Breeding swordtail guppies

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Connor AND Liam

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 20, 2008
247
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Levin, New Zealnad
Hi all. I was wondering if this was a good idea as i saw a swordtail guppy in my local pet store. And i would like to know if when breed to a normal femail would the mail and/or female offspring have swords or would i have to breed the offspring back to the male. Away from that is it possible to breed swordtails with mollies?
 
i think the offspring will be both ... normal and swords ..

i ve heard some one talking about swortails that we should breed lyrtail or double tail males with normal females so that the offspring be strong and healthy

as double swords with double swords with time ll get a weak offspring

anyway am sure that swordtail guppy with normal guppy well get both ..
 
You must realize, that the fry of this cross, will be very weak, most likely have a low immune system, and may be sterile.
 
hybrids are always tricky, generally I've seen molly/guppy hybrids in live bearers. and If you plan on attempting such. my best advise is to breed male guppies to female swords. same ratio as if you where going to attempt breeding most LB's and 1/3 though I generally do a 1/5 ratio on males to females. But to pull this off you have to also understand that they may simply not breed, you will have a very high mortality rate, and a very high "mutant" rate. which i lump defects,internal and external, poor immune systems,sterility, ect. the females must be kept in optimal condition at all times. I "breed" guppies and mollies, that is to say I have a tank of guppies and a tank of mollies. I haven't personally tried to cross my two for those very reasons. there is also a very good chance at loseing many females this way due to fry death, septisemia type complications. But it indeed can be done and has been done for many years. to be honest I'm almost 100% the young are sterile as I've never heard of or seen fry from such X's produceing young of their own. But i certaintly could be wrong.

And there are also specially bred guppies that look like swordtails.. which are simply a genetic trait bred into them to have a swordtail look. the lower part of the fin is colored while the top half is clear. I haven't seen any guppies with true swordtails. but I'm not a show quality guppy breeder who could give a diffinitive answer to that.
 
If your talking Double Sword Guppies or Bottom or Top Sword Guppies, it would be advised to breed them with females of the Sword Guppy Strain your thinking about.

Generall, Females of DS Guppies tend to have no color on the tails except on the upper and lower tips. It takes some time to recognize, but they're there.
 
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