Most of the common rules for recessive and dominant factors/traits still hold true in today’s guppies. Instead of applying these rules to tail shapes (as most genetic charts do) I will explain certain observations I have made regarding color, pattern, and size in the 30 plus years of breeding fancy guppies.
Color:
When breeding for color in solid caudal guppies it is best to only use solid
caudal males. Using a yellow to improve lets say red is not practical. It is
best to use the same caudal color for the strain you are trying to improve. If
you are trying to create something new by creating a hybrid you should be
prepared to follow very strict rules to setting a new strain. If you only wish
to create a hybrid to see the results then expect to see something different
with each cross. Some breeders use this method to produce their show fish.
Knowing that pure Strain A when crossed with pure Strain B
produces beautiful large blue bi-colors is a well-kept secret by some breeders.
Now mind you, this is an exaggeration but is not uncommon. Remember that this
would be a hybrid and breeding these, as brothers to sisters (siblings) will
most often produce a mixed bag of inferior guppies.
Red
Albinos
can and have been used successfully to improve the red caudals in both Red and
Red Albino strains. Usually it is better to use gold red males or females from a
gold red or red albino strain. Always use a solid caudal to improve another
solid caudal. Using a bi-color or any pattern caudal will cause a degree of
pattern in all future generations. This is very hard to eliminate once done.
Blues,
Greens
and Purples should always be used with their respective strains to
improve the strain. However Greens and Purples can and have been used to
inter-cross with good results. If one is attempting to improve a Blues strain
that is not of good size or carries a poor dorsal, it is best if using a Blue to
Green cross to use the best male of one line to your choice of females from the
line you are crossing with. The best male offspring from the f1 fry are then
bred back to the original blue strain females. By selectively line breeding the
f2 offspring you will improve the line if only the males that exhibit the
improved characteristic you are seeking are used.
When
dealing with strains that are more recessive like Yellows or Golds, sometimes
using a Pastel White or H/B Yellow or H/B Pastel for caudal improvement is
needed. When using a Half Black it is necessary to know whether the male or the
female carries the half black body gene. This is called sex linked. If the male
carries the half black trait I suggest using the females (non-half black) of the
strain for this type of cross. This usually avoids having the half black trait
showing up in future generations.
When
I first developed the H/B Purples or Orchids as they are commonly
called today, I tried several combinations of crosses. I had been working on a H/B
Green strain and a H/B Blue strain that were not related. I had
acquired a strain of Purples about the same time. Every once in a while the
Purples produced what I refer to as silver bodies. At first only a few males or
females exhibited the silver in the body which was basically gray in color in
all the other siblings. I made several different cross combination with the H/B
Blues to the Purples, the H/B Greens to the Purples and the H/B Greens to the
H/B Blues. My first H/B Purples resulted from the silver bodied females that
were crossed to the H/B Green males. The H/B Blues crossed to the silver or
regular Purples were not as good. Most of the males were either dark H/B Blues
or very dark H/B Purples, which were almost all black. It took me several years
to set the strain to what is now currently shown at most IFGA shows. The strain
of H/B Purples is one in which only the males carry the half black trait and the
females look like most other gray-bodied females. Looking closely at the area on
the female between the pectoral fins and the gills you can distinguish the
females that carry the better purple color as it is obviously purple while the
other females show either green or pale blue. I have tried unsuccessfully to
create a strain of H/B Blues and H/B Greens that produce only gray bodied
females, nevertheless I have not given up.
Snakeskins
are a different breed altogether. Solid and Variegated Snakeskin
males are dominant over gray body strains as for the snakeskin pattern. When
making a cross to produce a new caudal color line make certain that both strains
breed at least 80% true or better and the snakeskin pattern is a least 50% of
the male’s body. Usually the F1 offspring from the cross are all the same
looking snakeskin males with similar females. Don’t be surprised if the males
in the f1 are mostly ‘cobra’ type and are lacking the good chain link
snakeskin pattern.
When breeding these males back to the original pure snakeskin females the
offspring are usually mixed. About 40% show zebrinous bars or cobra markings,
while the others are poor to good Snakeskins. Breeding the F1 offspring brother
to sister will produce a mixed bag of many types and should be avoided.
Keep
selecting the best overall males with the best pattern in the body and if
linebred correctly you will eventually start seeing an overall improvement. It
may also be necessary to determine which females carry the better gene for the
caudal color or pattern. There is no right or wrong method to this other than
trial and error and plenty of patience. In some snakeskin lines the clear caudal
females are the better carriers for the Snakeskin pattern while in another
strain it is the pattern caudal females that better. Ask ten breeders and you
will generally get eight different answers.
Years
ago the International Fancy Guppy Association (IFGA) had as many Veil
classes as Delta classes at every show. It was not uncommon for a breeder that
bred a strain of Blue Veils to actually win the Blue Color Class without ever
taking a first place award in that class for Deltas. So you can see the
importance of attempting to develop a veil strain that was of some quality. It
was back around 1982 that I decided to develop a Veil line of Multis. Knowing
that my Double Swordtails would at times throw a Veil or two, I decided to cross
them into my Blues. The f1 hybrids were all Blue bi-colored Veils. By selecting
the best-patterned males I then bred them back to my original line of Blues. The
f1 males of this cross gave me a mixed bag of blue bi-colors, a few club type
swordtails and a surprise, my first Multis. These few males had that extra third
color that makes a Multi. A true Multi is one that has three evenly distributed
colors in the caudal, with no less than 15% of the third color. What I now
wanted was to improve the distribution of the three colors. Only patience and
selective breeding accomplished this. The Multis I breed today are the direct
descendents of this strain but produce males that are Deltas.
This article is by no means a blueprint that must be followed. Guppies offer everyone an opportunity to experiment and use their imagination for creating new and different varieties. The only obstacles are the amount of tanks needed or lack of patience. There are no other species of tropical fish that offers us this opportunity or reward of accomplishment. This is what has kept me in this hobby for over 45 years and can still offer me some surprises at any time.
Besides
maintaining 300 tanks with over 20 strains of pure breeding guppies I still set
aside several tanks for something new. My latest project is the new Moscow
type guppy that was introduced here in the states by several Japanese breeders.
The strain I acquired does not look anything like the Moscow trait that was
first described to me sometime around 1989 by a German guppy breeder. The
original Moscow’s (I was told) were a silver body type male that had a dark
splash of blue or green pigment in the head area. The caudal color was a fine
pattern multi or pastel. For those of you that have seen today’s Moscow lines
know they have come a long way from that description. Today I am using my own
line of Blues, Greens, and Purples to cross with the Moscow’s. I hope to
produce a pure line with the Moscow body color that is larger and more prolific
than the original strain. So far I have one line that throws Blue/Green Moscow
males with non-Moscow looking females. Only time will tell.