i hear sooo many people complain about guppies dying and they always say "i thought they were hardy" i work at a fish store, we got a shipment in or gorgeous guppies and we drip acclimated them. the next morning there were 51 corpses! i called local fish shops and they said they are having the same problem with guppies lately. i would love a tank of guppies but they seem to never survive any where. i think they are over breed and inbreed to look pretty that they lack the good genes that help them survive. what do you guys think?
I think you are exactly right. I've read an article on this recently actually. I agree that all of the over breeding has probably diminished all of the genes that made them hardy in the wild.
Ant time an animal or in this case fish are constantly being bred for color and such, the hardy factors grow fewer and fewer. Plus shipping is always hard on fish. Sorry to hear about the deaths. I'd still have your guppy tank though.
the more and more they are selectively bred the weaker and weaker they become overall.. the usual effect of imbreeding
Two problems.
There are a number of viral(?) diseases that have started to affect guppies. Some strains are somewhat immune, but others are very susceptible and will just drop dead very quickly. So you can get a bunch of healthy guppies, put them in a tank that has had disease carrying ones, and bang, dead fish.
Also some of the fancy strains have been selectively inbred for many generations to fix the fancy colours and shapes. But this leads to weaker fish that cant fish off a illness or survive poor water and or shipping stress.
Getting some new genetic material from 'wild' strains would probably help, but it means starting again with the fancy strains, and then the same thing happens again.
Ian
There are a number of viral(?) diseases that have started to affect guppies. Some strains are somewhat immune, but others are very susceptible and will just drop dead very quickly. So you can get a bunch of healthy guppies, put them in a tank that has had disease carrying ones, and bang, dead fish.
Also some of the fancy strains have been selectively inbred for many generations to fix the fancy colours and shapes. But this leads to weaker fish that cant fish off a illness or survive poor water and or shipping stress.
Getting some new genetic material from 'wild' strains would probably help, but it means starting again with the fancy strains, and then the same thing happens again.
Ian
I agree completely but I have been breeding them very good so my Guppies are very hardy but all the fish I get from the pet store are very prone to diseases it seems.