CulturedAquatic
New member
We are not sure if this has been done before, but we have, after spending over 2 years, been successfully able to breed what was once freshwater fancy tail guppies in a completely (1.024 SG ) saltwater environment. We have talked to several “experts†and cannot get any confirmation this has ever been done. Please share with us any leads you may have so we can assist others.
What is really cool, is we have place about 1/2 dozen of them in one of our coral propagation system. They all seem to hang out on the top (surface) of the top. Once in a while, not often, they do swim down in the water column. In the breeding tank, they are able to swim to the bottom. At first we thought it might be a buoyancy problem. It probably is more of a current problem than anything else. More work is needed to find out how to get the guppies to swim down to the substrate in a reef environment … maybe they don’t like the pretty colors. They have been swimming and eating fine for over a month now in the reef environment. Throughout the entire process, they have not lost any color. When comparing them to the freshwater ancestors, one cannot tell them apart. In fact, most people we showed never even notice the water contains salt until they notice the Turbo Snails (another experiment), cruising around the tank.
We are in the process of getting them analyzed to see if they have been genetically changed. As you all know, freshwater fishes don't drink water, but now these guppies have to or they'll die. Speaking to Eric Borman briefly at MACNA 2007, he was not sure and said he would be interested in knowing the outcome. We still have the freshwater counter parts we started with, so comparison should be pretty straight forward.
This is just one of several experiments we are working on. We’ll post more as our other experiments come to a completion. Hopefully this is an advanced another topic, but if not, we won’t be upset if it gets moved. If there is a better place to publish this kind of work, please let us know.
What is really cool, is we have place about 1/2 dozen of them in one of our coral propagation system. They all seem to hang out on the top (surface) of the top. Once in a while, not often, they do swim down in the water column. In the breeding tank, they are able to swim to the bottom. At first we thought it might be a buoyancy problem. It probably is more of a current problem than anything else. More work is needed to find out how to get the guppies to swim down to the substrate in a reef environment … maybe they don’t like the pretty colors. They have been swimming and eating fine for over a month now in the reef environment. Throughout the entire process, they have not lost any color. When comparing them to the freshwater ancestors, one cannot tell them apart. In fact, most people we showed never even notice the water contains salt until they notice the Turbo Snails (another experiment), cruising around the tank.
We are in the process of getting them analyzed to see if they have been genetically changed. As you all know, freshwater fishes don't drink water, but now these guppies have to or they'll die. Speaking to Eric Borman briefly at MACNA 2007, he was not sure and said he would be interested in knowing the outcome. We still have the freshwater counter parts we started with, so comparison should be pretty straight forward.
This is just one of several experiments we are working on. We’ll post more as our other experiments come to a completion. Hopefully this is an advanced another topic, but if not, we won’t be upset if it gets moved. If there is a better place to publish this kind of work, please let us know.
My preferred fish for marine acclimation and breeding are Sailfin Mollies. I do have pictures of those if you would like to see them.
, it was also planted and they liked hanging out in the 'weeds'
