Phenotype Question about guppies

[Jollypop4321]

So I was wondering if anyone knows about phenotypes in guppies.

I was line breeding Blue Dragon guppies to Purple Dragon ribbon fin females.  Had some great success in the beginning.  But then when those blue dragon males matured and were bred back to the father I also got a lot of off colored guppies 

I have three male guppies that are totally orange and black.  One f them also has a blue metal saddle.   They are cool looking I guess if you like that color scheme but not at all what I was breeding for or expected. 
Any ideas how to avoid these results?

[Jollypop4321]

I meant to say breed daughter to father.  

[Daniel]

I don't have experience with either, so my advice is awfully generic (pardon the pun).

I think it is hard to predict. You start off with males of the Blue Dragon phenotype and females of Purple Dragon ribbon fin phenotype. But what you don't know is the actual genotype of the males and females. So you breed them and now with the F1 generation you begin to see what the genotype might have been.

So you back cross to the father and you get more information, but it would helpful to also begin crossing the F1s to really begin to understand what genes there were in the founding population. It is it lot of work to get to the point where you can get predictable results, but at least you are trying!

You may have to go all the way to F2s. Sometimes there is a catch. Back when I bred black bettas, the females were pleiotropic, meaning black/black in a female was lethal. You had to use black/steel blue females to breed to black/black males. If someone had not figured that out before me it would have been very confusing.

 

[Jollypop4321]

Thank you Daniel for your insight.   Your most likely correct.   I believed both strains were pure before I received them.   So if you are correct maybe both strains have hidden phenotypes that combined into putting off these orange/black strains.  It’s very bizarre to me and not at all expected.  I did get some nice males and females (three I used in my breeding program that recently halted to a stop).  I’m just a little bummed that it will take several months before I can effectively line breed again.  (I’m in the wait and see mode f which females are still virgin and mature enough to breed).