2013 Guppy Contest

The Singapore Guppy Contest 2013 was held on 17th November 2013 in Mainland Tropical Fish Farm.

My self bred Lace and Moscow Red managed to clinch Champion and 2nd Runner-up in the Lace/Snakeskin and Bicolor categories respectively. Many thanks to Mr Lok Weng Kit for helping me bench-in for the competition.

Champion, Lace/snakeskin

2nd Runner-up, Bicolor

The Matter of Size

My big body Moscow Red

Imagine having a posh little yacht and we would endow it with everything nice and lovely - install a big sail, and furnished its cabin with quality heavy-duty timber and steel. Throw in the accessories like fridges, TVs and lots of goodies and food too. If we do not pay attention to the payload, the chances are the yacht may be overloaded or may even sink, let alone set sail.

Human nature would wish for everything nice in abundance; no exception when we make guppies. It is easy to cross in lines with big sail fin and wide caudal and discover eventually that these fancy guppies may not be able to carry itself properly as they mature.

I love the delta strains with big broad, long dorsal and majestic caudal and so I experimented a lot with the Moscow strains because I wish for their strong, big body to carry a bigger payload. Size matters, but age takes its toll on everything, it really does matter when we carry the same payload when we are young and strong compared to when we are older... so be mindful of the peak of the lineage when grace and beauty are in good balance.

Moscow Magenta

For best effects, see them
against a dark background

The Magenta is another colour I am instantly attracted to. Pinkish reflective and striking even from afar, this hue is everything but natural. This colour really reminds me of the ladies' nail varnish. When I was very young, I was once so captivated by mom's reflective nail varnish that I used it to paint on my drawings... and that was a very painful experience :-P

Unfortunately most magenta strains are short tails and so I wasted no time in crossing them with my albino moscows to create the delta tail variant. I have since been working on it for more than 3 years and it nearly got extinct last year.

The most challenging of the magenta strain, as confirmed by some Guppy veterans is in perfecting the delta tail which are usually not triangular enough. This is one of the better specimens this year but definitely the strain still has a lot of room for improvement on the caudal.

Aquarama 2013 Guppy Competition

Aquarama 2013 Guppy Competition had been very competitive. I was lucky to win 4 out of my 6 entries, all of which are home bred by me. The Open class first prize Chocolate Moscow was my new strain creation that had also won in the Trio (2nd Prize) and Group (1st Prize) in Aquarama 2011. Nothing beats the thrill of seeing the fruits of my labour and winning with my self bred fishes.

I would like to thank various Guppy experts like Mr Yap Teo Tee, Mr Henri, Mr Chris Ng and Mr Lok for sharing and guiding me in the Guppy hobby.

1st Prize - Trio Open Class

2nd Prize - Trio Open Class

3rd Prize - Lace/Snakeskin

2nd Prize - Solid (Non-Moscow)

Guppy Challenge 2013

Having missed the National Guppy Competition last December as I was out of town, I was elated when I got to know the GCS Guppy Challenge 2013.  In fact, I was caught by surprised and most of my fishes are either too old or too young for this competition, nevertheless, I had managed to squeeze out 2 entries to support the show and was really lucky to have won in both :))

The pair of veteran red lace from a line that I have been trying to improve for a few years won the 2nd prize in the Lace Class. This pair are siblings and at 7 months old, frankly they are a bit old for the show. The male is approximately 6.5cm.

Half Metal Albino Full Red

In their show peak at 5 months old, the other pair of Half Metal Albino Full Red won the 1st prize in the AOC class. The next major show to look out for will be the Aquarama 2013 Guppy Competition. I will be competing if my entries are accepted.

Half Metal Magenta

The Half Metal Magenta is one of my experimental new strains that I have been trying for nearly 2 years. The pink colour is harvested from the small round tail Magenta strains to cross with my white Moscow females. 

It seems very difficult to get the tail long again after crossing with a short tail male strain. Next is to improve body size and dorsal shape...

Chocolate Updates

Got some time today to record the updates of my 3-month-old Chocolates...

Moscow Chocolates

and also an experimental strain of Chocolates x Moscow Blues.

Experimental strain - unstable geno

Outcrossing to Albino Full Red (AFR)

To experiment on my Milk Chocolate Moscow, I acquired a stable strain of AFR from a local hobbyist last November. This is supposedly a stable Taiwanese strain with good solid red and big dorsal. I have done F1 inbreed with no sign of deterioration. 

Next, I have also crossed the pure AFR strain into my Milk Chocolate strain. As per best practices, the following are the combinations:

A: AFR (Taiwan line)

M: Milk Chocolate

1) A(male) x M (female)
2) M(male) x A (male)

while continuing the pure lines:

3) A (male) x A (female)

4) M (male) x M (female)

1) and 2) is expected to produce greyed-eye progeny as is usual for out-crossing of two unrelated albino strains.

Chocoholic

I love most kinds of chocolates, each flavour has its allure and I hate it when presented with a box of chocolate with many flavours to choose from. In actual fact, I would love to savour each and every one of them... it is very seldom that a box of chocolate survive a week in my fridge.

I faced the exact same dilemma for my Chocolate Moscows too. Sometimes, I am at a lost of which morph of Chocolates to focus on. There is the lighter brown to chestnut colour, the reddish tinge cherry brown to the maple tone and the very dark Oak tone like dark chocolates. There is also a morph of albino thrown out by the Moscow Chocolate which I candidly dubbed the "Milk Chocolate".

Due to the AFR ancestry, the Milk Chocolate Moscow exhibit tones of red but they are more towards orange in colour. Naturally for most Guppy hobbyists, the first thing that came to our minds is to back cross to the AFR to see if we can achieve the best of both Worlds - The scarlet red of the AFR strain and the big body and broad finnage of the Moscow strain :)

Chocolate Moscow

My Chocolate Moscow was developed from the Moscow black. I used to experiment with Moscow black and the AFR (Albino Full Red) to improve the caudal shape of the Moscow blacks. Then one day, I found a chocolate coloured male in the experimental hybrid and used it to back-cross with the long dorsal Moscow females. The winning fishes are the 6th generation of selective breeding of the Moscow Chocolate Strain.

I am proud that this new breed of Chocolate Moscow had won in the Aquarama 2011 Open category Group Champion and Open category Trio 1st Runner up. This is really encouraging as it is my first Aquarama attempt in the Guppy Competition.

Aquarama Guppy Open Class Group Champion

Moscows

At one stage, good quality Moscow Blacks are readily available in our LFS. They have very black body and very little iridescent.

Picture shows my earlier Moscow strains where I selective breed to make the dorsal of the female longer, bigger and broader. I don't keep the Moscow Blacks anymore, but their genes are very much incorporated into my new Moscow Chocolates.

The signatory traits of Moscow strains is big dorsal, big body and tails. The caudal span is also generally broader and extend more than do other strains. However the tradeoff I found in Moscow strains is it is difficult to stabilise the caudal to a good degree of delta (triangular).