elephantnose3334's guppy thread

[elephantnose3334]

Let's talk about guppies. What do you want to talk about relating to these unique fish? What's your experience with guppies and endler's livebearers? Anyone, including @emeraldking, is welcome to talk about guppies!

 

[emeraldking]

My experience with guppies goes back to the 1970's. My experience with endlers goes back to almost the beginning of this century, young lady. In our country, I belong to a small group of keepers who started off with keeping and breeding endlers before it became commercially known. In some other countries there were private breeders who already had them back in the 1990's. But they weren't bred commercially yet. And don't mix up endlers with wild guppies (for many call all kinds of wild guppies also endlers but that's just a lack of knowledge).
As a young boy, guppies has already been a huge passion to me. And that passion has never stopped. I also have to admit that back in those days we also had a wide choice of wild and breeding forms. But the wild types always attracted me more than those breeding forms. Nowadays, I keep both disciplines (wild and breeding forms).
I also love to start projects and breed new guppy lines. Knowledge of guppy genetics comes quite in handy in this case. I always prefer to mentioned it as "guppy genetics' instead of genetics. For genetics does differ per individual fish species or species in general. Some of my own created strains did become commercially sold on te market throughout the years.
What's also very interesting in guppies is how they've evolved from mostly short finned (for swords and lyretails also occur in the wild) to exceptional large finned guppies with colors and patterns that you won't find in the wild. Nowadays I do keep a fair number of guppy, endler and hybrid strains at my place besides other fish.
As I've already mentioned to you, I do run my own website regarding livebearers. And there are a number of sections dedicated to just guppies. But I start off with wild guppies. For if you really want to know the essence of guppies, you should begin with the story of wild guppies. For all fancy guppies strains are derived from them. And the past couple of years, also a serious number of breeding forms have endler influence in them to show more possibilities to set up new lines.
Everybody's got their own experiences with guppies. And their own reasons why to keep them.
I do understand why people do more water changes with guppies . For most people keep fancy (breeding forms) guppies. The most commercial known ones are weaker. But if we look at the guppy in its essence, we are dealing with a fish that is much more tolerant than those breeding forms. They come in a wide range of water temperature, are quite hardy when it comes to fluctuations in water parameters and occur in clear till very dirty waters. So, in the essence, a guppy is a quite hardy fish. Besides using them for insects control also their hardiness is one of the reasons why this fish has been released globally by man. They even occur in sewers.
Not all guppy strains are beginners fish, tbh. There are guppy strains that are harder to keep and to breed. But those strains are more suitable to the more experienced keepers.

There's so much to say about guppies.

 

[elephantnose3334]

My experience with guppies goes back to the 1970's. My experience with endlers goes back to almost the beginning of this century, young lady. In our country, I belong to a small group of keepers who started off with keeping and breeding endlers before it became commercially known. In some other countries there were private breeders who already had them back in the 1990's. But they weren't bred commercially yet. And don't mix up endlers with wild guppies (for many call all kinds of wild guppies also endlers but that's just a lack of knowledge).
As a young boy, guppies has already been a huge passion to me. And that passion has never stopped. I also have to admit that back in those days we also had a wide choice of wild and breeding forms. But the wild types always attracted me more than those breeding forms. Nowadays, I keep both disciplines (wild and breeding forms).
I also love to start projects and breed new guppy lines. Knowledge of guppy genetics comes quite in handy in this case. I always prefer to mentioned it as "guppy genetics' instead of genetics. For genetics does differ per individual fish species or species in general. Some of my own created strains did become commercially sold on te market throughout the years.
What's also very interesting in guppies is how they've evolved from mostly short finned (for swords and lyretails also occur in the wild) to exceptional large finned guppies with colors and patterns that you won't find in the wild. Nowadays I do keep a fair number of guppy, endler and hybrid strains at my place besides other fish.
As I've already mentioned to you, I do run my own website regarding livebearers. And there are a number of sections dedicated to just guppies. But I start off with wild guppies. For if you really want to know the essence of guppies, you should begin with the story of wild guppies. For all fancy guppies strains are derived from them. And the past couple of years, also a serious number of breeding forms have endler influence in them to show more possibilities to set up new lines.
Everybody's got their own experiences with guppies. And their own reasons why to keep them.
I do understand why people do more water changes with guppies . For most people keep fancy (breeding forms) guppies. The most commercial known ones are weaker. But if we look at the guppy in its essence, we are dealing with a fish that is much more tolerant than those breeding forms. They come in a wide range of water temperature, are quite hardy when it comes to fluctuations in water parameters and occur in clear till very dirty waters. So, in the essence, a guppy is a quite hardy fish. Besides using them for insects control also their hardiness is one of the reasons why this fish has been released globally by man. They even occur in sewers.
Not all guppy strains are beginners fish, tbh. There are guppy strains that are harder to keep and to breed. But those strains are more suitable to the more experienced keepers.

There's so much to say about guppies.

Nice! Anyone want to discuss their newest guppy colour strains?

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Guppies are evil, they wouldn't stop attacking each other in my 25 gallon aquarium, the attacks resulted in many deaths. Ended up taking the guppies back too the fish store.

 

[GaryE]

I got into guppies as kid, with the short finned forms that were the cheapest to buy. I had no money, and these fish were perfect.

I liked the endless variety that showed up in those fish. They weren't wild type anymore, as wild types I've kept since tended to breed fairly true as far as colours go. They were endlessly interesting and able to survive what I didn't yet know were awful conditions in my tanks. I regret how I kept them with what I know now.

The big tails became more common quickly, and I never liked them. I admire the hard work and knowledge of fancy guppy breeders, but I don't like their results. It's like a great chef who produces a difficult cuisine that I don't want to eat. It's the same with Bettas - fancy ones bore me. I think it's because I look at a fish and wonder how it survives in nature. Unnatural fish don't do that!

I've kept a couple of wild guppy lines for long periods. I have none now as I have very soft water here.