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gambusia and guppies
By josh117 from the lol department, Section Diaries Posted on Wed Dec 26, 2007 at 02:15:58 PM PST

I am trying the gambusia/guppy cross breeding thing again. my gambusia have been out of babies for about 3 months now and i have 3 snakeskin guppies that breed with anything (including catfish).

So far ive put the 3 guppies and one unpregnant gambusia in the breeder box and the guppies have started their job right away.

I will post pictures of the babies if any are born in a matter of 3 months.

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gambusia and guppies | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)

Re: gambusia and guppies (none / 0) (#1)
by MollieGuppy on Wed Dec 26, 2007 at 02:25:30 PM PST

I really like the look of mosquitofish but i cant find any in the uk
I hope your experiments go well and I will be looking forward to seeing some photos

Mollie-guppy, there are a lot of neater (none / 0) (#5)
by unclescott on Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 06:14:23 AM PST

looking Gambusia in that genus. I especially like G. marshi from northern Mexico and am now working with G. vittata, a mostly algae eating Gambusia which loves a current. G. marshi and too many others are in trouble in some habitats but I'll bet you could find several Mexican and Caribbean Gambusia in the BLA (British Livebearer's Association.) Try their website for started. They also have an annual show and meeting and auction somewhere in the UK.

http://www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk/
They have some very useful links, even on promoting Guppy keeping in the UK. That is a pretty new site so there are few images with the Gambusia but take a name and image search. There are several books with wild livebearer images. Almost any book, these days, is a little dated by the time it is published.

For a list of these look also to the Viviparous site. http://www.viviparous.org.uk/
They have a forum. Though I haven't been there in a long time, you might ask around. There may also be trading lists and obviously auctions next spring.

Re: Mollie-guppy, there are a lot of neater (none / 0) (#6)
by MollieGuppy on Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 07:36:23 AM PST

Thanks for the info, unclescott, I do agree those fish are much nicer than the mosquito fish. Ive been on the viviparous website for a while now, im sure its directly or indirectly linked to the BLA.

I will check those sites out again, i was just getting into them, when i got "Distracted" by marines.

All the best

[ Parent ]

Re: gambusia and guppies (none / 0) (#2)
by josh117 on Wed Dec 26, 2007 at 08:57:12 PM PST

thanks, its going good so far, but im not so sure she likes it though.

[ Parent ]

Re: gambusia and guppies (none / 0) (#3)
by MollieGuppy on Wed Dec 26, 2007 at 09:00:42 PM PST

Yes, Ratio's should always be more females to males, as the female can quickly get stressed and in worst case, die.

[ Parent ]

The Gambusia (affinis or holdbrooki) (none / 0) (#4)
by unclescott on Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 06:10:54 AM PST

will be very tough on the guppies. They aren't very closely related. Why don't you try crossing horses and cats?

How do you know that the female Gambusia (Gambusia means worthless in one of the languages supplying the term) was NOT pregnant. Is she more or less an adult? Did you wait six months to see if she would drop? Did you give her lots of plants in a 10-gallon tank and almost unlimited live or rinsed frozen food when she was big? Are you sure that she has not dropped and eaten her fry. I've had a female G. affinis for a year and a half now and have no fry to show for it. I'm quite sure, from her changing figure, that mine has been dropping. I have other uses for my tank space than for her fry.

Male guppies, as you mention Josh, would try to mate with most anything - even each other and that Cory. That still doesn't mean that they will be successful.

Was it you that confused guppy and Gambusia fry before? What was suggested then?

I know that all sounds very uncharitable but we've been around and around on this on GL. You are probably wasting your time and maybe the lives of the guppies.

And why would you confine them to a breeding box where she can more easily shred or even kill all three of them? In the case of the often very large Gambusia females, you may actually want several male Gambusia per female or at least want give them lots of hiding space and places. People may thoughtlessly bag a male and female in the same bag for an auction. We all get too much in a hurry. But while they may still be a pair at the auction, the buyer may arrive home with only a female still alive. And the guppy males are not likely to be more combative than the Gambusia males.

