Guppy With Heart Shaped Tail

[DyArianna]

Do any of you Guppy lovers have guppies with heart shaped tails? Or if you do not....if you saw one in your LFS....would you buy it? The reason I ask is because I have a 5 month old male with a heart shaped tail and I am considering breeding him. I would love to have a few more....but if I get tons of them....do you think they would be hard to unload? And if I did breed him...is there something special I should look for in a female to increase chances of heart tails? I have a pic uploaded to Photobucket but on my phone I can't transfer it here. Will do that tomorrow from the office. Thanks in advance for your time!

 

[Paradise3]

It's most likely been nipped and ended up looking like a heart.

 

[DyArianna]

I suppose that would be possible but I have had him since birth and he has always been this way. What do you think? I would assume that if he was nipped there should have been new growth by now. If anything, it is more pronounced now. I have a couple more fry from different drops...same mum....so waiting to see if there is another.

 

[AshP1986]

I can't wait to see the picture

 

[DyArianna]

I should be able to upload a short video through Photobucket also. I will move him to a container by himself so hopefully you guys can get a better look.

 

[Paradise3]

Obviously I'll look at the picture and the video. I'm not saying it's not likely at all since I've found completely tail less guppy fry in my tanks before(sadly, none survived) so it is entirely possible I'm just thinking there's the possibility of it being nips I've found baby guppies can get a bit rough and nippy with each other sometimes.

 

[DyArianna]

Okay guys...bear with me on this.  I never imagined taking pictures or videos of fish could be so hard!!  lol    I have one picture that is still quite blurry!  Very frustrating!  But I managed to coax him into a jar of tank water and took a couple of videos.  Lighting isn't that great...but you can still see his tail.  I wouldn't doubt these buggers to be mean sometimes.  This tail shape has progressed quite oddly over the past few months.  It started out as only a bump at the top and a bump at the bottom, making me think he was going to be lyretail.  But the bumps gradually grew to this.  Am I wrong to think if he was nipped just in that one spot that after months, it would have started to grow back?  Who knows with these little devils I suppose!  Anyway, if it was a nip then he would not reproduce fry with the same tail shape, correct?  I don't know...what do you think?  Okay.. here is the pic and the videos.  If they are not good enough...will try to get more tonight!   PS.. any tips on getting them to hold still???  lol
 

 
http/s1178.beta.photobucket.com/user/DyArianna/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Video0311130853_1.mp4.html
 
http/s1178.beta.photobucket.com/user/DyArianna/media/Mobile%20Uploads/Video0311130851_1.mp4.html
 
 

 

[Paradise3]

Ahh, I see what you mean now. He looks like a cross between a double tail betta splendens and obviously a poecilia reticulata(guppy) XD I'd call him a Double Tail Guppy just for a simple name. Never heard of it before but here's a list of all guppy tail types and it seems it's not on there either
http/fancyshowguppy.webs.com/Guppy%20Tails.gif

 

[DyArianna]

I know.. I can't find any info on him either.  lol  Initially I thought his colorings on his body resembled an Endler a bit.  So was wondering if maybe some Endler gene mucked up with the Guppy gene.  Don't know what dad looked like as mum was pregnant when I bought her at the LFS.  She was pretty though... dorsal and tail fins were blueish/purple blotched with black.  Her tail was rather large too.  More oblong shape.  I don't know... beginning to think I just have an odd lot.  His sibling from a drop a month later than him also has a funky tail.  But his looks like it might be an upside down delta/triangle type. 

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I've had some similar guppies in the past (shape not color). The space in the middle of the heart was a bit wider than yours. In my case, it was just a really crossed guppy... sort of those inbetween tail shape mutations. I wonder if I have a picture somewhere.

Here we go...

 

[DyArianna]

Oh wow!  He's very handsome!    Did you ever breed him?  And if you did... were you successful on duplicating his tail shape?

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I did. He had two identical babies... and a bunch of babies with the same colors and some bizarre tail shapes as well. Females all came out extremely different in coloring and with common tail shapes.

 

[DyArianna]

Very, very interesting!!  So I guess the question now for me is do I breed him.  I'm assuming because he is already 5 months plus that I would need to get on it right away.  I have a couple extra 10 gallons I could set up.  My concern is I am probably not going to get my hands on a few virgin females too quickly.  And if I get a couple gals from the LFS...they will already be pregnant.  If he was to impregnate an already pregnant female...would his sperm over-ride the sperm that she has stored?  And then possibly a drop or two down the line could be his?  Or would I have to wait for the gals to empty out?  How does this work?  And then....anything specific I should be looking for in the females outside of just general health?  i.e. something specific in their tail?  Sorry for all the questions!! 

 

[PrairieSunflower]

There is the possibility of a mixed batch, ie some babies his some another male's.

You could advertize in the classifieds to see if any breeders have soe virgins in your area. I know when I gave away my extra babies that is how I did it.

I'm not good at breeding for color or anything. I just paired him with my favorite female (who had a blue tail). I don't know how common the tail shape is, but I only got 2 out of the entire lot, but the orange color was very dominant... also... for mine, anyway... his tail shape showed up after about 5 months (the middle portion stopped growing the rest continued for another couple months)... the first 5 months he looks like a normal tail.

 

[DyArianna]

Still trying to figure this all out. I think he's unique...but that's much how it works! lol He is Mikey to us here. But I may very well venture on the selective breeding trail. I have had tons of fry in years passed....just not selective. Would something like this be worthy of a journal here? Or should I just go about it?