Is It Possible?

[Bre_B]

I saw today in my LFS an unmarked fish. It was small, looked exactly like what the LFS sells as "wild guppies" (dunno if thats what theyre really called, never really looked into it, hence why i put " " around it.) but it had a white extension on the tail that looked JUSt like a small swordtail tail.

It was interesting, and i wasnt quite sure what it was. Is it an actual species of fish, really, or is it hybrid?

thanks.


EDIT: just searched google... saw that there are many like this, however most look more like fancy guppies. Are these hybrids or just another type of guppy i never knew of?

 

[Annastasia]

They may be Endler/Guppy hybrids, since you said they were called "Wild Guppies". Or they may just be a type of Fancy Guppy, there are ones that have Swords on them. It's a tail type. Did it look kinda like this?

If so, it's a Fancy Guppy with a sword tail.

But to answer your other question, nope, Swordtails and Guppies cannot breed together.

 

[Bre_B]

no, it didnt look like that. Thats what i saw alot of when i searched for it, but they dont look like it at all. They look more like a swordtail... with a guppy sized body... and wild guppy coloration... its hard to explain.

but yeah, its probably just one of them just not fancy. the tail was much smaller, much much smaller... proportioned like a swordtail.

oh well, thanks.

 

[Ddraig Goch]

Could it have been an Endler?

http/members.cox.net/newcomb1/elb_collage.jpg

 

[sylvia]

Swords and guppies are nopt closely related enough to hybridize - ever.

Endler's and guppies are, however. They are, in fact, so closely related, that there's still debate over whether endler's are a completely seperate species or just a subspecies (at one point it was even suggested they were the same species). Fancy-tailed guppies with sword extensions like the one in the pic above contain endler's hybrids in their far off ancestry. You can tell because endler's have those bold patches of color while guppies don't.

The fish you saw was most likely an Endler or an Endler X guppy hybrid. There is little else it could have been if it was in with 'wild guppies'. As there is much variation amongst such hybrids, don't expect to find one that is identical to what you saw. if it has the guppy shape and the extended tail, that's what it was.