Keri Anne

Not a stupid question at all. Albinism is only partial in guppies as the albino gene that has developed in them only blocks the production of melanin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin) which is only responsible for black and brown colourations. The parents are sold as “Albino snow†[do a google image search on"Albino Snow Guppy" and you will see exactly what they look like] and depending in the light can show a very pale blue/green colour, yellow and sometimes even pink. I did an out-cross a few months back when I only had females and it showed that this line carries an X-dominant ½-black gene of about medium darkness. Some of the females from my out-cross have blue and white in the tail and some have green and white. No sign of pink or yellow in the out cross so they may have just been light refraction on a combination of the blonde skin and the water or those colours may be recessive to something that the non-albino male carried. The non-albino male they were out-crossed with was a blonde with only orange on him (a first step towards brightly coloured albinos, which is one of my major goals). All the fish came out grey not blonde which means that the albinos carry the grey gene but the albino gene blocks it. I planned to cross back to the father but unfortunately lost him so am crossing brother to sister with this out-cross to see what I get. No fry yet but fingers crossed. Paws has 2 males and 2 females from this out-cross so it will be interesting to see if we both get fry at the same time or not. :bounce: :bounce: Did that all make sense?? If I lost you ask questions :bounce: :bounce:

They're pretty shiuh. I'm working towards developing about 4 Hi-fin lines (Hopefully). Red wagtail, Blue micky-mouse, yellow twinbar and there's another yellow line I'd like to get going... but may have to part with a few swordtails before I do. Lots of out-crossing and in-crossing to do beofre I get there though. Got a few of the phenotypes but no idea on their genotypes yet. Will get there in a few generations.

I was moving some fish around tonight and finally managed to get an okay pic of one of the Hi-Fin lines I'm trying to set. This girl is the best of my red girls and I have a nice dark red male to breed her to soon but was too slow in sexing this batch so am unsure of what she'll drop in her first few batches. (Had other colours in the same tank as I was just working on the fin shape at first.) Will take a bit longer to set the lines, so none for sale any time this year, but thought people might be interested in seeing what I'm aiming for.

Okay, finally got some semi-decent pics of the fry. I did say SEMI-decent

What types of fish do you have in your other tanks?? You may find that you already have some fish which could be good for cycling.

As everybody above has said: Don't panic... this is normal.

PS: do you still have those Blues or is Cees still breeding them?? I am seriously after some nice solid colour strains to line breed. Hope to get a 3 footer in the next 6 or so months and would love to keep solid colour males in it. (Would line-breed the strains in the fishroom to keep the display tank stocked.)

I have also lost a few beautiful males that I only had one of When starting up my fish room a month or so back I had a disaster in my virgin Fem tank and lost all but 1 of them. I have lost 3 males that I wanted to breed with while trying to get more virgins. Your advise is very good and I have actually bookmarked it for my own use - just didn't want ppl who have bought some of these new imported strains on impule to get discourged. Unfortuanately I am not in an area that Redwood can easily ship to or I may have been in the same boat - "nice males now I need some females". *Sits and waits for Phil to breed some of his imported strains and get them out of Q.

Very good advice Peter, however people often decide to breed guppies because of a beautiful male they "just had to get" When that is the case may I sugest geting a few of whatever beautiful male guppy you've fallen in love with so that you can grow yourself some virgins with less risk of loosing the reason you wanted them. Would be quite gutting to spend 3 months growing virgins and lose the one male just before you were going to breed him - if you have more than one then if something did happen to one you'd still have the genes you want.

Hmmm... User name: Keri Anne Real name: Keri Anne No issues here

You should be able to see the black dots (eyes) long before they are ready to be born. That will put them into shock which may make them give birth before they should. :evil: May also kill them. :evil: :evil: This is a very CRULE and BAD idea. :evil: They will give birth when they are ready, you will learn to pic it in time but don't be too concerened if you get it wrong the first few times as they breed quite fast.

If it is a hardwood you should not be able to press your fingernail into it when dry. Maybe try drying it out first to give it this test then boil and soak. Some pieces take a while to sink, in the mean time they can be weighted down in a number of ways.

lol

Well mine tried to in a tank with a Pakastani Loach in it... said loach is now fat. Apparantly BN eggs taste good.

/Ka laughs at Alan... then nods in agreement.

Oh, oh I know!! Madagascarn Rainbow fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These guys are so cool – Deco City pets has them so PM Bruce if you want some info on them.

Sorry, misread as cm. Swordtails??

If it's eating okay keep it... if it's not coping it'll take the decision out of your hands by dying on you.

Guppies?

Glad to help

Makes sense for removable ones – was looking at siliconeing them in but will remember that tip for the future.

Very cool. What were the mother's like?? Pics?

I hope you don’t. They may be a lot more challenging than normal guppies, however, that challenge is what makes the rewards all the more rewarding. There only seems to be one source commercially breeding albino guppies in NZ and, no matter how devoted this/these people are, being the only source has to contribute to a degree of genetic weakness. That, and the lack of albino guppy variants, are a large part of my drive to get some good albino lines going. Personally I’m really enjoying learning to line breed – I’ve jumped in the deep end with the albinos. It gets frustrating loosing females but I know that in the end I will have some good quality strong fish. [Just may take me a year or 2 of out crossing and incrossing.]

Actually looking at putting dividers in a couple of existing tanks to start with. Got some free slats of glass from the builders doing up the building across from work. It’s something I need to do and also thought it would be a good starting point to learn from. Keep the tips coming ppl - all very helpful. Thanks, KA

Well "Mummy" albino guppy didn't handle childbirth very well. She's been looking sluggish for days - I actually switched to feeding her microworm as she was sitting on the bottom of the tank and not coming up for food. And before anybody says "Q-tank" she was the only fish in her half of the devided tank {Glass devider, no water transfer from 1 side to the other} as I was worried the male could be harrassing her and moved him. I say "was" as she died somtime last night. At least she gave me babies first.