T.V.
Anna Mercy
Professor
College of Fisheries
Kerala Agricultural University
Panangad, Cochin 682506
History
◼ Robert John Lechmere Guppy (born
August 15, 1836 in London; died
August 5, 1916 in San Fernando,
Trinidad and Tobago) discovered this
tiny fish in Trinidad in 1866.
◼ The fish was named Girardinus guppii in
his honour by Albert C. L. G. Gunther
later that year.
Taxonomy
◼ The fish had previously been described by
Wilhelm Peters in 1859 on material collected
from South America as
Poecilia reticulata
◼ Although Girardinus guppii is now considered a
junior synonym of, the common name "guppy"
still remains.
◼ Over time guppies have been given a variety of
taxonomic names, although Poecilia reticulata is
the name currently considered to be valid
Distribution
◼ Guppies are native to Trinidad and parts of South
America, specifically Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados,
Brazil, Guyana, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and
Tobago, the US Virgin Islands, and Venezuela.
However, guppies have been introduced to many
different countries on all continents, except
Antarctica. Sometimes this has occurred accidentally,
but most often as a means of mosquito control, the
hope being that the guppies would eat the mosquito
larvae slowing down the spread of malaria. In many
cases, these guppies have had a negative impact on
native fish faunas
Live bearers
◼ Along with the related Swordtail (Xiphophorus helleri), platy
(Xiphophorus maculatus) and molly (Poecilia sphenops), the guppy
belongs to the family Poeciliidae — a group commonly known as the
livebearers.
◼ Poeciliidae consists of 37 genera and about 330 species, and
distributed from the eastern United States to South America and
Africa, including Madagascar. Despite their common name, not all
poeciliiids are livebearers. All 80 African species in 12 genera lay
eggs, as do the six species in two American genera of Tomeurus and
Fluviphylax
◼ Livebearing poeciliids, with few exceptions, are generally found in
moderately hard to hard water of about 10–30 GH). A few species
are also found in brackish water
Black platy Xiphophorus maculatus
Xiphophorus maculatus -Platy
Xiphophorus helleri –
Sword tail
Black molly Poecilia sphenops
Blood red sword tail Xiphophorus helleri
Sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna)
Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)
Classification of guppies
◼ The type of breed or name of guppy is not consistent around
the world.
◼ Unlike dogs or other pets that have international exchanges
guppy has different classifications in different countries.
◼ Also due to its various gene types a new type of breed is made
every day which is not kept within a consistent standard.
For example what we call Cobra in Korea is called Snake skin in
the U.S. and Dragon in East Asia.
◼ We call Grass or Mosaic due to the classification of the pattern
of the tail but in the States they classify them as 'any other
color' or 'multi'. Gusamo(Korean Fancy Guppy association)
Type of tail
1) Wild: most common tail fin
2) Pin: the middle of the tail fin made longer
3) Spade: a tail fin shaped like a spade
4) Top Sword: the upper end of the tail fin made longer
5) Bottom Sword: the lower end of the tail fin made longer
6) Double Sword: both ends of the tail fin made longer
7) Lyre Tail:shaped tail with the middle part shorter
8) Delta: a triangular shaped tail fin
9) Fan: a tail fin shaped like a fan
10)Long Fin Type
Green
Cobra
Guppy
Blue
Cobra
Guppy
Lyre tail
Neon Blue
Red Fire
Red Cobra
Guppy feed
◼ Guppies of any age relish baby brine shrimp
◼ Baby brine shrimp are extremely high in protein and very
little else. Over feeding them can result in stunted growth
of guppy fry.
◼ If fed as the first meal of the day they have a tendency to
gorge themselves which can result in intestinal binding.
◼ a well rounded diet containing the proper amounts of
animal and vegetable ingredients needed to assure the
health of your guppies, and the sandwiching of the brine
shrimp with flake food keeps the intestinal track moving
without binding up your fish.
◼
Breeding Guppies
➢ Breeding guppies takes no special skills, simply
leaving a male and female guppy in a tank
together will produce results.
➢ But breeding superior fish with very fixed
qualities of colour, finnage and vigour is a different
matter.
➢ Quality requires great dedication, detailed
record keeping, the ability to make sound
judgments based on your results and a degree of
luck for the random nature of genetics.
◼ What tank set-up would you use for the project?
Breeding cannot be carried out in one single aquarium. All set-
ups should be based on the bare tank method, being plant free
and have no gravel substrate. I do, however, have Java moss
and Java fern on the base of the bare stock tanks and growing
on tanks.
