My endlerguppy breeding project called Silver Starline

I did make a thread about my black bar colony that I eventually added blue stars too. Over time I had a lot sickness in my tank, many setbacks happened and majority of my blackbar males and females died out except a single male, and my surviving F1 bluestars(M) X Blackbar(F) specimens was dominant in the surviving colony eventually the f1’s bred to each other resulting in f2 sibling crosses. All phenotypically bluestars. I then added some pure El Silverado’s a few months back to add to the gene pool. Got some interesting outcross offsprings with the F2 (Bluestars X Blackbars), resulting in F3/F1outcross (Bluestar x Blackbar)(M) x El Silverado(F). All still phenotypically bluestar with slight variance from the f2 even original bluestars I got from last year.

Here’s the resulting current adult males, I like the males that are smaller body framed with pointed swords, the other males are large sized body framed with the thick chests, I not like them. For now I’ll let them colony breed then pull out the bigger males to give away, and keep the smaller males. I do plan to isolate a male with an eventual female from my other cross project, I’ll explain below.

Now my next project I had kept some el salto orangelines females to roam the main tank with the endlerguppies, they did drop fry but I’m uncertain it’s hybrid fry they look pure bc I’ve had pure orangeline fry when I first got them. So those females died from age they start getting weak after dropping fry and died a few weeks after. I do have one last female she did drop fry but man Idek if i caught them or not but her first batch were pure fry, her second Idek. I’ll ignore it for the time being bc I have all the fry in a breeder net, with the other endler guppies i can tell the pure orangeline fry from the endlerguppies, but some endler guppies looks questionable so they may be hybrids. Okayyy now that’s out of the way I did the reverse cross with 100% accuracy, I kept the orangeline males with 2 virgin and 1 non virgin (Bluestar x Blackbar) *basically bluestar* females in another breeder net. The virgin females I’ve kept separated as fry for a failed hybrid project, same as the non virgin female who was just close to dropping her first ever batch. The non virgin female drop normal fry the 2nd-3rd week I put her in, her second batch was skeptical. Media provided is her third batch she dropped today. The fry are quite large surprisingly. *Pure orangeline fry is quite large as well compare to newborn endlerguppy fry*.

*more media at the bottom of the thread*

Her fry matches the virgin females fry, but I’ll still be skeptical with them. As for the virgins, one of the two dropped fry but I manage to save one so here’s a 100% with certainty Orangeline(M) x (Bluestar x Blackar)(F) cross fry.

As with the other fry, I got them all growing out with my other fry batches of endlerguppies and pure orangelines. Mainly bc of spacing issues in my home. And I like the challenge to sorting out fry as they age. I can still tell the orangelines from the endlerguppies different body proportions especially head shape and fins, also base body color hue, funny enough orangelines has orange tinge base body color lol. I’m excited to see how they mature. I mostly like the body shape of the orangeline, I want that body type with a variant bluestar phenotype. So any males from the orangeline(m) x bluestars(f) im not interested in but curious what they’ll look like. I want the female offsprings from them and hopefully isolate backcross to orangeline male,to get a more stable body shape. I’ll let the rest of the females flock breed into the endlerguppy colony see what variants they throw out. But like I said earlier I want to isolate my best (Bluestar x Silverado) male to one of the potential females.

Here’s my lineage chart so far, the last line isn’t filled in, meaning it’s for a planned cross.

The way you've crossed the blue stars will end up in blue star phenotypes. The intensity of the blue, orange or even red can differ per individual male in this case. In later generations, Minor numbers of El siverado and black bar phenotypes can occur if siblings or cousins are crossed to another.

The way you've crossed the blue stars will end up in blue star phenotypes. The intensity of the blue, orange or even red can differ per individual male in this case. In later generations, Minor numbers of El siverado and black bar phenotypes can occur if siblings or cousins are crossed to another.

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I’m hoping to keep the phenotypes bluestar like. I am curious if I’ll see throwbacks again once I restrict the gene pool. The plan was to use silverado females to help bring out the iridescence in the bluestars. It’s bc with crossing the bluestars to my black bars it made dull looking specimens that became big body frame. Only upside the black bars passed the extended sword gene. I still get offspring bluestars with long swords from time to time. The orangeline added in I want to focus on making slender petite framed females. I may sound crazy but I kind of want to replicate the female picta’s body shape. Seems like a plausible work around.

Pulled all the guppy fry out the breeder net to take out the older endlerguppy fry. And looking close the orangelineXbluestar fry are golden-yellow hue, super noticeable.

