Talking about breeding guppies. I would really like to get my hands on some real good quality guppies. Ideally imported from a breeder in the USA. I'm thinking about starting "poecilia NZ". A club to promote the breeding and keeping of 'livebearers'. What I/we would need is access to quarantine facilities. And enough people willing to combine resources to get a decent number of top-quality lines into the country.

A top quality 'trio' in the US retails for US$50 at least. I'm willing to pay double or even triple to get them in New Zealand.

Anyone out there with more ideas on this??

Wow, Cees is very ambitious, but I love the idea. However, how does one get past MAF? Importing mammals and fish into NZ is apparently quite an ordeal.

I too have been involved with the breeding of guppies for some time, and was quite shocked to notice in a Lower Hutt petshop a couple of females displaying their original "wild" grey colouring. Whats happened to the beautiful fan tails? I support the import of new blood whole heartedly. If anyone out there has a couple of decent guppies I would love to hear from them!

What I've been hearing (and reading in these forums as well) that it is actually not that difficult to import. All you need is an approved quarantine facility and 6 weeks.

Now if there is someone out there in NZ who could help me out than I'm sure we can get enough people/resource together to make this work.

I've got some contacts in Europe as well. A few years ago the 'Livebearer association' people in Holland offered me all kinds of fish to take home but I couldn't.....

Hi Cees,

I don't know the background of the source, but Kelly has some very nice Guppies. He has been concentrating hard on getting good strong lines for a couple of years now. He may be willing to part with some fish.

It could be a good starting point if you cannot find an imported source.

I don't know the background of the source, but Kelly has some very nice Guppies.

Kelly is selling up his gear in preparation for the big move south. I beleive he is moving to Southland sometime in the near future! It will be a great loss to our local club. He is still available on the net however, so he is effectively still next-door.

Hopefully he will retain his fish interest.

I have purchased Kelly's Setup from him and hope to follow up on the great work Kelly has done with his Guppys. The 1st hard bit will be getting everything set up at my place

Have you tried these:

http://www.deltaguppies.com/

http://www.showguppies.com/

Hey Racing6pack,

Great photos, and Ethel is really adorable, and Spike is pretty cute too.

NIce happy family you have there (future aquarists), thanks for the links.

Regards

Bill (Pegasus)

Thank you AND... You're Welcome!

Hey mate,

You got shares in the Concorde, you're doing a bit of globe hopping these days. The thing is, because we are here and probably 5 hours in front of you, I can answer your posts over there before you write them.

The wonders of technology.

Great stuff

Bill (Pegasus)

cees did u find a way to bing in the fish?

been looking at the pics on the web sites nice fish

cees did u find a way to bing in the fish?

been looking at the pics on the web sites nice fish

Hi Dennis,

no I haven't. Peter McCleod (another fishroom member) has been trying very hard to get quarantine facilities but no luck sofar.

I've decide to go at it the hard way again. Starting from what ever stock I can get my hands on now and improve by careful breeding and selecting. I suppose the road to perfection is much more enjoyable than the perfection itself.

Anyway, we'll be starting a 'serious' guppy club soon. Perhaps that way we can at least can better fish by eduction and sharing resources.

I'm serious into breeding again. My fishroom was in a bad state a few months ago. I've just added 4 more tanks to the 10 that were still running. Glass for 15 more tanks is on it's way. I just bought an airpump that can drive air to at least 100 tanks. (yes, I'm going heated room and corner filters, central filtration is too much hassle).

Sorry, I'm rambling here.

I'll make some photos of the fish I have now this weekend and post them on the web somewhere. Keep a log of some sort and see if it improves.

I'm sure it was us fishroom members who got you into it again :lol:

Don't tell Mariette it was us though!

Are you able to describe what you are looking for in a guppy? Perhaps we can keep an eye out for you and report any finds. Grant and I will be in ChCh for a computer roadshow in the beginning on August and may pop into a fish shop or two.

Are you able to describe what you are looking for in a guppy?

A tank full (about 30-40). All males identical, all females identical and all pretty close to the international standard.

See this site for standards

http://hem.passagen.se/mikeno/english/eistand.htm

What I'm trying to say is this. At this stages size and shape is more important than color. A single male guppy of good shape is enough but if he's in a tank with similar looking guppies it is more like to be some form of 'line-bred' fish.

I've got 200+ guppies again at the moment so in a few months time I'll be able to do some selecting.

There you are then. I would have looked for colour first, not size or shape. I had better leave the guppy picking to you!