What better day than Valentine's Day to launch a breeding project? Our first lucky couple is spending two nights in the luxurious honeymoon suite. I bought them at two separate pet stores and don't know how old they are, but hope it's old enough to make some beautiful babies!
The male, Martin, has a sort of half-black coloring with a vibrant yellow on the entirety of his delta-shaped tail and much of his upper body. I'll likely try pairing him with a half-black female in the next round of breeding. According to Philip Shaddock's guide Guppy Color Strains, the half-black gene is usually found on the X-chromosome, meaning that it generally comes from the mom's side.
Under this lighting, Martin kind of looks as though he has some turquoise in the dorsal fin, like two of the brothers featured last week, although I'm starting to wonder if it's just the lighting. I had a female with some turquoise before, and will need to find more to eventually cross into both lines to try to maintain that feature as the breeding project progresses.
As the latest addition to the tank with the males that I've raised from fry, Martin has been getting picked on pretty relentlessly by the others. So I've been keeping him in a breeder box in that tank and letting him out for a few minutes a day. He seems to be getting better at standing up (or swimming up?) for himself, but I didn't want to leave him out with the boys overnight until I've at least given him a chance to breed, just in case something bad happens to him.
The female, Coretta, has the same yellow on her tail fin but it doesn't extend all the way to the end. She has little color on the rest of her body, and is almost translucent.
I'm hoping that this first pairing will produce some bright, full-yellow offspring. Turquoise dorsal fins might look pretty cool. But since it's my first attempt at selective breeding, and since I'm not even sure if they're old enough, any offspring at all will be chalked up as a win. We're rooting for you, Martin and Coretta!
Comments