Bluestar female 3 of 3 finally dropped her orangeline hybrid fry. So far she gave two large babies. Nice deep hue and big heads. I’ll try to keep them separate from the other two batches of hybrid fry, and I’ll monitor them.

The two orangeline hybrid fry are sexing out now. They outpaced the older batches by a lot. Mainly bc the other fry are growing together while these two had more space to themselves with some older juvenile Livebearers, I have growing with them. One is a def male, the second not fully confident, seems to be male as well. The colors will soon follow. I notice the pure orangelines develop colors pretty late so I’ll apply that observation to these hybrids as well. They look adorable with their pug faces, and their body form looks nice so far as well.


To add, I pretty much have not been observing the other hybrids, but as they get a certain size, I transfer them out the breeder net to grow in the main tank with the other endlerguppies and mollies. i know i wont be able to tell the females apart, and any males will be a dead give away once they color up.

Here’s a few fry that I temp put them from the breeder net to the breeding container. I’ll release them tomorrow. Not sure if some are the orangeline hybrids and other are bluestars but it is what it is. They won’t color down for me to see their hues.


Here’s pics of smaller endlerguppy fry and possibly a few more orangeline hybrids that aren’t big enough to transfer out.

One of the two brothers has been coloring up, showing more orangeline phenotype palette. The other hybrid juveniles are still small and needs more growing to do. He’s promising I placed him with a picta female, to enhance the slender petite body type. The female orangline hybrids, I’ll backcross to bluestar (using the Bluestar x Silverado) males, and see what recessives pops up, when they mature. I’ll show him again when he finish coloring up probably by next weekend.

This pic here is from last week when his spot first showed up, and comparison to a pure orangeline juvenile that was the same age.

Two male Orangeline hybrids. One is still coloring up the second is just about done. They pretty much inherited the fathers phenotype even their second form of mating ritual which I really like. Their dorsals and tailfins also tapers back somewhat. Good news both brothers shows interest in the picta females. Hopefully soon the females will become gravid in a month, because they are still quite young.


Here’s their half sister same dad different bluestar mother. I find she’s very attractive petite frame eventhough she’s still a juvenile she’s one of the oldest females I can spot and isolated. I want to insure she’s a virgin for the backcrossing to bluestar.


Video media of the older male dancing for the picta female. Not a good video but best I could do at that time. They refused to show off in the display.

Better(ish) display media, one of the males dancing for the picta females. Not on video but I’ve seen the males hitting the females in the tank, hopefully I’ll see some eggs and fry develop in them in a few weeks.


The second male sporting a bottom sword nub, which is interesting, if it grows out to being a full on bottom sword. Their mom def carry the sword tail gene, and only that male inherited it.

Other media I like their iridescences.

I haven't seen a male orangeline with a sword pattern either... Mine had always clear caudals.

Orangeline hybrid female looking prime and ready to be fertilized. I’m going to finally pair her to one of the bluestarXsilverado males. I’m obsessed with her lol.


Spotted a late bloomer male hybrid his spot is just now showing up after, hes somewhat bigger than his other brothers. I think the other siblings may be late bloomers as well but it’s just him coloring up for now.

One of the Picta’s is gravid I think to the orangeline hybrid males. I did feed them earlier in the day before taking pics, but this darker female is noticeably rounder than her sister. I’m not 100% sure if this species have gravid spots or not. Makes me excited either way, if she is gravid I assume she will drop a few fry in the next 10-14days? I don’t have much experience with picta’s. From the last time I’ve kept them I had adults that came gravid idk how long is their typical gestation. I only know the fry are very tiny and slender.


The bluestarXsilverado male is doing alright, he’s still with the Orangeline hybrid female, I’ll have to check on the female to see if she’s showing size later.

I’m not 100% sure if this species have gravid spots or not.

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Most picta females won't show a gravid spot. Too much chromatophores (color cells) at the vent area. If I look at the body shape of what you call a picta female, I do have some doubts if they're pure picta or not. Yes, they have the more pointy snout like picta females have. But something about the rest of the body shape makes me wonder...

Most picta females won't show a gravid spot. Too much chromatophores (color cells) at the vent area. If I look at the body shape of what you call a picta female, I do have some doubts if they're pure picta or not. Yes, they have the more pointy snout like picta females have. But something about the rest of the body shape makes me wonder...

