Guppy Challenge Entry: Broder

My breeding guppies are currently in a display tank, but the females will be moved into breeding tanks, as and when they drop fry.

Male:


This is the stronger of 2 full black males that I've just acquired. I'm hoping to retain the large delta tail and long dorsal fin. I also like the dark black body. I will try to breed this with various females to achieve a black body with a sunset/flame tail and dorsal fin, either with or without radial markings. That is my hope, but I will no doubt revise this as breeding results dictate.

Female 1


this is a stunning,HUGE female. I love that tail, and if I could copy and paste that onto a black body, I'd be happy and no doubt richer too.

Female 2


Also a lovely big female with potential. Shall have to see if she can produce useful offspring.

Female 3


Same as female 2, she may produce something to take forward. All 3 females are as tough as nails, even surviving dirty, cold pond water.

Female 4


i have kept her in with the full black male, to hopefully produce some full blacks to expand and expedite the development of the flame tail full black.

 

Joh, Nice!!!

 

Nice guppies! The first female is basically the same as my tequila sunrise guppies. I am also very tempted to breed my male tequila sunrise with a full black female. Very nice pics too

 

Thanks @<<Nemo>>. My tequila sunrise female doesn't breed true though. Will have to see the results..

I've placed females 2 and 3 into their own tank, as they're about to drop fry. This is not from the full black male yet, but this gem of a male that seems to have vanished.


Gonna reunite them with the black male as soon as they've dropped their fry. Will probably discard this batch.

 

Sad that one went missing

 

The black do bring some nice stuff to the table!

Lennard

 

Female number 2 dropped about 30 fry yesterday. The father is the missing male in the last pic. I immediately returned the female to the tank with the black male. Does this guarantee that the next fry will be his doing? Or is there a chance that she may still be storing sperm?

 

Most likely a mix between the two males.

 

@Broder, stuning guppies!!!!
@Vis, Im confused.... (please note Im no expert in fish breeding)but, does a female still carry sperm from a previous mating after having herfry?

Its unheard of in any other animal/bird.... does this reallyhappen in fish?

 

As far a I know she might get fry from the previous male up to 5 times after wards

 

@MariaS, Marius is correct. A female guppy has the ability to store sperm and can on average give birth to 3-5 more batches of fry after you remove a male completely.

 

I think I read that there is a window period between her dropping her fry and being inseminated again, where the new male's sperm is more likely to fertilize her ova than the stored sperm? Anyone know anything about that?

 

Might be, but on what I read from other guys breeding guppies they will wait for a new female to finish dropping fry before using her.

 

Just to add my 2c here, I have read that although the female will retain sperm from each mating in her sperm pocket, she will tend to use the sperm from the most recent insemination. How that works is beyond me, as my guppy males will chase the females ALL the time. But whether he is actually depositing sperm, and she is accepting, is a different story.

A few years back, I took an endler female and put her in with a group of young ATFG black males. Her first drop after that was all endler males, but her next drop, there were only 2 endler males that came of this and the rest were all a hybrid ( quite stunning actually, but I never pursued the cross). So what I saw was pretty much what I have read. But this is not conclusive proof as to how it works as one would need to carry on the excercise and add another strain of male and then monitor the progress. Perhaps someone would like to take this criteria as their selection for the guppy challenge so we can all learn first hand?

andrew

 

She can store sperm for six months but maybe if there is a male around there is no need for old sperm and she discards it...

Reading different opinions on this on the net.

 

This is very, very interesting.... have certainly learnt something .. Now you got my curiosity going!!!!

I wonder... if the female was alone after dropping the fry and not inseminated y another male would she use the sperm she stored and have babies again?

 

So end of the day best to get them virgen I think

 

Haha that has backfired on me before, he was an escape artist!!!! I guess with fish its easier to control... MTS!!!

 

I always joke but when people ask "is my female guppy pregnant" the answer is almost always yes.

So buying female Guppies are always a bargain you get about 20 for the price of one

Got this inside joke with myself... Newby goes "I bought a small tank and only two guppies" and I think "no you didn't."