Guppy Fry - When Will I See Colour?

Hiyas

About 2 months ago my female Guppies had some babies, but i'm a little concerned that none of them are colouring. What is the usual timeframe for a male guppy fry to start colouring? Right now in the state they are, they all look female. They have a slight yellow tinge to their tailfin like mommy has. I'm sure the ones i'm concerned about are male as they haven't shown the gravid spot. I've got Guppy fry which are a week old that I can see the gravid spot on.

Is it possible i've ended up with a slightly different species of fish? (I bought the females seperate from the LFS, but tehy were in the tank with the Guppy males and they were advertised as guppies etc) Aren't there fish called Mosquito fish that look identical? Those fish are illegal here in NZ so i'll have to cull if thats the case, but i'm hoping that I'm just over anxious to see what colour my fry will end up and that a few more weeks will show me everything is ok?

Cheers

I takes usually between 6-8 weeks to start to develop colour on the male's and then slightly longer for them to develop a gonopodium.

All guppies will cross as their all the same species of fish just different colour types.

As for Mosquito fish, these are totally different to guppies. These are silver fish with a very pointed head if your still not sure try to get a photo and I'll try to name it.

I guess its possible that the older guppies I have wont colour as I have no idea what the male was that got to them when they were in the fish shop, but I'd hope i'd get more than what I've got. Sorry for pic quality but as you can see theres a tiny bit of yellow in its tail. Mom looks exactly the same but bigger and has gravid spots

OK pic doesn't show much yellow but theres a tiny bit there

fmxmatt said:

Hiyas

About 2 months ago my female Guppies had some babies, but i'm a little concerned that none of them are colouring. What is the usual timeframe for a male guppy fry to start colouring? Right now in the state they are, they all look female. They have a slight yellow tinge to their tailfin like mommy has. I'm sure the ones i'm concerned about are male as they haven't shown the gravid spot. I've got Guppy fry which are a week old that I can see the gravid spot on.

Is it possible i've ended up with a slightly different species of fish? (I bought the females seperate from the LFS, but tehy were in the tank with the Guppy males and they were advertised as guppies etc) Aren't there fish called Mosquito fish that look identical? Those fish are illegal here in NZ so i'll have to cull if thats the case, but i'm hoping that I'm just over anxious to see what colour my fry will end up and that a few more weeks will show me everything is ok?

Cheers

Click to expand...

Hi...I dont think you would have Mosquito fish...they are not sold in pet shops as they are a pest. They are very aggressive and if you had them you would have very beat up fish with bitten tails from being attacked. I know this as I made the biggest mistake of putting what i thought were feral guppies into my tank within 3 hours my gups tails were badly attacked including all the teenage fry that were in main tank also. What I had was those nasty Mosquito fish, it took me 2 hours to fish five out of my tank. I basically couldnt stop until they were out as they were trying to kill my fish, i actually just culled them. But it left me with a major problem...literally all my fish had been attacked and started to develop fungas...so their treatment began. That was a few months back now...Its been a uphill battle that is now over, we have healthy stock and fry at last.

Generally your fry will be silver or a brown in colour when born. I notice female get whatever black in their tails first, that generally takes 4 - 6 weeks then develop colour. I noticed my male fry always takes a little longer to produce their colour as male guppies generally have intense colouring and larger tails.

I have about 80 fry and they mostly look silver or dark...my teenage guppies in main tank still dont have all their colours and they are nearly 3 months old. I also believe that what you feed them has a huge part in their growth. You can buy fry food and it has vitamins and fattening stuff in it. My babies luv it. I hope this helped a little anyway.

fmxmatt said:

I guess its possible that the older guppies I have wont colour as I have no idea what the male was that got to them when they were in the fish shop, but I'd hope i'd get more than what I've got. Sorry for pic quality but as you can see theres a tiny bit of yellow in its tail. Mom looks exactly the same but bigger and has gravid spots

OK pic doesn't show much yellow but theres a tiny bit there

Click to expand...

Shes a Guppy. It could be a male...I had a male i thought was a female until 3 months when then showed his annal fin and started to develope more colouring.. but is for certain a guppy.

A few of my fish, look at bottom right...thats a female guppy teenager i raised, she has black and yellow tail just like her mum too. She is about 6 months old I think.

Ive found that some will start getting colour as yellow and black only for the yellow to turn red at a later date as he/she matures

Gorgeous guppies! For my guppies,
it took them between 1-2 months to develope their color.
Some that are 3 months old are STILL developing!
So don't worry, or they might just be a plain guppie color like black&gray.
But i doubt that's the case since yours are so prettyfully colored!

Sorry i forgot about the gambusia thing, but from the pic their all guppies

tamara said:

Gorgeous guppies! For my guppies,
it took them between 1-2 months to develope their color.
Some that are 3 months old are STILL developing!
So don't worry, or they might just be a plain guppie color like black&gray.
But i doubt that's the case since yours are so prettyfully colored!

Click to expand...

Ahh the ones in the pics wont be the dad of the larger guppies i've got as i'm pretty sure the mommys first drop would've been from one of the LFS guppy males.

Heres another pic, u can see the yellow in the tail, but notice how fat the wee fulla is, like he's preggers but i'm sure he's male (no gravid spot, i have younger fry which show the gravid spot). It was poo poo time when I took the pics hehe

clover said:

Ive found that some will start getting colour as yellow and black only for the yellow to turn red at a later date as he/she matures

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I had a yellow and black tail turn a red centre at 2 months.