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Ahh okay okay. That makes sense. Hmm to be fair I also had doubts when I first bought them, I got my Picta’s from Darrell Nekoba (Mobetta). He’s been maintaining his colony of picta’s for a couple years from what I can find. I don’t think his originated from commercial stock, maybe obtained from another private breeder that’s descendantes from wild stock. I never got a reply back, if they are tied to location or general locale this body morph is from. I do trust him i received my Rio morichals from him previously, that’s why I chose to get the picta’s from him and not buy from an online vendor. These ladies are still pretty young I’ll say 5 ish months old the rest of my picta’s are smaller so 4 months old. The male picta’s is taking long to color up so I don’t show them much.

Orangeline hybrids are doing very well. First male showing a peacock? spot on the tail, I actually like that a lot! Second male is okay nice yellow-green belly is bottom sword streak didn’t really grow so I think it’ll just stay that way. Later slides the third male is coloring up more. He’s quite big, compare to his brothers. Also he’s from the batch born before the twins. Same dad different bluestar mom. I placed the third males sister with them to get the males to flex but nope that failed.

Phenotypically, they're still the orangelines. And looking great! A peacock is something that can occur in these orangelines as well. They do occur at my place as well.

Phenotypically, they're still the orangelines. And looking great! A peacock is something that can occur in these orangelines as well. They do occur at my place as well.

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Interesting, I didn’t know even pure Orangelines can show much variation between them. That third male is swimming with his sisters and other endlers. Not something I’m looking for but, just letting him flock breed, I might get lucky to see f2 sibling cross, backcross to bluestar female or outcross to Silverado females.

Im kind of curious on knowing if Orangeline is y-linked like other primal reticulata phenotypes or not. My male Bluestar carrying Silverado blood is still with an Orangeline hybrid female. She’s gravid no fry yet as a precaution, I put a second virgin female with him to get better results. I suspect with the Bluestar male crossing to orangeline hybrid female she may not pass down any phenotype variation maybe? just body shape, I’m still going to follow my breeding chart, but my curiosity is getting to me lol.

Slight up of the two mature females one passed away to wasting it happened so quick I couldnt save her in time. The older sister is still pretty good she’s doing well. Still no signs on being gravid. I do think she and the male, I had her with lost interest. For now I swapped out the males for another orangeline hybrid, and placed a random endler female with them to encourage her to mate with them. I’ll be trying to cycle out males till she looks somewhat gravid. If nothing in a month I’ll place her back in the main tank and let her choose either of the endler and endlerguppy hybrid males. Not what I want but it’ll be something just to get f1 from her.


Here’s a young orangeline hybrid female nothing too impressive. I just love this ladies body shape quite stretchy, also she has some unfertilized eggs, hopefully she’ll be gravid and give me fry in a few weeks as well. The last 3 pics in the bottom is also her. To add the last female I had paired up with a bluestar, I had to cull her, unfortunately seems she developed a weak spine while recovering from wasting… a couple of my guppies had gotten weak spines bc of it culled a few in the past month. Even lost a few picta juveniles. Things should be alright now.

this months update. Project doing so so. The third orangeline hybrid male fully colored up and mature. He came out pretty nice!!! Still slightly bigger framed than his older brothers. A 4th male is coloring up I haven’t taken pics of it yet. One of the older hybrid females is very gravid soon to pop. Not sure who the dad will be but ratio wise I have more bluestarXsilverado males in the tank. Good chance those fry will be phenotypically bluestar but I won’t separate I’ll let it be. Downside of the project now the picta female I sort of loss hope on her hard to tell she doesn’t seem to be gravid so I dropped the isolated pairing with the orangeline hybrid males. I out her back into the main tank and I’ll let her choose the males she wants to bear offsprings for. I just need fry that’s all that matters now. I’ll rework from there hopefully. Not really expecting picta hybrids anytime soon. I’ll just focus on the endlerguppy side of the project for now.

Display media of the endlerguppies.

Got all 4 Orangeline males for pics and a video.


The BluestarXsilverado males

I never showed this male he’s part of the colony but not directly pairing him to females for my project, this singular blackbar male, he’s the son of my last late blackbar male, and his mom is the sister to the bluestarXsilverado’s. Phenotypically my blackbars lives on in him eventhough the bloodline also runs throw the orangelines and bluestars.

Raising fry most likely new gen of orangeline hybrids. Mixed with some bluestars and Silverado fry. Now I wait and see if the fry from the orangeline hybrid females will be bluestar backcross. I honestly think they’ll just be f2 orangeline sibling cross, I’ve noticed the ladies much prefers them over the bluestars male, plus male ratio wise, ofc more orangeline males over bluestar males in the colony. Either way I wouldn’t mind the sibling cross it’ll makes me curious if any recessive bluestar traits will show up.

