Species of Guppy

How do I work out the species of Guppy?


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It's not so much "species" as it is "color form". Most guppies you buy at your average pet store are a mix of several lines. There isn't really a way of knowing what color form a guppy is unless you buy from a breeder and they tell you.

I m thinking u have the same type as mine Sam. The shopkeeper told me its red mosaic snakeskin.

Demeter pretty much nailed it there.

It's not so much as 'specie', more of a colour varient of guppy that been bred to show particular colours and tail finnage,

Guppies are one of the most overbred species of fish that there are many, many colour varients of them, popular ones tend to be snakeskin type of yellows or reds and blues or even a mix of these colours.

Due to all this overbreeding, this sadly has had an effect of making these guppies bloodlines weaker, once a renowned as a 'hardy' specie to is now one of the weaker livebearer species thats easily susceptible to diseases. Unless of course you get guppies from a breeder who may have wild guppy bloodlines stock.

A large shoal of (all males) colourful guppies in an appropriate sized tank is actually really nice and one that I would not mind doing if I ever get the space and time for such a tank

Mine looked like these

Ch4rlie said:

Demeter pretty much nailed it there.

It's not so much as 'specie', more of a colour varient of guppy that been bred to show particular colours and tail finnage,

Guppies are one of the most overbred species of fish that there are many, many colour varients of them, popular ones tend to be snakeskin type of yellows or reds and blues or even a mix of these colours.

Due to all this overbreeding, this sadly has had an effect of making these guppies bloodlines weaker, once a renowned as a 'hardy' specie to is now one of the weaker livebearer species thats easily susceptible to diseases. Unless of course you get guppies from a breeder who may have wild guppy bloodlines stock.

A large shoal of (all males) colourful guppies in an appropriate sized tank is actually really nice and one that I would not mind doing if I ever get the space and time for such a tank

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It is nonsense about inbreding of guppys and easily susceptible to diseases, so what diseases are they acceptable to ?
I remember as far back 40 years ago when I visit a friend he had a 6 foot tank of guppies when he had a problem and they started dying he went back to the pet shop and they told him it's down to inbreeding. and 40 years on it's the same old story.

fish48 said:

It is nonsense about inbreding of guppys and easily susceptible to diseases, so what diseases are they acceptable to ?

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There are NO acceptable diseases.

Inbreeding certainly has its place in breeding fish, its a known fact, as long as they are good healthy fish and from a large genetic pool (not just from a few fish) this will generally be fine.

But if from a small genetic pool, then there will be bad genes somewhere its almost inevitable really, so having a bunch of guppies with poor genes which are inbred will make the bloodline worse and the offsprings will be more susceptible to more diseases than healthy guppies, hence my point about a lot of these guppies being not so hardy.

If bought from known breeders or reputable places then chances are these guppies will be perfectly fine.
But bought from stores or places where they basically just breed and breed the same guppy genepool in the same tank over at least several years and this is a practice more common than one likes to admit.

LFS stores will just buy the cheapest fish they can get their hands on and chances are they won't be from reputable breeders who generally charge mroe for thier fish due to the simple fact these guppies are selected and bred from much more carefully.

This is an debate I have seen several times over the years and I can see from both viewpoints and I agree with some points on both sides but simple fact is, overbreeding as well as inbreeding will not necessarily improve the lines of guppies therefore the end results can be weaker fish with poorer immune systems, not always but usually.

SamDerbyshire said:

How do I work out the species of Guppy?

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what ever it may be it sure is pretty!