Often we get this most basic question from people ' Why do you breed guppy? ' or we even love to ask the same question to ourself, and there can list many reaosns why we throw ton of time and money into this little lovely species. For instance, we breed them for winning shows or for selling offsprings through internet or for enjoying cross experimentations or for doing reseach or whatever . I keep asking it to myself too since I became a full time guppy breeder. Then the answer is always the same and quite simple for me - ' Because I love guppy. ' Well, possibly you guys can understand what I'm saying but we also have to provide a good reasons that can persuade our family, friends and co-workers who are the actual witnesses of our crazyness toward this fish.

One of my best stock excuse to people is always ' I breed guppy for creating own original strains '. It somehow works the best but then now at least I have to show something what I have been doing for this past 5 years and that's why I write this mini column. Thanks to our boss Enrique to give me this opportunity , also thanks to especially my comrades Sergio Chaim, Rosario Arijon and Yoshiki Tsutsui. In addition, I'm writing this column just one day before the April issue will be publlished, so sorry for not well organizing the contents !

There have been a lots of cross experimentations going this past years in my fishroom. Most of them show some results. I would like to share here actual fish examples without adding theorical stuffs. Let's start from Flamenco Dancer.

The original Flamenco Dancer that first created by Thailand exporter Siam Trade Co. in 2003.

FD fore body color is determined by Y-chromosome by male and also basically the autosomal recessive genetics is involved as known as S.Metal. Also some breeders guess there is Lace Snakeskin once added when the original FD was created. However I don't really agree this. S.Skin pattern actually can occur from anywhere so I put it in the behind for now. In addition Pingu and Blau come out from the original line. The key of success of Flamenco Dancer cross is to use always male. These are the ones I have done so far.

( 1 ) Flamenco Dancer Cross #1

Ribbon fin

	Result
	Golden Pink White,
	Solid JB Yellowtail Ribbon grandparents

* There is no more picture of Solid JB Yellow Tail ribbon , so I put here normal fin male picture as temporary here.

( 2 ) Flamenco Dancer Cross #2 .... Blond ( Golden ) & also Ribbon line

	result
	result
	FD
	Moscow
	FD Ribbon

( 3 ) Flamenco Dancer Cross #3. .... Full Pink

	result
	FD
	Albino Full Red

( 4 ) Flamenco Dancer Cross #4. ... Muti Delta

	result
	result
	FD
	IFGA Green delta

( 5 ) Flamenco Dancer Cross #5 ....Japan Blue Double Sword

	result
	FD
	Solid ( S. Metal ) DS Ribbon

( 6 ) Panda come out from original line

Now here is the Double Sword lines. Finally Swords and Roundtail hit United States last few years, and many breeders in US start their own cross.
Then here are some cross results from me.

Then here are the fish I actually used for creating above.

Here are Albino Pingu Ribbon. The recipe is male Platinum Pingu Delta ( Japanese line ) x female RREA HB White Ribbon.
( Photos by Enrique Patino )

grandparents.....

Full Yellow Gold Delta

grandparents

Full Blue Delta

Line 1 looks very similar to Lazuli Blue, and line 2 can see obviously the influence of Blue Platinum. Both fish were first coming out from the same batch of F1 of Blau Toparz x Blue Platinum, and were devided into two lines. Line 1 is the result of male of every generation go to back cross into IFGA Green Delta. The wild type Sword is also coming out from this cross once in a while because IFGA Green carry this trait. You can obvously see it as neutral female that carry clear caudal & dorsal. line 2 is the male go to back cross into Blue Platinum. Regarding this cross, if you think too much by Mendelian guppy genetics, you perhaps get confusion why these fish were coming out.

(line 1)

( sibling )

Parents & Grandparents

( line 2)

.....parents

Misc.

Okay, now I have to finish by 5 minutes , so just upload one more picture.

( photo by Enrique Patino )

All of these lines will go to one of my friend who are the new wave leader of show guppy world . I am completely retiring from guppy breeding. HOWEVER ( LOL), I will come back in the future and check what you guys doing. Keep working hard until then! Thanks again to all of you for giving me so much joy & many dramas in the past. I will keep your photograghs in the special room inside of my mind. If you remember me, please email or call up anytime. See you someday gals and guys!

~ LOVE ~ Tomoko 4/23/05