# Crossing Guppies questions



## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Well I've enjoyed having my guppies so much currently have bout 57 of them or so. All different ages. From adults to juvies to fry. ANyway, I've been looking for a blue tail female for awhile now and I may get to petco today. If I see one I'll buy her. Once I get my female I want to cross her with my red male that has a snakeskin pattern on his body and a cool tail. I thought the combination may be cool... But heres the thing.. If the female has already breed before, how do I ensure that when i cross her with the male...hes the only daddy. Or will the other daddy have some effect in the babies? I'd also like to know about color genetics because im confused on that also because a few of my juvies are turning out weird. Anyway....thanks in advance!:fish::fish::fish:


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

ZebraDanio12 said:


> If the female has already breed before, how do I ensure that when i cross her with the male...hes the only daddy. Or will the other daddy have some effect in the babies? :fish::fish::fish:


Question 1, if you don't know who the tankmates for the female have been since she was old enough to breed, you can't. You'll have to wait at least 6 months to flush out any stored sperm.

Question 2, however, any stored sperm will not cross in any way with the new father's. You may get fry from two fathers in the same batch, but you will not get any fry where the genetics of the two fathers cross. 

I'd just pair them up and see what you get. Unless you get the fish from a breeder who can tell you the history, you can't even be sure of the age of the female.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Note also that at the top of the livebearer section there is a thread on guppy color genetics. http://www.fishforums.com/forum/livebearers/4036-guppy-colour-genetics.html


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> Question 1, if you don't know who the tankmates for the female have been since she was old enough to breed, you can't. You'll have to wait at least 6 months to flush out any stored sperm. Makes sense.
> 
> Question 2, however, any stored sperm will not cross in any way with the new father's. You may get fry from two fathers in the same batch, but you will not get any fry where the genetics of the two fathers cross. Hey, thats cool. So fathers can't cross. good.
> 
> I'd just pair them up and see what you get. Unless you get the fish from a breeder who can tell you the history, you can't even be sure of the age of the female.





Thanks for the info. I get it. So if I crossed a red snakeskin looking guppy with the blue female, is it possible to get snakeskin but blue? Or could one guppy have both red and blue? Or is this not possible?


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

You'll just have to try it and see. You should get predominantly the new father's offspring but you will never be completely sure of the pedigree.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> You'll just have to try it and see. You should get predominantly the new father's offspring but you will never be completely sure of the pedigree.


Well. I didn't find my female today. I'll keep looking though. But I got the last two endlers they were selling


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> You'll just have to try it and see. You should get predominantly the new father's offspring but you will never be completely sure of the pedigree.


Okay. I'd like to pair up one of the endlers I got today (hes a black bar) with a red delta female. Thought the cross would be cool... How do I do this? I have an empty 3 gallon tnak I could use and cover with plants. How do I know when they've breed?


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Just put them in a tank together. Cover the bottom of the tank with guppy grass, or plastic breeders grass. Drop in a lot of places for fry to hide. After a while, you will see lots of them. 

You could also tell that they have bred by waiting until she is very gravid.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

Cover the tank, though. Male endlers think about only one thing, and that is where he is next going to put that gonopodium. The female might jump to get away from him. Make sure you have places for her to hide also.

Also, PLEASE do not advertise or give away these hybrid offspring as Endlers. They are not endlers if you cross them. They are hybrid guppies. Endlers as a species have a special problem where they are almost never as advertised (ie almost always hybrid). Please don't add to that.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> Cover the tank, though. Male endlers think about only one thing, and that is where he is next going to put that gonopodium. The female might jump to get away from him. Make sure you have places for her to hide also.
> 
> Also, PLEASE do not advertise or give away these hybrid offspring as Endlers. They are not endlers if you cross them. They are hybrid guppies. Endlers as a species have a special problem where they are almost never as advertised (ie almost always hybrid). Please don't add to that.


Thanks for the info. No I don't plan to sell them or anything. Just curious with the cross. I saw some crosses by another guying and they were amazing. I think I'll wait to cross them till after cristmas and buy a empty 10 gallon and a filter and such, cover it with java moss and other plants and use that as my breeding tank.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

I like to think of guppys like cats. They can have kittens from different daddies.  That's probably one of my favorite things about guppies.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

There is a trick to help you get around the waiting & waiting thing:

If a female mates within 18 hours of birthing fry, she will use the fresh new sperm instead of the old stored stuff. The males know this, which is why they will mob her during this time. ( and why we don't put her back in the main tank during that time )
If you quickly put her in a tank alone with your desired male, he will be the father of her next batch.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

True that, If you don't remove them to a separate tank, the dominant male in the same tank as the female will often engage in mate-guarding and WILL be the father.


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