Mutant guppy

[Fiori]

I will admit to never having kept guppys but I was having a natter with the guy in my lfs the other day when I noticed a complete monster guppy. It was HUGE and it had a massive wierd looking kink in its body, almost doubling back on itself. I was told that this happens when female guppys are left to breed indiscriminately in a tank She is on her last fins apparently - I could'nt help but feel so sorry for that fish.

Is ths really what happens?

 

[WILDER]

I no that female livebearers life are cut in half if they are constantly breeding, they need a break now and then like us, she in an awful state at the lfs poor thing.

 

[Fiori]

To be fair - the lfs had taken the fish in from a customer - I think they felt sorry for it too. MY lfs are really nice people and actually care about their fish!

 

[Javentule]

The kink in the tail is common mutation in a lot of fishes - the store where I work will sometimes get a batch of plecos in with kinked tails. I imagine they're all from the same brood (the come in the same batch) and I read somewhere that it's a genetic deformity.

 

[Raechal]

Inbreeding will also cause deformities in fish.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

guppies take Oedipal complexes to new levels... it's not the amount of breeding that one girl has done, its who her mother was bred with!

it is entirely feasible that guppy A will mate with its parent and give birth to guppy B, mate with guppy B and give birth to guppy C, mate with guppy C and give birth to guppy D... so on and so forth. massive deformities such as the one you witnessed can easily arise in such a situation.

 

[Fiori]

It just looked so painful, with that kink. Actually there was a smaller normal sized guppy, with a bad kink going in the opposite direction. Yeurrrrk! Poor fishies.

 

[GuppyDude]

my guppy breeding always comes across kinks and defects, its really hard to avoid as thats just how screwed up the domesticated guppy is these days. i userally feed my defected fry to my bettas, i wouldn't want it to grow up and suffer with its condition. spinal defects are teh most commone next to fin and eye deformation. im currently incorperateing endlers into my strain to bring back teh wild part of teh guppy