I’ve been meaning to do a little how to on getting into the guppy game whether it’s for fun, show or a little bit of pocket money so here it is.
Guppies are probably the easiest tropical fish to keep. They don’t need high heat, are undemanding in terms of pH, don’t require any sort of special diet, don’t need tons of space, thrive in groups and breed readily.
Pretty much every person who’s ever kept a tropical tank has had guppies before. They’re icons of the hobby, and with good reason. But if you want to make something special out of them, you’re gonna have to do the legwork. Which brings me to my first point:
1. CHOOSING A VARIETY.
If you want to succeed at breeding seriously, your best bet is to go for an established line and keep that going for a bit before you start doing anything bananas like outcrossing. If you’re interested in wild guppies, bear in mind that genetic diversity should be your top priority. Different people would probably give you different spiels on what kind of domestic lines to go for, but I’m gonna be honest here. Go for something you love. I mean goddamn, you’re going to be producing them for a while, so go for something you won’t get sick of looking at. The only thing I will say is to steer clear of any varieties with altered finnage such as ribbonfins. Any mutation that alters the shape of the male guppy’s gonopodium will make the males infertile. Females can still breed with non ribbon males, but it’s an added difficulty. Pet store animals are a bad idea, since their genetics are totally unknown. Also be aware that certain albino lines, particularly full reds, are prone to fertility issues. Bearing that in mind, the choice is up to you!
2. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE AIMING FOR
What’s your goal with this line of yours? Is it colour, pattern, fin size and shape? Are you breeding to a standard? If you’re looking to sell, you need to make people actually want to buy animals from you. If so, why should people spend their money on your fish, what makes them so special? These are all things you’ll have to figure out on your own - before you start breeding.
3. BREEDING TRUE
What this means is ensuring your animals only produce animals that look like them. I’d recommend starting with a small group of 3-4 pairs, all of the same kind. Whatever setup you choose, the females should outnumber the males at least 2:1 so no single female is getting unduly harassed. Once you’ve got your pairs, remove all but the best male. Keep the other males as backups in case the worst should happen to the chosen one. If any of the females are rather unfortunate looking or weak, remove them as well (and get the breeder in a headlock and demand to know why they sold you bunk fish). Make sure you’ve got good food, clean water and comfortable water parameters, and fry will naturally follow.
4. SELECTING FRY
All goes well, and you’ll soon have your second generation of guppies flitting about. The selection process starts pretty much as soon as they’re large enough for you to see faults. Immediately remove any with physical issues such as bent backs, kinked tails, malformed fins etc. Also remove any ‘runty’ animals that fail to thrive. Don’t be tempted to keep them - you’re poisoning the genepool if you do. It’s better to focus your energy and resources on the healthiest animals to give them to best possible start. Don’t fall into the trap of focusing on the males alone. The female is the one who carries the fry, so if she’s weak or ugly, your fry will be too! What you want is the strongest, best looking females and the strongest, best looking males. Always have a few holdbacks, but remember not to keep too many males. A single male can service multiple females at once, but too many males together will cause fighting. After a few rounds of fry, you should have the next generation of breeding groups made up of only your absolute best, as well as some holdbacks for safekeeping. Remember, if by some stroke of misfortune you end up with no males, all is not lost! Females can carry sperm from previous matings for a long time, so don’t rush to outcross when there’s still a chance to salvage things!
5.1 OUTCROSSING - IS IT FOR YOU?
That’s what most of us are probably here for, isn’t it? The ability to make our very own line of unique, true breeding guppies by mixing other strains is one of the biggest draws of the hobby. It’s a powerful tool that requires a lot of work, time and dedication to get right, but it’s worth it when you do. Just understand that it may be many, many generations of little guppies and disappointment before you get close to your ideal fish.
5.2 OUTCROSSING - SENSIBLE STRAIN MIXING
Everyone’s seen those listings on eBay or wherever where someone’s thrown a pair of totally unrelated random animals together and is bragging about how it’s the first time this particular cross has been attempted. There’s usually a reason for that. My personal favourite was a recent listing I saw trying to sell Snow White/Dragon cross fry. The Snow White, as implied, is a pure white fish free of any other pattern or colour, that may or may not be albino depending on the line. Dragons, on the other hand, are bred specifically for their striking patterns and brilliant colour, even on the females. What the seller was obviously aiming for was the Snow White body with the Dragon finnage. What they got was a group of fry where 50% looked like worse versions of either parent, and 50% greyish looking messes. It’s far better to combine strains that have similarities than strains from total opposite ends of the spectrum - it’ll get you where you want to go much faster, and it’ll be easier to find homes for spare animals.
5.3 OUTCROSSING - HOW TO OUTCROSS EFFECTIVELY
This of course depends on what you’re aiming for - whether it’s colour or fin type or just a single gene like albino that you’re trying to get into your line. Your best shot is to keep back a few clean females from your established line. This means females that have been separated from all males since the earliest point you could tell the difference. Pre-hit females won’t work, as they can store sperm from previous breedings and totally skew your plans. Next, get your hands on a breeding pair or several of the desired line to mix in. Keep the pair or pairs together to ensure you have backup true breeders of this new line, just in case. Once they’ve settled in and completed quarantine, introduce some of your clean females. It’s vitally important to make sure these females only ever breed with males of the new line, to give you a good starting pool of F1s.
5.4 OUTCROSSING - HOW TO NOT SCREW UP THE NEXT BIT
Let your first generation of selected fry from your cross reach adulthood. This will give you the best idea of where to go from here. How close are they to what you wanted? If the answer is “really close” then congrats, you’re a lucky bastard and I’m jealous. The best idea for you would be to breed together animals that best fit your ideal from your F1s, and take it from there. But for most of us, it’s a bit more difficult than that. Maybe the colour’s not right, maybe the fin type doesn’t look anything like the standard. In that case, it may be best to backcross - breeding one of the F1 females back to the original new line male or one of his true line descendants to try and fix those traits in. This can take GENERATIONS to get right, so don’t feel bad if you end up spending a year or more just trying to get the ideal breeding group.
5.5 OUTCROSSING - STARTING A LINE
So you’ve got your breeding group of ideal fish. Where do you go from here? Linebreeding is where you go. Once your new breeding group has fry and those fry grow, repeat the same process as before only without any other input from the line you crossed in. Pick out and breed only those animals that fit your ideal closest, and after much work and effort and time, you should end up with a group of fish that are what you set out to achieve. The most important thing at this point is to get them breeding true, and making sure they produce healthy fry. Once they’re true breeding, that’s it - your line is founded. Congratulations!
6. GET YOUR FISH OUT THERE
Whether it be a show line your perfected from another breeder’s animals, a rare wild guppy species you’ve helped preserve, or a line you founded yourself through careful outcrossing, share your success! Get on to guppy groups in your area and get involved, especially if you plan on showing. Guppy groups are also an excellent way to sell animals you don’t need, or to get unrelated pairs for genetic diversity in wild type strains.
guppy fry update! a few days old. they seem to have come in 2 different colors this time around :-O so psyched to see how they color up. found 7 of them total and mom looks like she’s gonna have more (livebearing fish are baby MACHINES).
Ok so to any of who have been paying attention , I put way to much italian val into my tank and almost all of it melted and didn't even come close to adjusting . So I did some changing around once again and this is how it looks now .
For all my followers if you ever have any questions involving guppies . Keeping them as regular pets or breeding etc . Please feel free to message me . There is no dumb questions if you do not know the answer !! I'm very happy to help and I love talking guppies.
