Creating my own guppy strain

[bettaowner]

I'm working to turn my 60 turtle gallon pond into a guppy pond. A goal I have in mind is to breed a black guppy that has the snakeskin pattern. How difficult would it be to do this or create a new variety of guppy? If anyone has experience, tips are welcome.


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[emerald76]

Wooh! Yay! I love projects like this!

Here's your instructions-


Get a trio of black moscows- high quality. Let them have a batch per female and try to raise as many as possible in a separate ten. Pick the best male and the four best females. Discard the rest. Put the male in the pond, remove the other male or put the females in and remove the original two. Let those fish have a batch. Pull those fry and raise them. Now pull out either the male or females and add the best of the brood. That's your third generation. Get a trio of silvery snakeskins or ones with a blue base. Put those in and remove the Moscow male. Let them breed and remove ALL the fish after the first batch. Raise all the fry. Pick out the male displaying the correct traits. Put him in and remove the other male. Let them have a batch, this time take the best females to breed with the male. Continue switching out fish until you get close to what you want and let them go crazy for a few months. Take the best of what's in the pond after those few months and discard the rest then continue process above.


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[Fishobsessed7]

It may take a long time tho


Fishobsessed7

[bettaowner]

Thanks for the advice. At the moment I have a lime green snakeskin male. I'll need to go to the store soon to buy some pet supplies and they should have some black moscows as alway. If I get some I'll post pictures.


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[Fishobsessed7]

If you do create a black snakeskin I'd definitely be interested in buying some from you


Fishobsessed7

[jetajockey]

Me too, sounds cool.

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[bettaowner]

Sorry guys but living in Hawaii makes selling or shipping live organisms very difficult. I'd be happy to share my tips if anyone on the continental U.S wishes to attempt this.


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[Fishfur]

It's people like you that have given us so many of the lovely variants in many species of fish. Good luck.

[emerald76]

Originally Posted by Fishobsessed7

It may take a long time tho


Fishobsessed7

It takes years to make a strain


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[emeraldking]

It does depend on what you would like to see in a new strain in order to create a new strain. It may take a few years but it could also be less. But you should know a bit more about genetics for a serious attempt.

I myself have been working on new strains as well throughout the years. You can hybridize randomly or be sure what you are doing...

And be sure that you know the genetics of these particular strains you'd like to use in order to hybridize to the final strain.

[bettaowner]

I know I haven't posted any thing on this thread for a while and for a good reason. The lfs that usually has black moscow guppies does not have any at the moment. Hopefully they'll get some new fish once the continental U.S warms up. I do have a pair of lace guppies that bred and I might consider experimenting with them as well.

[brennae]

How far are you from Chicago? Theres a swap coming up and last time I saw a lot of black moscows. Don't think any were graded though but I didn't really look.

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[bettaowner]

I live in Hawaii so I wouldn't be able to bring back any fish.

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[brennae]

Darn I've often thought about why you can't have bagged fish as a carry on in a little cooler under your seat. Hawaii has strict import regulations don't they?

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[bettaowner]

Yeah it sucks. Just last week they caught a 16 inch coconut crab on the road. I could order a pair from liveaquria but I would need to pay $20 for a permit.

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[treemanone2003]

Originally Posted by bettaowner

Yeah it sucks. Just last week they caught a 16 inch coconut crab on the road. I could order a pair from liveaquria but I would need to pay $20 for a permit.

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I never knew anything about them and had to look. HOLY OMG !!!! I did find the article as well. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6392972


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[bettaowner]

Getting back on topic, I might consider getting black or purple moscow guppies from a local breeder.


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[Andy Sager]

Back in the 1970s or 80s, TFH magazine ran an article about the creation of the Pingu Guppy strain. I recall it having pics and descriptions of the process. It started out with a single fish with a single pink scale if I remember correctly. You might want to see if you can find that article online in their archives ( if such a thing exists anymore. lol )

Hope this helps

[bettaowner]

I recall reading the thread about that on a guppy forum. It was really helpful. Hopefully I can find the moscows. The closest thing I've seen are green moscow guppies.


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