Breeding Guppies

[molly girl]

my roommate has guppies, and they've successfully given birth to a brand new batch of fry! (they're so cute) but she was wondering if there are negative outcomes of breeding fish that are directly related. like if she put one of the offspring into the main tank when it's big enough, and it gets pregnant by it's father, will the fry be sick or anything?

 

[Ivana331]

"Let me say here that inbreeding guppies, even very close inbreeding, is not of itself harmful. Guppies will take close inbreeding for many generations many generations longer than most of us continue to work with any one strain --without significant loss of size or color or vigor. Dr. Eugene Larr and Dr. W. H. Hildeman, to mention only two genetic scientists who have exhaustively tested the effect of inbreeding on guppies, have both bred guppy strains brother to sister for over eighteen consecutive generations without loss of their desirable characteristics. When highly inbred strains develop serious genetic defects, and they often do, it is not because they have been inbred for a long time. It is because the guppy breeder picked fish to use as parents that had some invisible weakness. Though these weaknesses do not show in the parents, they will show up in succeeding generations --- usually in the form of deformities and/or lack of fertility."

I got this from this article: http/www.showguppies.com/outcrossing.htm

 

[molly girl]

thanks a lot! that helped a ton.

 

[helterskelter]

yes it's not a major problem but of course if you not carefull you could breed a bad trate over several years and get poor fish, you have to make sure that any runt fish are removed to stop this from happening.