows. And why would you want to?

 

[Fishfriend1]

imagine, giant red and blue guppies that can survive in almost any water conditions... I can see why you would want them, I definitely wouldn't say no to 3in fancy guppies. And if aggression is an issue, hello, Betta much?

 

[Khemul]

I don't think they are closely related enough to interbreed, but who knows. And why would you want to?

They can cross. It is quite possible the larger captive Guppy strains have some Mosquito Fish in them (although I haven't heard it confirmed 100%). At the very least, it has been shown that they can cross but isn't necessarily easy. Plus figuring out whether you really do have a cross in something that basically looks like a giant colorless Guppy is a bit of a pain.