First post on this site, risk of inbreeding guppies

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gabemg525

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Looking to breed guppies to try breeding for profit. I have a 29 gal somewhat heavily planted tank lots of stem plants, substrate fully covered, salvinia covers almost entire surface. I was wondering if it would be possible to breed 24k gold guppies from a single pair or trio. Would the later generations of guppies not be sellable? I was also thinking of getting two trios (4 female 2 male) is this a good ratio and would I still have an issue with too much inbreeding to be able to sell?
 
Welcome to the forum! @emeraldking is our livebearer expert
 
You could start off with 2m/4f. The first generations of inbreeding won't hurt. But you could also separate them by putting 1 trio in each tank. So, two tanks. This makes two different lines. Or have 4 tanks. 1 female in each tank. And share each male with 1 female. This will make 4 lines. In both ways, you can use male offspring from one line to female offspring from another line. You can do this for a couple of generations, so that new breeding pairs are not too close related.
But if you don't want that, you could go for mass reproduction in 1 tank. And if you want to keep the line as steady and as strong as possible, you need to cull in each generation. Culling means selecting the good ones from the lesser ones. The lesser ones can go to another tank, or donate them or sell them. And keep the good ones.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

Most aquarium fishes are already inbred at the fish farms. It's how they get the colourful guppies and other fish, by line breeding and crossing parents with offspring, and offspring with grandparents or each other. So even though you might be starting your breeding program with new fish, there is a very high chance that those fish are already related.

Very few fish bred at fish farms are bred in groups to maximise genetic variation. Most are bred in pairs to get specific traits and colours.

Inbreeding fish does cause health issues and it is best to try and avoid inbreeding as much as possible. It's one of the reasons there are laws against humans marrying and breeding with close relatives, to stop inbreeding causing health issues.

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If you want to breed guppies for money, set up a couple of ponds outside. Fill them with plants and add a group of 6-10 female guppies. Leave them outside during the warmer months and then bring them in and sort them into colours, then sell them to the shops.

If you want to make your own colour varieties, then follow Emeraldking's advice. But it can take a long time to get a nice colour, and even longer to have that colour become a permanent stable feature in the fish you have.

You should also make sure you have at least one pet shop you can sell the young fish to. There is no point producing thousands of fish if none of the pet shops buy fish from customers.
 
A thing to bear in mind is the complexity of genetics. You may select for one trait, and discover that by doing so, you have also selected related traits you may not want. Within a few generations, you'll know if you did that.

Fancy linebreeding, with breeders selecting traits, is very in again now. We had a period in the hobby when a number of breeders were maintaining natural traits and group breeding their fish for genetic diversity, but now we seem to be swinging back to creating varieties and breeds, rather than maintaining species. Hang on for 10 years, and we'll probably be back looking at nature again.
 
A thing to bear in mind is the complexity of genetics. You may select for one trait, and discover that by doing so, you have also selected related traits you may not want. Within a few generations, you'll know if you did that.

Fancy linebreeding, with breeders selecting traits, is very in again now. We had a period in the hobby when a number of breeders were maintaining natural traits and group breeding their fish for genetic diversity, but now we seem to be swinging back to creating varieties and breeds, rather than maintaining species. Hang on for 10 years, and we'll probably be back looking at nature again.
True!
I am a fan of both disciplines (wild and fancy traits, no matter which species). I bred fancy livebearers but I'm also still breeding wild breeds of livebearers. Linebreeding can be done in both fancy and wild breeds. Linebreeding has got to do with the specific traits one would like to establish more in a breed.
And just like you've mentioned, the majority of breeders in the world are currently focusing on linebreeding of fancy breeds.
 

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