Guppy genetics, just for fun

Trying to take pictures of seething healthy guppies, lol- the blurry photos are funny but not much use, they're more into getting my attention than my bettas- just wanted to show off a pretty little f2 boy (my pond guppies threw a lot of females, I never get many males) coming up, and I was curious about his smaller, rounder tail?

I had tequila sunrise and black and red OGs, the f1s had one yellow cobra pop up, and bred back to tequila sunrise, came up with this.
The whole inbreeding thing with guppies is very interesting (ie how they avoid it, even in small populations), I think Secret Life In Your Aquarium covered that study on YT, but I will still be happy to integrate some other genes, lol (might take another generation, I'm trying to get fry out of my blue gold japan and lime endler double swordtails males, and breed them to those females).
I just think he's pretty, anyway (and as it is my strain, it is my eyes I have to please, lol- and he's so vigorous! Those pond guppies are almost immortal- although not if they were still in my pond right now- brrr!

 

I tend to like these smaller-tailed guppies, myself. Once the tails get too big, they weigh the fish down, even when the fish is otherwise healthy. I'd much rather have a small-tailed guppy with bright coloration darting around my tank than a large-tailed guppy just floating around.

 

I need to learn more about guppy genetics, but it probably won't help since my "strain" is just from 4 or 5 mutts from a couple stores.

Any recommendations on where to look for more info, other than Secret Life?

 

I need to learn more about guppy genetics, but it probably won't help since my "strain" is just from 4 or 5 mutts from a couple stores.

Any recommendations on where to look for more info, other than Secret Life?

Honestly, I don't know a ton! I've always been more interested in keeping mutts anyway. There are lots of online resources from guppy competitions and breeders, though, so I'd just do some digging. You never know what kind of gold mine you'll run across - sometimes old websites from the 90's are still up, and you'd be surprised at how many of them have solid info you won't find on most forums or newer websites.

If you're wanting to keep that small tail, you'd want to keep that male (and any others with that trait) and breed him with females who also have smaller tails. Over time, the trait would become more common, and your strain starts to breed "true" (so that all the babies end up with your desired traits, instead of some having fantails, and some not).

 

Experience is the best teacher, guppies are new to me ('I am an old man, but a young gardener ' - Thomas Jefferson - I had my first fry about half a century ago lol), genetics and breeding aren't- I'm a 'show me' kinda gal, I'll see what happens. Anyone with enough time and interest can hone their 'mutts' into a more or less stable strain, I mean, I had cobras pop out of a sunrise/tuxedo cross- how stable were those 'established' strains, lol? These aren't standard poodles, it doesn't take a lifetime to selectively breed for what you are looking for (if it is in the mix).