Not confident I think these two males are F2 or a new set of F1’s that fully matured. If they are F2 it’s most likely F1 x F1 or F1 male x (Bluestar x Silverado) female. I’m not feeling them body too endler shaped the black spot is much smaller the orangeline is more elongated broken lines lol. I’ll keep them only bc they carry orangeline. I don’t think orangelines is X and Y-linked, but only Y-linked. Once the f1 females fry mature that’ll give me a better idea if they pass any significant X-link traits if the father to the fry are any of the endler males (Bluestars or Silverado’s, or Blackbar).





Here’s one of the Bluestar x Silverado males, and a f1 orangeline hybrid male above him.



Mild venting my frustration here but the picta’s I’m down to two individuals an adult female, and a juvenile with a broken spine, which it received as a fry during shipment to me. I’m not confident the female will last long she makes me nervous if she’s losing weight. I see her eating fine but she often acts sluggish from time to time. I really want to add picta genes into my project. Something I’ve always wanted to do ever since learned about picta’s 8yrs ago.

Now for the obscura issue…. As for the single obscura male I kept in the main tank. I had just isolated him the other day with two mature females def not virgins and 2 veryyy young females that’s not old enough to breed yet. I had kept them in my breeder net. So he gets first dibs on them. I always do that with my fishes without issue. I had placed them Monday around noon. Later in that day around night time, I went to clean the Intake of my filter that was covered in algae. What I usually do is take the fish net to cover the intake then unplug it. And placed them in a deli cup to rinse in my bathroom sink. Now when I pulled the I take out the net I vaguely remember something moving passed the net I didn’t put much thought I thought it was water or a piece of algae that fell. I rinse the intake put it back together, checked the fishes then go back to bed. I always like checking on my fishes, before bed. I had assumed the obscura was in the breeder net I never head counted I just seen the females that wasn’t hiding in the hornworts/guppy grass and algae growing in it. Now Tuesday morning I went to feed the tank. I check the fishes I couldn’t find the obscura I panicked and think it died and was eaten, no skeleton or corpse. I then assumed it jumped out the tank. No corpse around the tank and stand in my living room. Nowww I assumed i to nuked back into the main part of the tank NOPE. Not there. I had to step out around noon to pick up my little sister from school and do other personal stuff. I finally get back around idk 4:30pm. I looked again for the obscura. I was already upset, and bummed out. I finally gave up. When I cuasually went to go use the bathroom I see the obscura male dried up on the floor next to the sink… took me a while to process how the heck it reached there. When I remembered the thing that moved passed me when I pulled the I take out the fishnet. Was the obscura jumping out of the net when I went to clean the intake. My assumption was the obscura jumped out the breedernet back into the tank. When I went to cover the I take with the fish net the obscura was sleeping near the intake and I must have scooped it up… and yea I accidentally unalive it. I’m a very clumsy man something I hate…I should have been more aware but I was so tired on Monday I spent the morning packing fish for my friend and going to the post office then cleaning the tanks, and I barely got sleep Sunday-Monday night sigh… I felt so bad most of the afternoon I literally just got them now I’m down to 2 males and 3 females. I won’t touch them they are in my other tank. I’ll wait till I get pure fry and use the offsprings for my project. I was only curious to see what genes an obscura male can pass on to my endler guppies and just use his daughters. Welp that won’t happen anytime soon I assume. So yea two things I was excited for to add to the project backfired on me lol. I’ll for now just let the colony endlerguppy autopilot and I’ll select for the longer petite body form. And pull out any robust males. Hopefully I get lucky the picta female gives me fry but I just don’t know anymore. I may have to buy more picta’s again but I rather adults then growing out picta’s from fry they take so long to mature, ontop of hard they are to source and how pricey they are.

The suspect F2 Orangeline hybrid male is abit more mature now but his brother I think passed away I can’t find him in the tank…


F1 Orangeline hybrids:
This is Male #3, I can tell bc he has a black dorsal unlike his half brothers and his full blood brother. Anyways he has such an amazing dorsal it turns black when he’s active and dancing for the females. His orangeline is pretty decent not better than his half brothers tho. Oh and he also has a bottom sword streak which is interesting. Must be the bluestar females actually carry the swordtail trait. I’m noticing it the more I look at the hybrids.


