guppy colours

[RyanML]

hey,

this is probably a bit of a stupid question but if i dont ask it will always be in my head, when guppys (or any other colourful livebearer) breed and have fry, how do the colours work, say for example i have a female guppy whos grey but has a blue tail fin and a male whos orange with black spots how will it work...

my thought is that some will be grey with a blue tail and some will be orange with black spots... but i was thinking... will they mix and match? like will some be a mix? orange with black spots with a blue tail fin or anything along them lines?

as said probably a stupid question but if you dont ask you dont know lol.

 

[riseabovethesun]

Genetics have never been my thing but I'd think with animals and fish kind of like humans that sometimes you get genes from your grandparents, so it may not directly be the mom and dad.

I only say that because I bred a yellow galaxy guppy with a female yellow only tail guppy and one baby had a orange and black spotted tail/fin and the other has a fluorescent pink/green/red/yellow/black tail with both of different sizes and patterns/frilly-ness.

Not really sure..but good question!

 

[littletankbigworld]

Well, you cannot really mix colours, from what I've read. You can't breed a blue and an orange guppy and expect colourful fry. You can however, breed two blue guppies or two orange guppies and expect colourful fish. If you breed two guppies that are totally different colours, you can expect brown or tan, dull-looking babies. Guppies are naturally brown in the wild, and they achieved their bright colours from selective breeding in captivity.

It's not a stupid question. I'm not an expert on guppy genetics, so hopefully someone else will chip in on the subject.