2 Guppy Hybrid Questions

[keithp]

Can guppies breed with any type of guppy? If they can, is that why so many colors are available?

And can guppies breed with mollies? I read on here they can, but since mollies need a little salt in the water and guppies I dont think need that, would the offspring need to be raised like guppies or mollies?

Anyone have guppy/molly hybrid pics?

 

[theshanteeman]

yes any guppy can breed with any other guppy. i have heard of guppies being able to crossbreed with sword tails, platies, moons, and edlers. i have not heard of or conducted any experiments myself requarding guppies and mollies.

 

[LauraFrog]

All livebearers are healthier with salt in the water. Mollies happen to require it, and will probably not survive too long in freshwater. It doesn't hurt any livebearer to up the salt though.

Guppy x platy or guppy x sword = MYTH. Genetically impossible. I don't know what a moon is, but also likely to be a myth.

Guppy strains are all made up of one or two species, and they can all interbreed. Most of the different strains were created by generation upon generation of linebreeding, and so now all the individual strains are so inbred that most of their vigour is gone. The hardy 'millions fish' that could be kept anywhere has retreated to the realm of specialist aquarists, for the sake of some more fancy patterns and fins so big the fish can't swim properly. It's a real crying shame. This means that fish from crossed strains are often tougher because a measure of hybrid vigour is being re-introduced - although admittedly they are still very weak. The mixing of colours and patterns is somewhat unpredictable - sometimes the combination of strains results in very pleasing fry, and sometimes they are ugly and largely colourless. It's very difficult to predict the outcome until you make the cross, but all guppy strains can interbreed, even though sometimes this shouldn't be done.

Guppy x endler - common. The Endler's livebearer (Poecilia wingeii) is just another species of wild guppy. Some localities have extremely colourful strains, which got exported to the pet trade. If you have a look at a pure endler, take a little bit of the vibrancy of the colours away and that's what true guppies were before humans started stuffing with them. By crossing guppies and endlers, we can end up with the stunning markings of endlers with some of the refined patterns of the fancy guppy like snakeskin or lace.

Guppy x molly - guppies and mollies are in the same genus, and this is theoretically possible. Certainly the usual 'molly' you see at the pet store is a hybrid of up to three different species. It's much more likely that the 'standard' molly, largely Poecilia sphenops, could breed with a guppy than a sailfin.
Guppy/molly hybrids are reported all the time, but few have ever been confirmed. Most of the fish born are a result of artificial insemination and do not survive to maturity. A molly/guppy hybrid that actually survives, properly, is still unknown.

 

[keithp]

Thanks for the great info!

 

[Spishkey]

here, did a bit of googling and came up with a pic


supposedly a guppy/molly hybrid! do,t know how real it is but its from another fish forum

 

[nosoup4you]

There's a link to a picture of a Guppy x Molly accompanying the Guppy Wiki page...

http/www.hippocampus-bildarchiv.de/tier_...iliaHYBRIDE.htm

 

[pippoodle]

see Adrian hd's posts for picks in this thread [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=236306"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=236306[/URL]

possible hybrid in this family are

Molly X Guppy / Endler
Molly X Limia
Limia X Guppy / Endler
Guppy / Endler X Gambusia Vitatta
Girardinus Metallicus X Formosa
Poecilia Picta X Guppy/Endler

 

[R_F]

hi, i registered just to reply here.

I have successfully crossed a silver sailfin molly(male) with a yellow grass guppy(female). I have new videos on youtube showing these hybrid fish. As of today, they are 13 weeks old and healthy and still developing. It certainly is possible to cross these fish, but admittedly difficult and time consuming. It took roughly 2 years before a successful pregnancy.

8 weeks: http/www.youtube.com/user/raidenfanign?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/MR20-pn4sn8

10 weeks: http/www.youtube.com/user/raidenfanign?feature=mhum#p/u/7/PF5ZhhRaM6A

http/www.youtube.com/user/raidenfanign?feature=mhum

*i hope the links work.

