Bringing Out Colors In Breeding ?

[csfishkeeper]

A question for those of you who have been breeding. Have you found some colors to be dominant when mixing two different colored fish?

While I'm not exactly looking to create a new line per say, I am trying to create a yellow black bar endler by mixing common black bars with yellow guppies. It will be a few weeks before their first batches of fry grow big enough to see what happens for their coloring.

I figure that if I can get any amount of yellow to be passed down to the females, line breeding them back to the father should "in theory" help to develop the desired coloring.

Of course if the black bars have dominant colors versus the yellow guppies, no matter what or how long I try will result in the desired colors.

My endler males are not N class (pure) but certainly have the common characteristics, size and coloring.

 

[RRaquariums]

Well I haven't actually tried to get new colors in my guppies by breeding two different colors but when I breed whatever color I'm going for should be in the male since his colors seem to be the ones passed down more often then not.

 

[lefty07603]

Very interesting, and hopefully some others can add to this. This is a bit similar but not completely, I have found that the "Snakeskin" pattern is pretty easy to replicate and is pretty dominant. However, I have never mixed with endlers before. I probably will do in the future. Also, It would be interesting to see pictures of the batch once they develop colors! And I agree with RR, it seems the males colors tend to stick better with the next generation. I mostly use females for their size and shape. 

 

[fish48]

The  yellow color may not show up in the first group of fry. you will need to breed the same male back to one of females and have to repeat this for generations. It also helps if you know the background of the male that you are breeding from if it’s a normal pet shop fish . It may produce a mixture of colors .

 

[csfishkeeper]

Thanks for the replies. I've been reading as much as I can about breeding, but most of the info that I've found so far is specific to enhancing a certain color or shape. I haven't been able to find out a lot about creating new colors. Not sure if that is because it is too hard to do, or if no one has bothered to try.

I have begun with 3 variants of yellow guppy females. The first is yellow body with orange tail. The second is yellow body and sunset tail, and the third is all yellow. It will be a few more weeks before the fry are big enough to see what if any coloring is transferred from the female.

I've also got a common grey female with yellow and black in the tail, and her girls are all showing similar markings as they grow up, so I'm wondering if the principle is the same with colored females.

1st female:

The first the yellow females I purchased was pregnant when I got her, and her first few batches of fry were all born yellow. Not knowing what the father looked like, I cannot say why these fry were born that way. Now that she has just given birth to endler mixes on the 7th (this is her 7th batch overall) none are yellow, so I'm thinking that her coloring is not dominant.

2nd female:

My 2nd female was purchased having never been pregnant. She also just gave birth on the 6th and her fry are very light in color, although not yellow.

3rd female:

My 3rd female is completely yellow but has not given birth to her first set of batch yet and based on her body shape is still a couple of weeks out.

I keep very detailed notes on what happens and of course I'll be taking plenty of pics as the fry grow up.

 

[csfishkeeper]

The  yellow color may not show up in the first group of fry. you will need to breed the same male back to one of females and have to repeat this for generations. It also helps if you know the background of the male that you are breeding from if it’s a normal pet shop fish . It may produce a mixture of colors .

I'm not a serious breeder and never will be, so I came to the thought of it kind of by accident. I began with my 3 class p endlers (look like endlers, have the colors and characteristics, but not directly linked to pure endlers).

Knowing that guppies can give multiple births with just one encounter, I have been giving away the fry without consideration as to whether or not my boys were the father.

One of the people who got some of my fry emailed to tell me that the young boys are definitely showing the size and color of endlers. Then it dawned on me that I could maybe tweak the colors.

That's when I got a little more serious in the thought. As my boys are roughly 7 months old, I know my time is short with them. From my research, endlers only live about a year.

I currently have more than 50 fry in the tank (under a week old) and in a few weeks once they begin to develop, I will have a better idea if any are going to show the endler traits.

My plan is to keep a couple of the females for future breeding and a couple of boys if they show the traits that I'm looking for.

The nice part of having live bearers is that I get new fish every month. If I can't get the traits that I want in a couple more months, I'll have to pick up a couple more endlers to replace my current boys as they get too old.

My thought is that by controlling the color of the girls, sooner or later I'll find out if the trait will be passed onto the fry.