◼ tanks sized 46 x 23 x 30cm/18 x 9 x 12” for breeding and 60 x
30 x 30 cm/24 x 12 x 12” for stock and growing on.
◼ The breeding tanks are where pairs are placed to mate and
females are left to release their broods. The growing on tanks
hold young waiting to be sexed and then hold the separated
sexes.
How do I sex them?
Mature males are easily
distinguished from females by
the presence of a gonopodium
— an inseminating organ
modified from anal fin rays —
sticking out of the anal fin.
Males are also slimmer and
tend to be the more colourful
fish
How can I spot pregnant fish?
◼ Pregnant females have a prominent
gravid spot which is a dark area behind
the anal fin.
◼ Although less noticeable, pregnant
females also have a larger belly and a
more squarish appearance, particularly
when viewed from the front
Space required?
◼ Not large space is required.
◼ From 500-1000 sq.m 1 lakh guppies can
be producd/month.
◼ From a single female average
10/fish/month
◼ From 200 females >2000 babies
◼ It takes three months to reach market
size.
Growth rate
◼ 1cm/month
◼ One male can fertilize 4 females
◼ In 500 liter water you can put 200 females and
50 males only.
◼ If more males are there they will feed on babies.
◼ Collect babies during morning & evening.
◼ Initially 5-10 larvae /liter of water
◼ After one month 1-2 larvae/liter.
◼ After one month separate male & female.
Diseases
◼ Observe every fish before sale
◼ In one year three generations can be produced.
◼ Male sex testosterone stops growth.
◼ Broken tail is lack of Vitamin C
◼ Formation of large belly or round fish-Genetic problem.
◼ Male Guppies have long fins that may be nipped by other fish,
particularly by some barbs and tetras. Check the compatibility of
any fish before buying them.
◼ While fin-nipping is common, shredded fins are sometimes a sign of
Guppy disease, which is thought to be caused by the ciliate parasite
Tetrahymena.
◼ Treatment is often difficult, but anti-parasite treatments, especially
those containing some copper, can be effective.
◼ Adding aquarium salt at a dose of 2-3 g/litre can help reduce salt
loss through the open wounds. Good water quality is vital.
Primary Objective
❑Your prime objectives should be producing
fish in good health and vigor.
❑There is sure to be a compromise between
health and your desired characteristics but
never allow that to happen unless there
are no other options you can make.
❑ In which case make health the priority
once you've acheived your characteristic
objective.
What do I do if my female livebearer gives birth?
What do I feed livebearer fry?
◼ The first course of action is to separate the
fry from females, as they are known to be
cannibalistic and will eat their own young
◼ Livebearer fry can be fed a variety of fry
foods, although newly hatched brineshrimp
are considered best.
◼ Commercial fry foods and crushed egg yolk
can also be given
To breed livebearers, what should be the sex ratio
of the fish in my tank?
How soon can I expect fry?
◼ A ratio of one male to three or four females is
ideal. Male livebearers are known to
aggressively harass females to breed, so
having more than one female to split the
male’s attention is a good idea.
◼ Livebearers typically take about four to seven
weeks to produce a brood
Limit Your Objectives
➢ Try to limit your to a few at first. You may want to improve fins and
coloration,You may want to have different varieties.
➢ But the more varied your goals the less success you may have with
colour, fins, vigour or conformation.
➢ Keep it simple at first.
➢ It is important if you keep a number of varieties in the same display
tank to concentrate your breeding program on a small number of
objectives.
➢ Remember if you do keep a mixed variety display tank that you
shouldn't use the females from that tank for breeding.
➢ A number one rule that is important to remember is that a female
guppy is able to store sperm that can be used to fertilize numerous
broods
➢ You'll never be able to be sure of the father unless you use a virgin
female with a specific male.
➢ This fact makes guppy breeding more complicated than breeding any
other animals.
Achieving Objectives
➢ There are two ways in which you can go about improving your
guppies.
➢ By assessing a number of feature together, then selecting from
those fish that meet your overall standard.
➢ The other is to concentrate on one or two features at a time,
then concentrate on other features only when the desired result
in the former is acheived.
➢ Progress is slower when you are developing a number of
features than if you limit your results to one or two.
➢ But either option achieves your objectives. Its your choice, but
its always best to start simply.
➢ When tandem breeding ( one feature at a time) is your method,
be careful that, in moving to the next stage of your priorities,
undue deterioration in the standard of the feature has been
improved upon and is not a consequence.
