Hey. So i just bought a bunch of feeder guppies from my LFS with the intention of culling out many of the males and introducing fancy males to breed with. I was wondering how I could tell if I had any of the aggressive gambusia mixed in as I've heard they tend to be.
Telling Gambusia apart from Guppies
- Thread starter phillyfishman
- Start date
I'm no expert on the matter, but - female mosquitofish and female guppies will look very similar, just like female Endlers will look very similar to female fancy guppies. Most female fancy guppies have a little color to their fins, not much. The Gambusias are practically colorless on their fins. Here's pics:
Female guppy:
http://www.breeding-guppies.com/images/62364260.DlmpoMRh.IMG_072801.jpg
Female Gambusia:
http://darwin.uky.edu/~sargent/gambusia_female2.jpg
Mostly, you can just tell by their behavior. Gambusias are very aggressive and are known to nip and nip until the fish in their crosshairs is dead.
The males should be easy to tell the difference - most feeder guppy males look like Endler males crossed with guppy. Sometimes male feeder guppies can look surprisingly like pure Endler males. Endler guppy hybrids can look quite odd, here's an example:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YjQIfAzTfZo/SOI24HLz12I/AAAAAAAAAHA/0leYqr7Vw9g/s320/hybrid.jpg
In my opinion pure Endlers are much more appealing.
Female guppy:
http://www.breeding-guppies.com/images/62364260.DlmpoMRh.IMG_072801.jpg
Female Gambusia:
http://darwin.uky.edu/~sargent/gambusia_female2.jpg
Mostly, you can just tell by their behavior. Gambusias are very aggressive and are known to nip and nip until the fish in their crosshairs is dead.
The males should be easy to tell the difference - most feeder guppy males look like Endler males crossed with guppy. Sometimes male feeder guppies can look surprisingly like pure Endler males. Endler guppy hybrids can look quite odd, here's an example:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YjQIfAzTfZo/SOI24HLz12I/AAAAAAAAAHA/0leYqr7Vw9g/s320/hybrid.jpg
In my opinion pure Endlers are much more appealing.
Nope. Gambusia are in a different genus. Wolves and dogs are in the same genus; Koi and carp are even the same species. Guppies are to wild guppies as dogs are to wolves. Guppies are to Gambusia as dogs are to foxes.
It's so hard to say for sure what is what. But if I'm correct then a good quarter of them are mosquito fish. They dart around with each other taking pecks and they are colored with an orange head with black spots that get denser toward the back to a black tail.
EDIT: And some have orange at the very tip of the tail. The others are smaller, very shy, and practically colorless.
EDIT: And some have orange at the very tip of the tail. The others are smaller, very shy, and practically colorless.
They actually are starting to look like Platies to me. And they keep trying to school with my Platies.
Take some pics. If you're mistaking guppies with platys I don't think me telling you how to ID gambusia from guppies is going to help you. (Not trying to be critical, it's just hard to explain how to ID fish to people without pointing out differences on pictures).
Gambusia can be kept with guppies, I have done so before. I don't think the aggression level is much different, they tend to act about the same.
If you bought them as feeders, they're most likely hybrids anyway. It's rare for feeders (which are just stuck in a pond and allowed to breed indiscriminately) to be pure. They're usually mixed with endlers and such. And yes, you can also end up with platys and mosquitofish and stuff in bags of feeders. They're bred to be fed to other fish, so keeping the species within the mix pure isn't a worry for people spawning them. I've seen minnows and all kinds of stuff end up in bags of feeder "guppies".
If you actually want to breed fancy guppies it's best to start with stock that's known to be pure.
Gambusia can be kept with guppies, I have done so before. I don't think the aggression level is much different, they tend to act about the same.
If you bought them as feeders, they're most likely hybrids anyway. It's rare for feeders (which are just stuck in a pond and allowed to breed indiscriminately) to be pure. They're usually mixed with endlers and such. And yes, you can also end up with platys and mosquitofish and stuff in bags of feeders. They're bred to be fed to other fish, so keeping the species within the mix pure isn't a worry for people spawning them. I've seen minnows and all kinds of stuff end up in bags of feeder "guppies".
If you actually want to breed fancy guppies it's best to start with stock that's known to be pure.
They probably won't hybridize anyway. Gambusia's and guppies can be crossed, but usually people actually have to try for that to happen. And you'll know if they do, the fry will be drab and infertile so it's not really a problem with interbreeding.
PS: It's not even like a dog and a fox or a dog and a wolf, it's more like a dog and a... umm... hyena.
PS: It's not even like a dog and a fox or a dog and a wolf, it's more like a dog and a... umm... hyena.
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