Hi, I was just wondering what are the dangers of inbred guppies? Also, when are guppy fry capable of producing young?
Males and females are currently separated.
Cheers.

Simple answer on the inbreeding situation.

By doing it you are running the risk of creating a fish that is very prone to disease and will be sick. Now the beauty of inbreeding can also be that you have a stronger fish, even though inbreeding is thought to create perfect clones you can always get specific mutations from one generation to the next that are advantageous to the fish but then again there is a higher risk that a mutation will be disadvantageous (giving you the sick fish!!)

If I were you, it would do no harm at all to breed them together but dont do it for more than a few generations. You should really try to introduce other fish that will give some genetic diversity to the population. In a hypothetical sense, if one of your fish got sick then there is a high possibility that all the other fish would also get sick as they are very closely matched (if not identically matched depending on how inbred they are)...so introducing new genetic variance in the population will allow for the "survival of the fittest" if a disease did hit your tank.

Inbreeding is not dangerous if you know what your doing, and I suspect that if you dont have a degree in genetics and have access to high tech genetic equipment then I'd stay clear of inbreeding for too many generations. It takes a long time for scientists to develop an inbred strain of mice that can survive and live a normal life...and during that time they do "make" very unusual discoveries of when inbreeding goes wrong!

So main point: Sell some of the brothers/sisters and get some strangers into that tank!!

I would assume guppies are capable of breeding within 2 months but I really dont know, i have never had them!

Hi scelig,

IMO I would not breed guppies that way as they become very very prone to illness and they loose alot of their color making them pale and in some cases white with a tinge of color on the tail. Here is a good link about breeding guppies and other FAQ's about guppies.

guppyplace.tripod.com/Breeding.html

IMO and from talking to others some guppies can be fully developed anywhere from 4 -6 weeks and can start reproducing!! But remember to keep the fry in a seperate tank and after a week or so you can distingusih the sexes (females havea gravid spot but may need a magnifying glass to see it)so seperate them again until they are of age !!!

~Leonie~