 

[ricefish]

"All livebearers are healthier with salt in the water. Mollies happen to require it, and will probably not survive too long in freshwater. It doesn't hurt any livebearer to up the salt though."


Sorry to say that this is not true!many livebearers inc a lot of Mollies do not require salt,but some Mollies will live in saltwater and freshwater
it's more to do with hardness and TDS,and of course water quality
not on topic but relevant

 

[VaegaVic]

"All livebearers are healthier with salt in the water. Mollies happen to require it, and will probably not survive too long in freshwater. It doesn't hurt any livebearer to up the salt though."


Sorry to say that this is not true!many livebearers inc a lot of Mollies do not require salt,but some Mollies will live in saltwater and freshwater
it's more to do with hardness and TDS,and of course water quality
not on topic but relevant

+1

 

[helterskelter]

hi, i registered just to reply here.

I have successfully crossed a silver sailfin molly(male) with a yellow grass guppy(female). I have new videos on youtube showing these hybrid fish. As of today, they are 13 weeks old and healthy and still developing. It certainly is possible to cross these fish, but admittedly difficult and time consuming. It took roughly 2 years before a successful pregnancy.

8 weeks: http/www.youtube.c...u/0/MR20-pn4sn8

10 weeks: http/www.youtube.c...u/7/PF5ZhhRaM6A

http/www.youtube.c...gn?feature=mhum

*i hope the links work.

Very intresting

Crosses are generaly very weak and rarly thrive.

Your's surly look like crosses and interesting.

Could you explain what you did and did you use virgin fish?

 

[VaegaVic]

I would also love to know the in's and out's.
There was another study done in to this recently as well.

Muppy Project on Aquaria Central.
http/www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200386

A seriously interesting good read there.
They seem to be very similar to yours, but almost reversed. Yours seem to be Mollies with guppy colours, where as the others seem to start off as guppies with molly features.

 

[R_F]

Very intresting

Crosses are generaly very weak and rarly thrive.

Your's surly look like crosses and interesting.

Could you explain what you did and did you use virgin fish?

Hi. Thanks.

Well... a little history first: I've been breeding HB Red guppies for a few years and have also bred a line of Yellow Grass guppies and others. I love guppies, but I've always kept a mating pair of silver sailfin mollies just because they look nice and make nice community fish... plus the LFS takes mollies for store credit.

I've always been intrigued by hybrid species and so my first endeavor was a line of endler/guppy crosses which, sadly after years of breeding, amounted to mostly washed-out, semi-metallic hybrids which did not breed true. You can actually see a few of the nicer specimens in my videos. Meanwhile, The silver mollies mated and I experimented with a few female molly fry from each drop. Over the course of two years, I had two successful pregnancies between virgin mollies and a select male guppy, but in each case the female molly developed health problems and died many weeks later... In each case, suffering something symptomatic of hemorrhagic septicemia.

Discouraged, I changed tactics. I chose a sexually mature sailfin molly and placed him in a female guppy holding tank. The females at that time were just under 4 months old ...and yes... I've always separated males and females as early as possible,(usually within 2 weeks of birth)... especially so with this line of yellow grass guppy, as line-breeding between brother/sister produced bad results in previous generations.

I really didn't expect any of the females to become pregnant. In fact, I worried the molly would harass the females to death...literally, but I left him there for a week and then moved him back to the main tank. I never actually checked on the females again(aside from feedings and a water change). About a month later, I began setting up to transport the Yellow Grass guppies to the LFS when I noticed the fry! In all, 16 babies were saved.

My only regret is knowing many more fry likely became fish food... but anyway, they are very happy and thriving today. Since these videos, they have become much more colorful and their fins have really grown out.

I will have another youtube update soon.

 

[mcqc4]

There's a link to a picture of a Guppy x Molly accompanying the Guppy Wiki page...

http/www.hippocampus-bildarchiv.de/tier_...iliaHYBRIDE.htm

Looks more like a molly/guppy hybrid to me. Molly body with a guppy tail which is totally a possibility.