Guppies are small, colorful, freshwater fish that are popular among aquarium enthusiasts. In this species profile you will find out everything about their origin and history, the different kind of guppies there are and a couple of interesting and fun facts.
Origins and History
Guppies are natively found in Central and South America, where they live in a big variety of habitats, from swamps and ponds to streams. It was in Venezuela where the German naturalist en explorer Wilhelm Peters first described the guppy as Poecilia reticulata in 1859.
Although the guppy has gone trough a number of different scientific definitions, it’s name “guppy” came into existence in honor of the British naturalist, Robert John Lechmere Guppy. Lechmere, as he was called, moved to Trinidad in 1858 where he worked as the Chief Inspector of Schools. He was the first man to collected a number of specimens and send them to the Natural History Museum in London.
In the early 20th century the German aquarist and writer Paul Matte came into contact with guppies. He was very impressed with the hardyness and natural beauty of the guppy and started to selectively breed them to develop new color varieties and fin shapes. Due to Matte’s work with guppies, they became a very popular species in the aquarium hobby. This book “The Guppy: An Introduction (1926)” is still considered a classic!
Besides Matte, there were also other breeders who played important roles in making guppies popular in the aquarium hobby. For example, the Russian geneticist N.G. Kallman. He did a lot of experiments around the genetics of guppies in the 1930s. This greatly helped our understanding on the inheritance of specific traits in these wonderful fish.
Once they became known, the popularity of guppies increased dramatically due to their bright colors and ease of breeding. In fact, guppies are one of the most widely distributed fish species in the world. And so, even to this day, there are a great number of people who actively work with guppies, are breeding new colorations, fin and body shapes.
Species
Guppies, also known as Fancy Guppies are scientifically named “P. reticulata”, with the P. standing for Poecilia. Under the Poecilia genus, we find a number of other popular aquarium fish, like Mollies, and Endlers. These species can reproduce with each other, so there’s a good chance your guppy will have some Endler or even Molly genes in it’s body. In many fish shops these guppies will, for example, be called “Endler’s guppy” or other combination names.
As I’ve explained in the previous section, breeding guppies for specific colors, fin and body shapes has been going on for a long time. This means that by now, there are at least 14 different types of tails and more than 30 different colors and patterns. There are even official guppy shows and breeding competitions, as for example with the International Fancy Guppy Association https://www.ifga.org/.
Of course there are also a lot of hybrids and mixed colors that are not “show winning” guppies. This is one of the reasons why guppies have also claimed the name of “million fish” and “rainbow fish”. And that doesn’t make them any less cool or cute!
Guppy strains are based on the type of tail, type of pectoral fins, body pattern, tail pattern and coloration. There are even strains that specifically have red eyes. Below you will find a comprehensive list of all these different strains
Strains by Tail
- Fantail
- Veiltail
- Triangletail / Deltatail
- Lyretail
- Roundtail
- Scarftail / Flagtail
- Bottom Swordtail
- Double swordtail
- Top Swordtail
- Cofer tail
- Half-moon tail
- Spear tail
- Pintail
- Crowntail
Body pattern
- Tuxedo
- Cobra
- Snakeskin
Tail pattern
- Glass
- Leopard
- Mosaic
- Lace
Strains by coloration
- Albino
- White
- Platinum
- Black
- Blue
- Neon blue
- Japanese blue
- Green
- Red
- Yellow
- Purple
- Bronze
- Golden
- Half-black blue
- Half-black green
- Half-black red
- Half-black yellow
- Half-black purple
- Half-black pastel
- Solid colored
- Koi
- Bi-colored
- Metal
- Multi-colored
- Panda
- Jarawee Lazuli
- Moscow
- Dragonhead
Eye color
- Real red eye
Pectoral fins
- Dumbo ear / elephant guppies
Fun facts
Guppies are a very interesting and diverse species. They have been studied and admired for already more than 100 years. Below are some fun facts that you might not now yet about guppies:
- In 1970, guppies were sent into space on the Soviet Union's Soyuz 9 mission to observe the effects of zero gravity on the development of fish embryos. Upon their return to Earth, the guppies were found to have developed normally despite their time in space.
- The coloration and patterning on guppy tails can vary greatly depending on the strain, and some strains even have fluorescent and ultraviolet markings that are invisible to the human eye.
- Guppies are not only popular in the aquarium hobby, but they also play important roles in their natural ecosystems. They are known to feed on mosquito larvae and other aquatic insects, helping to control populations of disease-carrying insects.
Conclusion
Guppies are a fascinating species of fish that’s been in the aquarium hobby since the 1920s. They continue to inspire research on complex topics such as genetics, evolution and ecology. They exist in many colors, shapes and forms which makes them incredibly diverse and interesting for the hobby.