Guppy Breeding Question

[jbarr]

I've been hearing talk of breeding guppies, and with so many beautiful and varietous colorations, the question has arisen, which guppies can breed with which?

Tequila sunrise, Green Cobra, Lyretail... Can guppies breed freely among all types of guppies?

Also, the veil-tail Leopard Danios are in the same tank as lyre-tail guppies at my local Petsmart, so I was also wondering,
Can guppies breed with things like danios/other species of fish??

Sort of weird, but I'm only wondering...

 

[BrianNY]

Guppies will breed with any other guppies. All of the beautiful strains have been developed by crossbreeding.

A guppy/danio mix could never be. One is a live bearer and the other an egg layer. Certain species of fish will freely interbreed, such as platies and swordtails, but as the genetics and habits of different species get further apart it becomes impossible.

 

[WaterPond]

guppies can breed with most other livebearers but will not breed with egglayer's yes.

And yes they will breed with any other type of guppy. Even feeders will breed with fancies. I never have good luck with male guppies, they always die from what i think in imbreeding(i keep my params perfect). So i have tried to breed my fancy female with feeder males. So far it hasn't happened, lol, but it can.

 

[jbarr]

Wonderful! Is it difficult to breed healthy fry from two beautiful specimens? Waterpond you mentioned dying from supposed imbreeding, how would I avoid unhealthy fry?

So it's a possibility of a guppy and a platy interbreeding?

Strange.

 

[WaterPond]

So it's a possibility of a guppy and a platy interbreeding?

Strange.

yes, very strange, but has, can, and will happen(most likely)

Is it difficult to breed healthy fry from two beautiful specimens? Waterpond you mentioned dying from supposed imbreeding, how would I avoid unhealthy fry?

The only way to avoid this IMO is to by show quality guppies(you need money for that). I always buy a male from one LFS then a female from another(or vice versa). This way you are almost quarenteed to not have hillbilly guppies that reproduce with their cousins, brothers, sisters, or other family members. Make sure you get some healthy looking ones too. I find that the smaller the tail is, the easier to care for(dunno why). Not difficult to breed healthy fry at all.

Answer your questions?