I'm always going to flee markets and yard sales in hopes of finding vintage aquarium equipment or books.Reciently,I found an old TFH book on guppies.In it was a section on Parthenogenesis or (virgin birth),or pregnancy caused by living sperm swimming in the water.Also,a net used to catch a male and then immediately placed in a tank of females could transmit sperm.What are your thoughts on this subject?
Is that the Twilight Zone music I hear in the background? Seriously, I find it very difficult to believe that sufficient numbers of free-swimming sperm would be able to find and enter the genital tract of a female resulting in a productive pregnancy.
Hey Roy,It's wild right ! This is not the first time I've read this.If you beleive this,then a virgin female guppy is indeed a RARE fish.The only really safe rule to follow ,if you require virgins,is to separate your fish as soon as possible after they are born.I've been breeding guppies for a while ,and seperate my young fish around 3 weeks of age, or when I see any pointed anal fin on any of my young males.
Okay! Here we go again, a new book .A chapter on Poecilia Velifera. In this book it suggests that the female picks a male on a particular male trait. Be it color or ornamentation. After mating, the female passes on her genes to her daughters. Included in the genetic package are the very genes that predisposed the mother to choose this male trait. What this means is her daughters are more likely to choose a male like their father, or a male with the same trait. So if the female preferred, say ,a bright red male, then her daughters will grow up to go weak at the fins for bright red males.What do you thoughts on this ?
I have a friend who is more of an old fashioned hobbyist than I am, he's also older than me. He agrues with me that Lyretail Swordtail males release sperm into the water which fertilizes females. Of course this is not true, at least I've never experienced it.
I have a couple of friends at a local guppy club that have stopped separating their guppies. When they set up their breeding pairs they simply dispose of the first drop of young. This way the young from the second drop will be of the male of their choice. I find this wasteful,in young guppies and time. I choose to separate my young, but also have had problems doing just that. When I set up my fish room I painted all my tanks on all 3 sides and bottom light blue. Recently my friend Dan sent me a drop of young guppies, a new strain for me try out and raise. They are Albino light blue guppies. These guppies are so hard to separate against my light blue background that I went out and bought a magnifier headband(picture 1).The cure for Parthenogenesis.
We should have a permanent feature on the website or in Livebearers based upon your readings, “Copper’s Believe It or Not.” I especially like your euphemism that the daughters will “go weak in the fins” over their prospective mate.
Actually, the possibility that the mother can pass on her mating preferences to her offspring seems reasonable. Gil Rosenthal and others are studying these types of inherited mating behaviors.
Hey Ray,I like to come on to this site and read somthing new.A new idea or a new fish or colored fish"something New".It could even be something old that is new to me.I have a lot of friends who are members of the ALA ,who never post a simgle thing !!!Right now there are 16 other people on this site and I'm the only one who has something to say !It's easy to be a critic.
I just wanted to share a few pictures of some of my new sailfin mollies the I received from Adrian. For those of you who have never seen a pair of matting sailfins, it is truly a sight you will not forget .
The female came from Adrian ,the male came from another friend .He picked him up from a local fish wholesaler .Had to hold for me for a couple of days and the only tank he had to hold him in was full of African Cichlids (A nasty Bunch).One of them took a bite out of his tail. He just came out of Quarantine , his tail is almost all healed .Waste no time in matting him .and put him with the albino female that day. She had given me a nice drop of Albino young about 4 days before this.
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