Colour Changing Guppy

[panda_cory]

I had a normal guppy that I noticed seemed to change colour between a light blue to a red colour and two spots on his body would appear and disappear. Unfortunatly it was a while ago and he has since passed but when he did die his tail turned black! I have heard of endler guppies changing colour but not normal guppies, has anyone else?

 

[panda_cory]

I take it its unusual to everyone else!

 

[FishBlast]

I had a normal guppy that I noticed seemed to change colour between a light blue to a red colour and two spots on his body would appear and disappear. Unfortunatly it was a while ago and he has since passed but when he did die his tail turned black! I have heard of endler guppies changing colour but not normal guppies, has anyone else?

My guppies used to change colors according to their mood. Their spots would fade in and out, they'd be quite pale at night too, looking more like dead fish. Lol.

 

[panda_cory]

So im not the only one!

 

[FishBlast]

So im not the only one!

Yeah, I miss my guppies. But I've chosen swordtails for a colony this time.
The guppies that "abused" this color changing were 2 endler-like guppies that appeared out of nowhere in the generation line. They had gray tails, but their bodies were green with 2 red dots and a black dot on the belly.
At times, the red dots would disappear, other times the black dot, usually, they'd both be on. And at night, they'd lose the dots and just stay plain pale-green, not the metallic green they had during the day.

 

[panda_cory]

I had a normal guppy not endler and bought it from my lfs but didnt notice for a couple of months

 

[FishBlast]

I had a normal guppy not endler and bought it from my lfs but didnt notice for a couple of months

I have yet to find out how those genes got transported all the way to 3rd generation, when I had nothing that looked like that in the whole tank.

 

[super-MAGuire]

I had a normal guppy not endler and bought it from my lfs but didnt notice for a couple of months

I have yet to find out how those genes got transported all the way to 3rd generation, when I had nothing that looked like that in the whole tank.

I have a female with red finnage, but they keep turning yellow? mainly 1st thing in the morning. I quite like it

 

[PrairieSunflower]

One of my female guppies has a brilliant blue tail, the reason I bought her. When I brought her home, opened the bag and looked inside, she was completely white! She did color up though after a few hours.

As for male guppies, all of my male guppies change body colors to some extent (except for snakeskins). I've not had one with a tail color that changes according to mood though... closest I've had is one with a black tail that would get a blue sheen near the body when he was "in the mood".

 

[FishBlast]

One of my female guppies has a brilliant blue tail, the reason I bought her. When I brought her home, opened the bag and looked inside, she was completely white! She did color up though after a few hours.

As for male guppies, all of my male guppies change body colors to some extent (except for snakeskins). I've not had one with a tail color that changes according to mood though... closest I've had is one with a black tail that would get a blue sheen near the body when he was "in the mood".

Fear used to make my guppies go pale as if they were trying to sleep.
Anger or just mating instinct made them go full color. The black was very accentuated, including on the tail, where they had black zig-zag lines that formed fire patterns with the help of the red and orange bits.
Normal mood had them showing some of their body painting and a pale black on the tail.

Also, nowadays I have 2 swordtails that change color according to mood.
Arrie the lyretail: when I've bought her, she was pink at the store. At home, she colored up and became orange with a silver belly.

Eris the longfin: when I bought her, she looked rather scrappy, pale pink with a few black lines on the tail and a black rear end of the body. At home, she turned such a bright orange, and revealed she has peppers over the orange, also, her tail and body turned dark black. Now she looks like she's a lady in a dress.

 

[Rat]

My guppies used to change colors according to their mood. Their spots would fade in and out, they'd be quite pale at night too, looking more like dead fish. Lol.

My daughter just said to me that one of our guppies had developed black spots, I remember reading this thread about colour changing so thought Id check it out again
I see that some have also developed spots, I was reading out loud to my daughter and got to the bit "spots would fade in and out" and she said "They've disappeared!" LOL

 

[FishBlast]

My guppies used to change colors according to their mood. Their spots would fade in and out, they'd be quite pale at night too, looking more like dead fish. Lol.

My daughter just said to me that one of our guppies had developed black spots, I remember reading this thread about colour changing so thought Id check it out again
I see that some have also developed spots, I was reading out loud to my daughter and got to the bit "spots would fade in and out" and she said "They've disappeared!" LOL

Yeah. They're cute when they do that, gives you something like a "more fish in one".
I also like fish that change according to light, like my male swordie. He's a black berlin. Under dark conditions, he's just plain black with orange fins.
If light is falling on his sides, he is green and yellow.
If light is falling from above, he is yellow, green, blue and purple. With his orange fins, that makes him almost a rainbow.

But the most rainbowy fish I have now are fry that resulted from that male and a red female. It has red added to all that mix. Lol.

 

[birdboy5]

I had a normal guppy that I noticed seemed to change colour between a light blue to a red colour and two spots on his body would appear and disappear. Unfortunatly it was a while ago and he has since passed but when he did die his tail turned black! I have heard of endler guppies changing colour but not normal guppies, has anyone else?

You are so not alone. A few years back I had a male guppy who could do the same thing, though a bit more dramatically. Usually, he was yellow (the color of his father I suppose) but would change to white, blue, red, orange, light blue, pink, pink with black stripes, and even gain a spot in the middle of his tail. Now, he was a feeder guppy, so this trait could be from any livebearer that would interbreed. But it is a rare trait and barely noticed because it usually appears in guppies used to feed other fish. And the guppy must be born male, not change from female to male like many of my other guppies did. Mine and his brother were the only male guppies ever born in my possession.
Sadly, I put them in our pond so they would breed (a good trick in the summer, they boom!) and forgot that we were using a sump pump. All my guppies were killed so any chance of me breeding more were destroyed. It's good to see that other color changers are popping up. There is hope to save this rare trait and breed a new strain that would become the ultimate guppy if mixed with fancies.