Why male guppies (wild ones) become fat and develop a tummy with beautiful Blue green colouration?
March 3rd, 2010 | by admin |The question is from India where guppies are used for malaria control.
I am a guppy breeder.
This is not observed in guppies kept in aquarium.
They do not breed.
It may the the habitat they live in and the food they get.
As a guppy lover I had observed these type of male fat guppies in our house’s main water tank also.
It was a huge 6′ broad 8′ long and 10′ deep water tank where water from the local municipal corporation used to come continuously and the tank walls were straight. No shallow portions anywhere in the tank. People used to dip the bucket and take away the water. Every time somebody comes near tank guppies used to dive down and come again near the surface after sometime.
Here the walls of the tank had velvetlike algae growing on it which was consumed by the fishes.
Many a time chlorinated water used to come. Guppies always survived.
Here the big males were observed. As you described they had fat bodies swollen in the middle and used to look like gravid females.
I used to keep them in small jars and buckets expecting that they will give the colourful babies. The fins used show they are males and the result used to be no babies. some them used become normal after somedays.
May be it was food or the depth of tank which was making males also become fat.
Probably the thin bodied males find it difficult to dive down few feet every now and then and come up to the surface, where as females were more successful and less strained because of the body shape.
Not observed this type of males in shallow tanks less than 3 feet deep.
One Response to “Why male guppies (wild ones) become fat and develop a tummy with beautiful Blue green colouration?”
By Aniruddha N on Mar 3, 2010 | Reply
It may the the habitat they live in and the food they get.
As a guppy lover I had observed these type of male fat guppies in our house’s main water tank also.
It was a huge 6′ broad 8′ long and 10′ deep water tank where water from the local municipal corporation used to come continuously and the tank walls were straight. No shallow portions anywhere in the tank. People used to dip the bucket and take away the water. Every time somebody comes near tank guppies used to dive down and come again near the surface after sometime.
Here the walls of the tank had velvetlike algae growing on it which was consumed by the fishes.
Many a time chlorinated water used to come. Guppies always survived.
Here the big males were observed. As you described they had fat bodies swollen in the middle and used to look like gravid females.
I used to keep them in small jars and buckets expecting that they will give the colourful babies. The fins used show they are males and the result used to be no babies. some them used become normal after somedays.
May be it was food or the depth of tank which was making males also become fat.
Probably the thin bodied males find it difficult to dive down few feet every now and then and come up to the surface, where as females were more successful and less strained because of the body shape.
Not observed this type of males in shallow tanks less than 3 feet deep.
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