➢ To limit the possibilities of this happening a "line" breeding
program is encouraged but there are other methods you can
use.
Breeding Techniques
◼ Line Breeding/Line Crossing: This method is also a form of
inbreeding, however here you start by keeping the fry from two
females (either from your new trio or chosen fry from a drop) separate,
so that they form two distinct lines. Since you cannot mix batches, this
takes more tanks. It is best to choose breeders differently for each
line; for instance, in one line, you may pursue a large body mass, and
with the other, you may concentrate on finnage. The purpose is to help
maintain your established strain, since each line becomes distinct and
more distantly related; also, you can have your own two lines to cross
occasionally. When you want to increase the size in your fish, for
instance, or make an outcross to avoid too much inbreeding, taking
someone else's line to do this with is risky and you may loose the traits
in your line that you have worked hard to achieve, as well as loosing
the homozygous quality of your guppies.
genetic breeding strategy!
◼ Commercial breeders are bringing new types of
guppies to market with distinctive colors, patterns
and finnage shapes creating a geometric increase in
possible breeding combinations.
◼ One reason for this new popularity is that
transporting tropical fish can now be safely and
economically done over long distances
◼ The other reason is the Internet. Web sites like
Guppies.com give you, the small breeder with
unusual fish, a chance to sell hobbyist-to-hobbyist
and even, if you are very good, to the commercial
market
◼ You need multiple tanks in various sizes.
◼ In fact, you will need about 13 tanks per type of guppy you seek to develop.
◼ You can do it with fewer tanks, but you will probably not be very successful.
◼ You need to separate males from females. So with a breeding tank and two
separation tanks you are up to three tanks.
◼ Now repeat that number of tanks for at least three other promising candidates
for the type you are seeking to breed and add at least one "grow-out" tank for
the culls to be sold inexpensively to aquarium shops.
◼ Thirteen tanks in all and you may decide to add two hospital tanks (one for
males and one for females)
◼ Guppy females are capable of holding sperm internally from approximately six
mating.
◼ This means that you must be very alert to separate the immature males from
females. You will be the guardian of the virginity of literally hundreds of guppy
females.
◼ The guppy breeding cycle is short, approximately 26 to 28 days. This means
you see results quickly. You can see results from the first trials in less than a
year
◼ Getting guppies to breed is not a problem as anyone who has kept these
interesting, colorful tropical fish can attest. Using genetics is committing
yourself to developing a specific type of guppy and is a challenge that will test
your determination
Inbreeding
➢ This is basically keeping a strain pure.
➢ The fish are kept closely related and brother and sister, father
and daughter are routinely bred.
➢ A breeder will do this sometimes to fix a trait, such as a
particular colour or shape.
➢ Mostly, you take the best male and female from the drop and
breed them.
➢ Doing this can provide beautiful fish for years, provided the fish
that you start out with are quality
➢ you are lucky enough to choose not only the most attractive
fish, but to pick fish as breeders that do not have an invisible
weakness-for these will show up in the form of genetic defects,
often looked upon as simply the result of "too much
inbreeding".
➢ Take great care in choosing breeders; many times a strong
body is the most desirable trait to keep an inbred line strong.
Out Crossing
➢ This is the opposite of inbreeding - the mating of fish that are
unrelated to other.
➢ This creates what is called a "hybrid" guppy. "Hybrid" vigor may
be seen in such fish-outstanding size, colour, and health. The
genetic patterns of the parents are scrambled/mixed up, and
such fish may be good for show but not for breeding.
➢ An outcross with a fish that itself is only a few generations
ahead of an outcross may produce beautiful fish for a few
generations, but the loose gene patterns will turn them
eventually into a fish resembling the small, original wild guppy
usually sold as feeders in pet stores.
➢ Although this is, of course, how new strains are produced, it
takes much time and knowledge of genetics to create a pure
strain.
➢ Thus, it is not advisable for the novice to attempt an out cross
in order to fix a strain.
➢Most breeders stick with line breeding and do their best to choose
fish to breed with that have the characteristics which they think
will improve their lines, while keeping their guppies breeding pure.
➢It's important to remember that guppies react differently with
various methods of care, water conditions, and breeding methods.
➢What works for one person may not work for you when trying to
breed the exact same line of fish.
➢Every strain varies in it's own needs and rate of development, as
well.
➢It takes years of attentive care and analyzing breeding techniques
to find out just what works for you and your guppies.
➢This is what makes guppy breeding the fascinating
hobby it is!
