Breeding Fancy Guppies: Fry Color and Culling Baby Guppies

Breeding fancy guppies is the easiest way to get involved with tropical fish breeding. After all, guppies are the rabbits of the aquatic world. If you have a male and a female, you will have babies... and more babies... and even more. If you are interested in having millions of tiny baby fish, called fry, and perhaps selling them to pet stores as feeders, you can let your fancy guppies breed indiscriminately. However, if you are interested in maintaining genetic strength, breeding for profit, or just having an attractive, healthy gish tank, you will need to cull the baby guppies.

Breeding Fancy Guppies - Selective Breeding

Breeding fancy guppies selectively to maintain purity of color strains, or to try to create your own new strains, must be done in a controlled tank environment. Put male and female guppies together that you want to breed and take out all other guppies. This is the only way to achieve the expected fry color.

Even with this practice, the first fry drop (birth) may not be a pure strain. Female fancy guppies can hold sperm from previous matings and have fry months later. Some breeders of fancy guppies cull the entire first drop of baby guppies.

Breeding Fancy Guppies - Fry Color

Fancy guppy breeders must be patient if they want the best color and pattern on their fancy guppies. Fry usually start showing color around three to four weeks old, and do not achieve full color until several months have passed. Still, a good breeder can tell in the first month or two if the fry is a keeper. Vibrant colors and the first signs of patterning, such as snakeskin or marble, will show up.

Breeding Fancy Guppies - Culling Baby Guppies or Fry

There are several reasons why you should cull baby fancy guppies. Culling means to kill the undesireable fancy guppies: those with genetics you are not interested in or that are detrimental to fish health. Guppy breeders usually cull the fry three or four times before they are grown, depending on the reason for breeding.