Calling Guppy breeders!! Question about naming color patterns.

[Brandy]

I am having fun with breeding my mutts, but I am curious about how strains and color patterns are named and defined.

Some names are self explanatory like "mosaic", and I have even figured out some more subtle names. I have noticed that the difference between green/purple/blue is sometimes fuzzy, and I am fairly stumped when it comes to the difference between "dragon" and "metal head".

I see dumbo guppies should have larger pectoral fins...but I also see guppies with any color on their pectoral fins listed as "dumbo", which I think is incorrect? Is there a name for this type of coloration--specifically the pectoral fins that carry color but are normal sized? I really like that feature but I am having trouble figuring out how to search for it.

(personally I think it should be "Jazz Hand Guppies" lol)

Thanks!

Edited December 17, 2020 by Brandy

[Cory]

Basically someone gives it a name and sometimes it sticks. This is how we end up with 20 names for the same fish at a pet store. This gets worse when the wholesalers do it. If something isn't selling well they'll give it a new name.

 

I've seen on wholesale lists before:

Dension barb
roseline Shark
redline barb

All these are the same fish selling from the same tank..

To make it worse, all these names are the same fish as well, and there isn't even really color mores besides albino. 

COMMON NAMES: Bleeding eye barb, denison barb, denison’s flying fox, red comet barb, red line barb, red lined torpedo fish, roseline shark, torpedo barb, Miss Kerala

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Puntius denisonii

[Brandy]

Lol, I figured as much. Marketing...clearly I should try to get the Jazz Hands name to stick just to muddy the waters further! 😎

[ChefConfit]

I always assumed anything other than tail shape/color was arbitrary and just what the original breeder of that strain decided to call it. Sometimes multiple people develope similar stains without knowing about each other and you end up with different names for basically the same feature. 

But marketing is probably more accurate.