One of the things that always keeps me coming back to the Guppy keeping hobby is the satisfaction that I get from the cross breeding of these feisty fishes. I have never intended nor did I actually expect the results of some of my crosses.

I just know that by crossing different unrelated strains of fishes, you might just get lucky and see for yourself, way before others a new type of colour combination in guppies.

I think I got lucky this time around and a Guppy cross that I made recently inadvertently gave birth to a type of guppies that I called the Black Lace guppies, a type of colour combination that I would never have dreamt of myself. As such, when the fries of the cross started to grow into adult size, I was filled with immense excitement as the colour combination was simply unique.

The exact cross that I made was between the Moscow Black and a snakeskin variety that had dark purple and black as its base colour. The snakeskins themselves are of a unique variety to me and it is quite a distinct strain because I got the strain from a fish farm located at the Pasir Ris Farmway here in Singapore. Usually, these fishes are sold at the farm as normal aquarium types and the farmer from talking to him don’t really think that these fishes are that special. To me, these snakeskins are special and I have even coined a name for them, the Shadow Lace guppies. I will reserve another post just for them and I think you will like these fishes too.

Regarding the Moscow blacks, I got them from a shop that happens to have a son who is a guppy breeder and whom has won some Aquarama competitions as evident from the multiple trophies decorating the shop front. I have never met the breeder and the attendant at the shop wasn’t that friendly which prevented me from making any enquiries on the breeder lest they decide that I might be a prime competitor to the Guppy throne in Aquarama and not allow me to buy their guppies. :p  Nevertheless, the guppies were good and was of a quality that would have allowed for more breeding developments. In most accounts, I would be looking for uniformity in colour and tail shape and the general health of the guppies when making my selection.

That shop had a few tanks filled with nothing but guppies and they were separated according to the various Guppy strains that they had. I guess that by looking at the quality of the black Moscows in those tanks really gave credibility to the breeder and his trophies. I could see that he was also trying to produce some new strains as I saw fishes that were unique and appeared to be crossings of Moscow strains and other Platinum strains.

Anyway, I do not have any pictures of the Moscow Blacks but here is another picture of the Black Lace that I have managed to get.

I am sorry if the images are not of the highest quality as some of my other pictures as I sometimes prepare Photography tanks and I have a friend who does come down to my house to help me out taking nice pictures with his SLR camera once in a while. These pictures were taken using my snap and shot Canon Ixus camera and I didn’t really have the time at that point to prepare the photography tank. Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this article and may you have your very own unique strain in the near future.

All the best on your guppy breeding efforts.

-ishykiel-

Hi all,

Take a look at these pics of White Dragon Guppies that I once had.

The scales on its sides is in shimmering green. Just love it!

Cheers!

Ishykiel

Hi there,
The fishes here is the result of one of my breeding experiments. Sometimes, I do outcross fishes of different strains and which are totally unrelated. Why you might ask? Well, its because I am curious of the outcome of these crosses. Often, the resulting fish might not be of any standard and might not even be worth keeping.

However, I have to stress that while some breeders might think that it is a a waste of time and valuable space outcrossing strains and later on not carry on with the resultant line, I find that the real advantage that you get as breeder from doing this is that you will learn a lot more about a particular strain genetically than if you dont do an experimental outcross. The information and experience that you gain beats any theory that you might have read anywhere. It is your experience and is often unique in nature. Something that money cant buy.

Learning from the process, the info you gathered will assist you in answering questions like; are my fishes weak because it has been inbred for too many generations or because of the living conditions that I have provided them? It would be easier to answer those questions if you actually do an outcross and find that with the same conditions, the “new” outcrossed strain fares better, is more robust, more lively and ever engaging. This has occurred to me before and in the case of the fishes you see in this thread, they are more vibrant in terms of colour, is more active and is more resilient than the earlier bluegrass line from which it originated from.

How do I know that it is more resilient? Well, I purposely overstocked a tank with these fishes and didnt change the water for 2 weeks. The fishes got a bit sick, appear sluggish and stopped eating. The next step I did was to change the water and put in some medicine (Which I know will work most of the time. Higly concentrated Methylene Blue and Yellow powder.) and the fishes got well fast, pretty fast in fact, back to their original tenacity.

I find these fishes to be very jewel like and they possess the Blau gene too.

What is the outcross then Ishykiel?
Here’s the answer, they are product of an outcross between a US Blue Grass line and the Japan Blue strain that I have covered in the earlier post. This might explain the brilliance of the resultant progeny. The fishes that you see in this thread is the fourth generation(F4). The spotted tail patterns of the Blue Grass have become a blurred mass. This is why most breeders would not want to outcross fishes. They do not want to mess up existing patterns and other favorable traits. It also explains why most breeders carry out linebreeding and only outcross with other strains when they are sure of the results. Where does that surety come from? Their own experience and that of others.

