Male Guppy Color Change

[maverickbr66]

A friend of mine recently got some snake skin guppies with realy nice red blue and yellow (all mixed in with a radiating patern) tails. 2 weeks later there tails have turned nearly black. I have had guppies before and have seen slight color changes but nothing this drastic. All of his water parameters are normal and the tank has been running for over 2 years. Any idea why this may have happened it was quite a dissapointment that they changed from what they were originally.

 

[OldMan47]

Guppies, like many livebearers, do not develop their full color until they start to mature. If the fish your friend got were young, it is entirely possible and even likely that their colors will darken and intensify as they mature. I have some tuxedo platies that were born in my own tank. At birth they were a very pale yellow, at 1/2 inch long they had taken on a reddish color,at 3/4 inch long they were reddish with a few black speckles, now at 1 inch they are starting to get some of the line look to their darker color but they still do not look like the parents. I am hoping by the time they are 1 1/2 to 2 inches they will complete coloring up.
I have some endlers that breed rather freely. when they are first born and right up to at least 1/2 of the adult size, their coloring is the same pale grey of the females. It takes so long that many people have been misled to think they have only females. When the males are almost full sized, they start to show some color and over the next few weeks the color will intensify quite a bit. The ones that have what is called a black bar pattern don't show any black until they already look full grown.

 

[BlackSwords11]

Even is they did change color through maturity, it sounded like they had already to established coloration. When mine got color, they never changed their coloration.

 

[maverickbr66]

well i was down to see him again yesterday and they have lightened out some and one now has some white in his tail. it's odd iv never see this kind of thing before and i'v had quite a few guppies. And its not a difference in light they are in the same tank in the same spot with the same lights on and i watched them for some time. im going to guess its just that they are young it just seems more drastic than iv experienced before.

 

[dzsigmond217]

The first guppy I got had an entirely black body with a black tail that had orange stripes in it..Now months later 3/4 of his body is white. I thought he was sick! but everyone told me that he had just grown into his adult colors..needless to say I was very relieved!!

 

[5teady_2012]

My guppys and endlers constantly change color at young ages.. especailly if you turn the tank light out for about 1 hours then turn it back on again (you will see color disappear)

 

[maverickbr66]

thanks everyone for the info. we were slightly concerned for them and just wanted to make sure. as i said I'v had and bred guppies before just never seen this much change in a guppy that is full size. Im horing he gets some nice fry out of them soon so i can get some if i can ill get a pic of them.