How Can I Create A Guppy Strain

[JohnRossDele]

Hi all, I've went to lots of sites to see how to create my own guppy strain & they've all come out as very confusing

if anyone has a good link to a less confusing site or has any good info themselves it would be gladly appreciated

Cheers

 

[Curiosity101]

Strains are create by selective breeding.

Basically, you see two guppies that have a characteristic you like. Breed them together, raise the offspring, find a few pairs that have the characteristics most predominantly and breed them together (they will be siblings), repeat this process again.

After the second set of fry you should introduce new unrelated blood.
So pick a few fry (can be all male/female, or a mixture) that show the characteristic that you like, and breed with unrelated fish.
Pick a few pairs of fry that show the characteristic most predominantly. Then repeat the process again.

Now add unrelated blood again.

The most important points about selective breeding with live bearers:
The female must only be mated by one male, she must then be separated straight away.
The fry must be separated into male and female groups before the males get a chance to fertilise any females.
This process only works if you are breeding a selected male with a VIRGIN female.

 

[JohnRossDele]

so could this work

females (even though it is a male in the pic) Half Black Rainbow Moscow

&

males, Snakeskins

what would that make?

 

[Curiosity101]

That's not even slightly how it works...
They have to BOTH have A characteristic you like.

Like if I like a super bright red colour...I'd pick the most red male and female that I could find. I would breed them together.
Then separate the female.
Once she gives birth I would separate all the fry into male and female, checking daily to make sure there aren't any stray males and females in the wrong tank.
Let them develop.
Once they're showing full colours I would pick a few pairs of the most red males and females. The females are virgins at the moment as they have never been with a male, this way you know they have been fertilised by the male you pick.
You then breed each female with either 1 specific male or pick a single male for each female. Put all the females in a birthing tank. And then repeat the process.

Remembering to add new blood to the lines every 2nd or 3rd generation. Selective breeding of guppys to create a strain require LOTS of tanks.

 

[Curiosity101]

Oh and to answer the specific question. The only way to know what the offspring would be like from the above cross.

You would need a virgin Half Black Rainbow Moscow and to mate her with a Male snakeskin.
You would then have to follow the instruction above of separating all male fry from female fry. So if you liked a certain characteristic from the offspring then you could begin selectively breeding it.

 

[JohnRossDele]

cool, thanks

 

[helterskelter]

Firstly thats not a moscow.


Ok the way i would go about it is working with a known gene pool, doing an experimental crossing and seeing what colouration of fry i get.
I'm currently working on a red tail moscow.
My F1 breeding male is this boy

(moscow colour is much better then not stressed)

Here is a rejected sibling

The main breeder was crossed with 2 sisters which I'm now getting mature fry from which are all like the reject, how ever i'm now back crossing him with his daughters to see what that will produce.

Introducing new blood is not the way to go as you may not know what genes you could be adding.

If your intrested i got nice young Moscow showing a snake skin tail pattern. (no pic's yet)
Or got these double swords

Personally i would get fish from a breeder to start off with so u know your getting quality fish, so something like the BLA show and auction on the 18th Oct in Nottingham
www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk

and then go from there.

Also you need lots of tanks!
many breeder's recomend you have 10 tanks for each line your wanting to keep, and to develop crosses you need more like 30 tanks!

Also to lurn more about guppy genetics's read the following link.
www.guppydesigner.com/

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Curiosity is very right.... I have managed to re-establish the blond strain in my tanks of .....extremely.... mixed varieties by linebreeding. Although I have not developed the strain.... I have a tank of blondes seperated from several thousands of mixed guppies.

There is one specific characteristic which I'm currently exploring and hope to develop to form "Ludwig's" guppies..... That is just about another 5 years away. (patience is required).

 

[llamalord305]

Interesting. This works with egg-laying fish as well as other livebearers, correct?

 

[helterskelter]

yes