I let mine all breed willy nilly LOL! and I got amazing colors. I got 2 that look like rainbow trout. all the way down to the super long tails. a total rainbow effect. there beautiful.
Guppy breeding--colors in offspring
- Thread starter Fishstix3000
- Start date
Marv--i did not know that it is normal to have a throwback to wild size and coloration from time to time, but I have had it happen! I brought home a beautiful orange tail female who let loose a dozen fry or so a couple of weeks later. Two of them have developed into miniature guppies with black dots and orange dashes on their sides. It has been about three months, and they haven't gotten any larger. I wonder if that is what happened!!
I had two guppies, one with blue fins and tail, the other with yellow fins and tail. The offspring are ALL different.
One with red top fin, blue tail fin and side fins, some half black and normal, all different colors in my tank.
One with red top fin, blue tail fin and side fins, some half black and normal, all different colors in my tank.
so no green guppy red?You know, blue and yellow. I got some new young female guppy and no males,going to raise them to be healthy before putting in a lucky male 
Guppy breeders are always trying to develop a pure strain. A strain is when any two individuals in this group are bred together the offspring they produce looks exactly like the parents. This is also called inbred line breeding. This process has allowed for the selection of the many different types of guppies that we see today.
There are several major problems with this type of breeding.
1) Pathogens - all of the individuals are susceptible to the the same bugs.
2) Deleterious Recessive Genes - These are expressed as the line becomes more fixed.
3) Lack of vigor - inbred lines are often slower growing, smaller, infertile, and just plain week.
Now if you want to be a guppy breeder than this is just the price that you pay. For the home aquarist you usually just want to have the coolest looking fish that you can in the tank.
This is when you can take advantage of hybrid vigor. This is a term that refers relatively greater strength that individuals with greater genetic diversity have (up to a point). The traits that are usually associated with is growth, disease resistance, and fertility. This also allows you to see some combination of traits that are impossible in inbred lines.
When keeping guppies in the home aquaria there are a few important things to do to keep genetic diversity.
Cull out undesirable offspring regularly. It's called the millionfish for a reason and you've got to find some way of disposing of some offspring. If you can't cull, then make sure you don't have babies.
Add a new individual once or twice a year. No matter how diverse your original starting population the number of fish you have in your tank is small. This means that over time the population will slowly shift to being inbred. This is not the wildtype. This is simply a selection towards the most successful male. In guppies males with shorter fins who are faster swimmers are generally winners. By adding a new individual you can keep the genetics more diverse and prettier.
There are several major problems with this type of breeding.
1) Pathogens - all of the individuals are susceptible to the the same bugs.
2) Deleterious Recessive Genes - These are expressed as the line becomes more fixed.
3) Lack of vigor - inbred lines are often slower growing, smaller, infertile, and just plain week.
Now if you want to be a guppy breeder than this is just the price that you pay. For the home aquarist you usually just want to have the coolest looking fish that you can in the tank.
This is when you can take advantage of hybrid vigor. This is a term that refers relatively greater strength that individuals with greater genetic diversity have (up to a point). The traits that are usually associated with is growth, disease resistance, and fertility. This also allows you to see some combination of traits that are impossible in inbred lines.
When keeping guppies in the home aquaria there are a few important things to do to keep genetic diversity.
Cull out undesirable offspring regularly. It's called the millionfish for a reason and you've got to find some way of disposing of some offspring. If you can't cull, then make sure you don't have babies.
Add a new individual once or twice a year. No matter how diverse your original starting population the number of fish you have in your tank is small. This means that over time the population will slowly shift to being inbred. This is not the wildtype. This is simply a selection towards the most successful male. In guppies males with shorter fins who are faster swimmers are generally winners. By adding a new individual you can keep the genetics more diverse and prettier.
Can endlers livebearers breed with fancy guppies? The mother was definetely a fancy guppy, that is the only kind of fish I had at the time other than some catfish, pleco etc. I've never had feeder guppies or endlers livebearers. Weird.
