Fish Identification

by tthayer Thu Nov 17, 2016 9:52 am

Hi All,

I received this little guy in a batch of guppies I purchased. At first I thought he was a deformed guppy but as he grew, I realized that he was not a guppy, at least not as I know them. Does anyone have any idea what this fish is?

Thanks,

Tom

by **Biulu** Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:12 pm

I have no clue what it is but it looks very promising with all these colours!

by GaryE Thu Nov 17, 2016 6:22 pm

What is it that makes you doubt it's a guppy? If not for the dorsal, I would suspect a short-finned reversion to natural type. With the big dorsal, it looks a bit like the early linebred fancy guppies.

But there could be something I'm missing in the photo.

by tthayer Thu Nov 17, 2016 8:27 pm

It is the dorsal fin that is making me have doubts. Maybe it is a fancy guppy at that. It's just I have never seen them start with a dorsal fin like that.

Guess I will wait and see what it develops into. Smile

by GaryE Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:06 am

Were the others you bought fancy types?

by tthayer Fri Nov 18, 2016 6:41 am

No, they were all females and just everyday guppies. I do have one fancy guppy in the tank but he was there for at least six months before I purchased these ones.

by Fores41 Fri Nov 18, 2016 10:57 am

That looks like a Male guppy to me just a young one with a funny fin that you may or may not like. IF you like it let it breed with a couple of females by himself and see if you can get him to pass the trait on. You could be the breeder of a new strain of Guppy.

by tthayer Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:41 pm

Fores41 wrote:That looks like a Male guppy to me just a young one with a funny fin that you may or may not like. IF you like it let it breed with a couple of females by himself and see if you can get him to pass the trait on. You could be the breeder of a new strain of Guppy.

lol, Indeed, if it is a new breed, I will keep it. Let's see what happens. You never know, maybe I will start breeding spike tailed guppies. Smile

by GaryE Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:41 pm

I remember ones with short tails but long dorsals from when I was a kid. Don't ask when that was... Big banner tailed guppies were expensive, and my neighbour used to get ones like that. Her tanks were impossible even two years after when the fancy guppy prices tumbled and you didn't see the intermediary forms anymore.
The same is true for platys, which were smaller and often more diverse than now.
Sometimes throwback strains appear among Florida pond-raised feeder guppies.