[ Parent ]

Re: The Gambusia (affinis or holdbrooki) (none / 0) (#7)
by josh117 on Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 10:20:43 PM PST

she has reached adult size, i got her when she was running out of babies to give birth to. shes been unpregnant for 3 months, and the guppies stopped all will of breeding.

[ Parent ]

Wow! Does she have them intimidated! ;) (none / 0) (#8)
by unclescott on Sat Dec 29, 2007 at 09:27:15 AM PST

[ Parent ]

By the way, though I know this sounds (none / 0) (#9)
by unclescott on Sun Dec 30, 2007 at 02:50:17 PM PST

grumpy, but how do you know that the female is out of fry? Have you candled her several times and seen no developing eggs or fry? Are you sure that she hasn't dropped any fry in the last three months and that dropped fry weren't consumed by herself and/or other tank mates? Was she so continually watched that you didn't see her ever getting "full figured" and then getting slightly slimmer? Was she always so well fed with meaty stuff that she wouldn't eat her own fry?

I've been hoisted upon my own petard after confidently making some sweeping generalization I couldn't support. We all nick ourselves sometime(s) in our lives. That is pretty uncomfortable (awfully embarrassing) and I hope to wing it (bs) less (these days). ;) Be careful in asserting that an adult female livebearer hasn't recently dropped any fry or that one can cross two species that don't seem to have been crossed in 100 years in the hobby, by the possibly millions of hobbyists who kept them. :)

Your odds of fixing a certain strain of molly are vastly greater than getting one of those molly crosses to work. And to be reliable experiments, one might guess that the breeders in a species cross need to be from documentably pure strains and certainly the females (if livebearers) need to be virgins, really from single species tanks.

[ Parent ]

Re: By the way, though I know this sounds (none / 0) (#10)
by josh117 on Sun Dec 30, 2007 at 07:05:35 PM PST

she never droped since the last time i caught her babies 3 months ago and turns out one male out of her litter got the grandma pregnant she has a gravid spot now. the other one which im trying to crossbreed hasnt gotten full and she would get really really big and drop lots and i never found another or had her get pregnant since.

[ Parent ]

Here's another couple points about the female (none / 0) (#11)
by unclescott on Sun Dec 30, 2007 at 09:26:32 PM PST

Gambusia. If you rescued 3 fry (and well done at that!) she probably dropped 10 times that. What if she dropped while you were at school or out and about? How many of the 30 would be saved then?

There is the temperature factor also. If your tank were to have dropped, perhaps to the 60s F/15.5-20.5 C, the female may not have dropped at all. It is sort of as if the fry went on "hold" until it gets warmer. Temperate zone livebearers don't drop in the winter. We can do that to tropicals, if we keep them too cool in the winter.

There is not as much food or shelter as in the warmer months. Why should they evolve to use up precious energy and food in order to drop fry, which will all be devoured? What is the survival advantage in that?

[ Parent ]

Re: Here's another couple points about the female (none / 0) (#12)
by josh117 on Sat Jan 12, 2008 at 08:52:17 AM PST

i caught about 100 fry but it was 3 months ago. today i am getting rid of the nusences and giving them to the petco that lets me catch my own fish because they know i can catch them faster and better than they can. Right now they have about 20 mosquito fish in their plant tank because they came in with minnows. I give them lots of fish because i trust the 2 aquatics people there.

[ Parent ]

That is hard to do but sometimes smart - giving (none / 0) (#13)
by unclescott on Mon Jan 14, 2008 at 05:30:01 AM PST

extra fish away. That is very cool, that you have established such a good rapport with the aquarists at the shop. That always makes the hobby more interesting and fun. It is amazing what one can learn in casual conversation with knowledgeable people too. That they let you net fish is quite a comment about their regard for your abilities and trust-worthiness! :)

[ Parent ]

gambusia and guppies | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 hidden)

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