Guppies and breeding

[Alia_R]

Hi guys,

So I have a female purple mosaic guppy (aka Big Mama) that gave me a largest fry drop I've ever had, +40 or more. I'm interested in seeing what their coloration is considering I had platinum gold and purple mosaic males in with her.

Does anyone know of any information regarding females holding onto the sperm from two different strains and/or the sperm from two different strains combining together with the eggs?

If anyone had any insight into this, let me know!

Alia

[FrostiesFishes]

I know females can give birth for several months even after a male has been removed. Or so I’ve see that online I should say. 

[Brandy]

She can definitely be impregnated by multiple males at the same time, like a cat or a dog--or even a human in the case of multiple births, though that is extremely rare due to both biological and societal reasons. Unlike mammals, she can store semen a long time--months--making this much more common with guppies.

I have not heard of individual eggs accepting sperm from more than one male at a time, however--at least not commonly. In genetics, such things can occasionally happen, but it usually leads to nonviable offspring that are lost prior to birth or other genetic defects. Generally the viable offspring will each be 1/2 the mother and 1/2 ONE OF the fathers.

Edited November 10, 2020 by Brandy

[GardenStateGoldfish]

To add to what Brandy said, it also can be carried of influence future generations, I know there is a term for virgin female guppies that are typically desired when attempting to breed a specific type A really good channel to watch for guppy breeding information is Michaels Fish room he is a guppy breeder, I am a goldfish guy but even I enjoy his channel, I don't even own any guppies. 

[Fishoutawater]

I'm no expert but I believe if a female is holding onto a sac of  milt but another male tempts her she will drop the stored stuff and accept the fresh stuff instead so the next drop would be all from one male.

[Trey]

A female will dump a load of stored sperm if she mates with a new male, BUT only if that new mating happens within several hours of her giving birth.

That's important.

If you want to use a certain female to make a certain cross with a certain male, then of course it's best if she is a virgin. That's not always possible, though, so the next best thing to do is to wait for her to drop her next batch of fry and put her with your chosen male about 4 to 8 hours later.

If she mates with your preferred male before giving birth, his sperm won't get stored and she'll use previously stored stuff for her next batch. SOME of the new sperm might get used by pure luck, but not enough to be useful. If you wait too long, the same thing happens. There is only a limited window of opportunity available for getting her to make a full switch. The process of birthing/recovering opens up some valves and closes some others.

Anyway, that's a trick the pro breeders use.

[Brandy]

On 11/10/2020 at 5:41 PM, Fishoutawater said:

I'm no expert but I believe if a female is holding onto a sac of  milt but another male tempts her she will drop the stored stuff and accept the fresh stuff instead so the next drop would be all from one male.

 

10 minutes ago, Trey said:

A female will dump a load of stored sperm if she mates with a new male, BUT only if that new mating happens within several hours of her giving birth.

In this 2018 paper It was found that the most recent sperm donor is favored, but in some cases drops can be a combination of two father's offspring. The assumption was that the most recent sperm was the healthiest. The second insemination was given 1-6 days following the first drop, as suggested by @Trey above. While it is true that genetic testing showed for most females that the second group was from the second father only, in some cases the drops were of mixed paternity. 

ROYALSOCIETYPUBLISHING.ORG

My point, for the original poster, was that while you can have fry from two different fathers in a single pregnancy, you cannot have a single fry with two different fathers. One egg, one sperm. This may be obvious to many, but not everyone has the same background. 

 

[Trey]

I can't find a delete button.

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Trey