As you can see, the Blue Grass have lost most of their trademark Nike logo. In fact, it has disappeared totally in most of them, leaving a shiny silverish green colour on the body of the fish. I think that most breeders in Taiwan, Singapore and in other parts of the world prefer Bluegrass guppies with the Nike pattern.

Nevertheless, it was enjoyable having this line while it lasted. The fishes you see here are very hardy and breeds profusely. I have stopped this line as I don’t have enough space for it and it is more of an experiment to identify dominant genes.

I find the greenish blue or turquoise colour of this fishes mesmerizing. They have the potential to be developed further as a new strain but no matter what, these fishes will still possess the Blue Grass characteristic of throwing Red Grasses. Even if it doesnt really look like a Grass, that particular gene seems to be ever present.

Hey. If you guys have done outcrossings youself, dont forget to leave some comments and insights yah.

Cheers!

Ishykiel

I attended the Singapore Guppy 2007 competition to check things out and was surprised to see that the competition was carried out together with the National Discus competition and the Betta Competition.I am not complaining here as I was expecting just the Guppy competition but lo and behold, I was greeted with some of the most beautiful Discus and Bettas that I have ever seen. Anyway, in this post,I am just gonna talk about the guppies. I see that the Guppies that were being shown were mainly strains that if I could recognise correctly are of Taiwan origins but of course had been bred by our local Singapore Guppy breeders. As such, most of the strains being shown are the Red laces, Blue Grass, Moscows, Half Black Whites and Full Red Guppies. I might be wrong here as some of these guppies could have been imported from other countries as well, such as the States and countries nearer to Singapore such as Thailand. I think that Singapore breeders are into the above strains at the moment. Here are some of the pictures that I took.

A beautiful Full Red Male Guppy.

It was rare but I did see however some Guppies that were clearly of local origin such as the Half Black Yellow Leopards. But that was also in the pair category. My hope is that Singapore breeders will start breeding and creating new strains of guppies that would continue to mesmerize and appeal to guppy breeders like me. In fact, in the past, Singapore Guppy breeders were well known for their ability to keep on producing new strains. Well,lets just hope that there will be a continuance in that area soon.

Personally, I love doing outcrossings and testing out the various genes by crossing unrelated guppies and also by looking hard for the weird but beautiful mutant guppy that may appear time to time.

Nevertheless, this year’s competition was a success and I enjoyed myself tremendously looking at the Guppies that were on show. I also met Helven Saw from the Malaysian Guppy club and found out that he was a judge for the competition. I would say that he is truly a guppy enthusiast to the core and I feel honoured to have met him.

Not forgetting also Shirley who was there looking after the exhibits. She is always ready to lend a helping hand when it comes to guppies and the club would definitely feel different if she is not around.

Congratulations to all the guppy breeders that got a prize for that competition. I hope to see you guys in the next competition with your new and improved strains.

Till Then,

~Ishykiel~

The pictures that you gonna see are of my prized Galaxies that I originally received from an American Guppy Breeder Frank Chang about 7 over years ago.

I was enthralled when Frank told me that he still have some Galaxies to spare for me. Previously, he said that he had none to spare. U can just imagine how I felt when he agreed to sell these jewels to me.

I received the gups in a styrofoam. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the first ever shipment of guppies were in my hands. Slowly and carefully, I opened the box and saw a trio of the Galaxies in separate bags. One trio of guppies and 1 dead female. Sigh, I hope that I wouldn’t lose the other 2 and yes, from that 1 pair of Galaxies, I still have the strain in my setup, all alive and kicking…oops swimming.

I cant recall, which generation of Galaxy I now have in my tanks. But if there are 4 broods per year, that adds up to 20 plus generations in my tanks and this is the 6th year I am keeping them. Wow. Something unthinkable 5 years ago.

Well, I should also thank the other breeders for helping me maintain the strain while I was away from Gups for a while. (Many things can happen in 5 years plus guys)

The pictures that I have posted are of Galaxies in the 5th generation. The above picture shows a Blue Galaxy. This is the result of me outcrossing this line with a Blue Grass Line, also from Frank. It is indeed a challenge to get Blue Galaxies and I gave up halfway as I did not have enough tanks. Now, however, I have decided to pursue this objective again. I am currently sourcing for a nice Blue Grass Hi Fin Line that might just help me to achieve a line of Blue Galaxies with a nice Blue colour and good finnage.

This strain breeds true but somehow or rather, I had a line that threw out Japan Blues. Interesting right? I was shocked myself as I didnt expect Jap Blues to come out from Galaxies and guess what, I was even able to fix the Jap Blue line. I would talk more about the Jap Blue line in the next post. However, I have lost the line. Nevertheless, it makes a nice story to tell you guys of the Jap Blue line and my experience keeping them. Maybe….just maybe, some of these fishes are still out there in the rooms of some breeders because I remembered some breeders managed to get these from me before the line died out on me.

I will tell you guys more about these Galaxies of mine soon.

~Ishykiel~