Here’s the Female F1, She’s such a longgg body girl, I get nervous seeing how slim she is, same with her sisters. They all do eat but they look so slim it throws me off. I couldn’t get the brother to be closer to her but their body size is significantly different. I was told pure Orangeline females gets pretty big unlike the males, so this checks out in the hybrids. Not sure if I had collected recent fry from her a couple days back, or if she’s a virgin. Anyways I pulled two of her sisters that looks to be virgins I’m keeping them separate for the time being. I may use them to the obscura male or just use one of the (Bluestar x Silverado) males to be solid i get the proper cross I planned. I’m really feeling her body shape slender body is what I’m going for but I prefer a smaller sized body frame. Def needs more work once I see how the f2 fry I’m currently raising, turns out I’ll go from there on who to pull out from the tank.


Last update of the day, F2 Male (Bluestar x Silverado). Unsure of the cross maybe F1 x F1 or F1 (M) x Silverado (F). He’s not fully matured but he has a nice bold colors.

Orangeline hybrids update:

F1 male


F2 male

Unsure if thats his son but this F2 is (F1 (M) x P-class El Silverado (F)). Stripe broke from F1 to F2. I wanted to wait till he was fully matured but he hasn’t really changed. His body frame is quite petite and slender which I like. Sort of wish he kept the line like the F1’s and pures but can’t complain his spots gets bold when fully color up. Eventhough I took a bad angle of him you can see his phenotype well, not in the pic ofc but the flashlight light shining on his orange lines also gives off the magenta hue like in the pic of the F1 male. As for the F1 male he’s showing some signs of aging his body is slight hunched when he relaxes. The endlerguppy project is just on autopilot still.

It’s kind of discouraging the crosses I wanted I couldn’t get out and fishes I wanted to use for the project died on me. The first F2 male died while I was away at the beginning of July. Lost some motivation to talk on the project bc nothing new popped up. Till this current F2 male. Hmm the bluestar x silverados in the colony I’m at F3 unsure of the pairing, new Silverados showed up def not p-class anymore body form is much bigger. I’m still getting a lot of fry. Some I’m still culling from bad body form. I do want to try again with picta’s and pure Rio Morichals to add to the colony but I’ll wait till I have money and can source them again. I want to fix the body form.

All my current adult endlerguppy males. This is all I’m working with atm, they all look amazing! There’s also two Silverado males that’s just now starting to color up not worth showing atm. All those bluestars carry Silverado blood, that Silverado male carry some bluestar blood, and ofc the orangeline hybrids with the f2 having Silverado blood. Silverado females cranks up the iridescences in them, the bluestars are def tone shifted not the typical deep blue sheen compare to pures. Oh and the black bar male I haven’t talked about here he lost his grey base body and deep melanophores but still showing freckling weird but cool!


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Seeing this F2 matured, I was wrong on the cross he’s not (F1 Orangeline male hybrid x El Silverado female). He’s (Obscura male x F1 Orangeline hybrid female) cross. When he was courting his black line and spot got larger, I’ve only seen that trait in my late Obscuras neither my F1’s and pure Orangelines showed intricate hidden patterns when courting. Interesting part he still have the Orangeline exclamation point dance, his body is very tiny and compact at that. So yea he’s a 3 way guppy species hybrid cross. I can Def work with him! I can’t tell if he has sisters but good chance they are there in my tank. I tend to get more females over males in my colony bc he’s the only one.



Dad Obscura:

Some males from the colony. Colony not as vigorous. I’m still culling bad spinal deformity fry, most are Silverado types. In the pics is a F1 K-class El Silverado. Downgrade from Dad who was the P-class Silverado, mother unknown most likely my F2 (Bluestar x Silverado) female. Next to him his a F2 Orangeline hybrid from sibling cross most likely. Below F3 (Bluestar x Silverado) most likely from sibling cross. Next to him is the F1 Obscura tri hybrid. I’ll say this project has been such a flop but I can’t complain when I have time and fish funds I’ll try to fix up the project. I want to reintroduce more Pure orangelines and actually get picta’s in the bloodline that’s what I really want. Adding that specific Silverado bloodline to the bluestar colony pretty much downgraded both strains in quality, body form, and vigor. Any new fry has a hard time reaching sexual maturity without getting weak and dying, and like I said spinal deformity. Could just be a bad mix of genes bc none of my other fishes has those issues. Either way they all still look quite nice I have high hopes for the obscura hybrid and the orangeline hybrids.

Interesting male coloring up he has a bottom green iridescent chest streak, and black lines when fully active. possibly another f1 obscura x orangeline tri hybrid. Seems my late obscura male hit multiple ladies in his short time in my tank, still pretty neat the ladies are pumping them out. Good to see my colony showing more variation. Still no offsprings showing combos of paternal endler phenotype mixed with obscura or orangeline yet. Steady progress letting them do whatever they want. Gonna wait till I up the population enough before I start culling down males.


The other pics of the males from the colony below.