# Line or Inbreeding?



## MrKrabs (Sep 28, 2012)

I am facing a bit of a dilemma. I ordered 2 trios of Moscow guppies, when one trio would have been plenty for breeding. I am not sure if I would be better served line breeding or inbreeding. Line breeding would require more tanks and other equipment. I could simply keep those guppies that show best potential when inbreeding. I want to do it the right way, just not sure if my guppies would have greater show potential line breeding. Maybe not, I don't know. Disregarding cost, would you recommend? Thanks for listening.:-(


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Use two separate tanks/lines then cross them together and split into 2 new groups every 2-4 generations. A little bit of care and you can keep a nice strain going indefinably. Always breed siblings and you will start to see health decline after a few generations. You can still choose the best males for breeding, and cull any deformed fry. 

I would see if you can keep the existing line healthy and productive before trying to develop any new traits. Though if an interesting mutation occurs, it would be worth it to try and "fix" it in a line.


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## MrKrabs (Sep 28, 2012)

I'm a bit slow in the brain. Your saying inbreed each trio. After say 3 or 4 generations cross the two trios to add new genes in to the pool, so to speak.
Per trio of fry should still be separated. Boys and girls. Pick the best of each, cull the rest. Then continue in breeding say father/ daughter....Several generation down, cross with other trio and so forth. Hope I'm making sense?


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Yes, exactly. You can find the specifics in many books. You label the tanks A and B. For A & B you take the best one to three males of each generation and all the healthy females and put them in a tank together A w/A, B w/ B. You sell the rest of the males, & cull all the unhealthy fish. Separate virgin fry by sex and repeat. At f2 or f3 you put A males with all B females and vice versa. Then arbitrarily divide those virgin fry into As and Bs (or Cs and Ds, whatever) and start over.

This is if you are mainly interested in male color. If you are going for female color or size or anything else, you need to be picky about which females you keep as well. You'd only keep the best 6 females and 1 or 2 males.

I would probably avoid father/daughter & mother son unless you are trying to bring out a recessive trait. Breed siblings for a few gens and then have one generation where there are no closer pairings than cousins.

This strategy does require a lot of tanks: A & B breeders + A & B male & female fry tanks. So at least six. But it a good way to go if you love your fish and want to have the same strain 10 years from now.


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## MrKrabs (Sep 28, 2012)

I need clarification again. Ok I have 2 trios of guppies 1 male to 2 females and 1 male and two females. Is line breeding when you take a guppy from one of the females of one trio and breed it to a guppy from one of the other trios? 
What is it called when you breed within one trio. Take a guppy from a female and take another guppy from the second female. Never touching the other trios. Is this in breeding? What if you breed within one trio, but only breed without breeding with the second female in that trio. Is that in breeding as well. I suppose one can use various methods. It may require even more tanks.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Keep the lines separate for around three generations, breeding siblings together. THEN, take the fish from each line and cross them together. That breeds cousins together, as it were, which revitalizes both lines. Then you go back to keeping them separate again.
Yes, this takes a lot of tanks. It also produces very good fish.


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