Things to Think About When Out Crossing Guppy Strains

 

If you’ve just entered into the hobby of guppy breeding there you are definitely on an adventure of learning. and there are lots for you to learn. It is an exciting hobby and guppy breeding show guppies can really bring a lot of pleasure and satisfaction. Also, it comes with a lot of work which is well worth it, if you are enjoying the guppy breeding of your show guppies and are beginning to place well in the guppy shows.

 

There are some basic rules that are followed for the guppy breeding of show guppies which is making sure that you get a good quality strain that is well-established, and then once doing so making sure that you keep the strain as pure as you can.

 

What this means is when you are following this practice that you are inbreeding the strain. With inbreeding, the fish are closely related to each other as they may be a father to daughter or brother to sister, for example.

 

Some individuals really want to delve into outcrossing which is the opposite of inbreeding. In this case, you are going to choose fish as your breeders that are not genetically related to each other.

 

 

This is something that you probably really don’t want to become a part of until you have become very experienced in the guppy breeding of guppies. It can be really difficult and often comes down to trial and error with a lot of disappointments.

 

At the same time when you are successful with this endeavor then you end up crossing guppies that are genetically compatible and can come up with some very spectacular successes. The problem is, trying to find two compatible strains is almost like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

 

How Do Guppy Breeding?

Even though you may not initially choose to outcross it could be that you end up in a situation where you have to. It may be that you bought a single fish from another breeder or at an auction and there is no mate to go with this one that you have chosen.

 

You are going to find at first with your outcrossing that it is purely experimental and no doubt you are going to make a lot of mistakes along the way. What you don’t want to do is pass the strains of fish along to other breeders because of the genetic mistakes that may have occurred.

 

 

Passing them along is just going to increase these mistakes. There is no reason why you cannot give them to a guppy hobbyist who is just keeping guppies for pure pleasure.

 

Aside from just wanting something exciting and new to work with there may be some specific reasons that you have decided to outcross. There may be a certain characteristic that you’re looking for in your guppies that you haven’t been able to get.

 

You may be having a problem with your breeders being infertile, or you may decide that you want to outcross to get into some of the bigger showings for hybrids.

 

No matter what your decision for doing so you really must take the time to learn as much as you can about out cross-breeding and apply what you learn carefully and being responsible in the guppy breeding environment and being patient

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