# Huge Male Guppy on Steroids!



## allllien

This guppy is the biggest male I've ever seen! He's even bigger than any female guppy (When normally the males are small compared to the females). I put him in a container with my biggest females to take the photos for comparison -He's approx. 4cm long, about the length of my Platys. Has anyone ever seen a bigger male Guppy? I don't know how he got to be that size, I bought him from a tank full of female guppies, so obviously he was mistakenly thought to be female due to his size. 

Aquarium Gallery - Huge Male Guppy on Steroids

Aquarium Gallery - Huge Male Guppy on Steroids

Aquarium Gallery - Huge Male Guppy on Steroids


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## susankat

Looks like a female to me.


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## navigator black

Wow. If he's from a pet shop, the fish farms in Asia are known to manipulate sex ratios (males sell) through the use of hormones. Unlike us, fish aren't born with a set sex, and environment can decide which they will be. That sucker looks like a misfire in that process, although domestic strain guppies are all enormous compared to wild guppies. 
He has a female's size and girth, but a male's shape and gonopodium. It'll be interesting to see if he's just a honking big boy who can breed, or a sterile fish dosed too late with testosterone.
I once met a discus breeder who thought I was an idiot because I didn't want to learn how to inject fish with steroids. It's out there, and the results can be weird.


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## allllien

Look closely and you'll see his gonopodium which is quite large -It's not super clear in the photos I know, but he's definately 100% male


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## allllien

navigator black said:


> Wow. If he's from a pet shop, the fish farms in Asia are known to manipulate sex ratios (males sell) through the use of hormones. Unlike us, fish aren't born with a set sex, and environment can decide which they will be. That sucker looks like a misfire in that process, although domestic strain guppies are all enormous compared to wild guppies.
> He has a female's size and girth, but a male's shape and gonopodium. It'll be interesting to see if he's just a honking big boy who can breed, or a sterile fish dosed too late with testosterone.
> I once met a discus breeder who thought I was an idiot because I didn't want to learn how to inject fish with steroids. It's out there, and the results can be weird.


Wow, that is very interesting! He came from one of those big chain pet shops (petstock here in Australia) but I've never seen anything else like him in their shops before, so I suspect he's just a freak of nature. 

The funny thing is, I've never really liked guppies all that much before, I love their colors but they just looked too small and fragile for me (I prefer Swords, Mollys and Platys). 
I only started keeping guppies recently because I found an unusual, slightly larger than usual, male guppy that was thicker at the base of his tail, and a really pretty, unusual, purple color so I wanted to breed him. It was when i was looking for females that I found that huge male, I wasn't looking to buy any normal male guppies but I had to make an exception on him because his size wasn't 'normal'. 

I bought a female that's really unusual as well, her shape isn't typical 'guppy', she's shorter in length, and more round, almost the shape of a platy or swordtail. She's a see-thru yellow color all over with 2 little bits of red on the edges of her tail.

I'm hoping to breed the purple male and extra large male to her to see what comes out. She had 3 fry just after I bought her so I'll add them into the mix too when they get big enough

Here's some pics of the yellow female and purple male, the purple male looks even nicer in real life (I couldn't get a decent photo showing all his colors).


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## navigator black

I have guppies, but not domestics. I seem to the forum's resident wild-form lunatic - my only 'breeder strain' livebearer is two brick (ish) swords a friend got me in Mexico - feral domestics bred back with the local helleri. Other than that, all I have is wilds, mainly Xiphophorus.
I have a Colombian guppy population that is descended from a pair shipped in the folds of a bag containing 40 piranhas. I had to breed them just out of respect for their survival skills. 
I also have Trinidad wilds brought here by a researcher based on that island. 

I really like that stocky male you have there - that is one nice guppy.


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## allllien

navigator black said:


> I have guppies, but not domestics. I seem to the forum's resident wild-form lunatic - my only 'breeder strain' livebearer is two brick (ish) swords a friend got me in Mexico - feral domestics bred back with the local helleri. Other than that, all I have is wilds, mainly Xiphophorus.
> I have a Colombian guppy population that is descended from a pair shipped in the folds of a bag containing 40 piranhas. I had to breed them just out of respect for their survival skills.
> I also have Trinidad wilds brought here by a researcher based on that island.
> 
> I really like that stocky male you have there - that is one nice guppy.


Thank you  I thought he looked like some sort of guppy/molly hybrid or something, but I could only see other guppies in the turtle tank I bought him from so I didn't think it was really a possibility -I went back to shop a couple days later though out of curiosity and found a tiny, yellow molly in the same tank! (The guppies had bred in the turtle tank by accident, they weren't even meant to be in there lol). So I don't know for sure, but the possibilities there I guess that he's a hybrid? 

I really like some of the wild varieties too, I'd be interested in keeping them if I could get hold of some, but in Australia we have nothing except introduced Gambusia and the shop bought fancy strains of livebearers. There's restrictions on what can be imported as well


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## navigator black

I've kept livebearers for a long time, and never had a guppy molly cross. It is possible, but really unlikely. 
I usually try to keep a Xiphophorus, a Poecilia and a somethig unrelated in each livebearer tank. I never get crosses.


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## toommm

It is quite a massive male guppy but I've had similar sized ones in the past. I personally prefer smaller ones but that's just my opinion. I have no idea why they get so much bigger than others but I assume it has something to do with genetics or what not.


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## Summer

wow he is big. Im interested in whether or not he is actualy fertile or not.


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## allllien

navigator black said:


> I've kept livebearers for a long time, and never had a guppy molly cross. It is possible, but really unlikely.
> I usually try to keep a Xiphophorus, a Poecilia and a somethig unrelated in each livebearer tank. I never get crosses.


I try to do the same also, keep them separate or mix only species that can't interbreed, but I'm interested to try and breed a guppy molly hybrid as I've seen some photos of these and they were really interesting looking fish: 

Mollies & guppies cross breeding?

I do keep a mixed tank though, only because I'm currently overstocked and that weird little platy-thing bred with everything -even a female platy that wasn't a good breeder (fry were always born dead or dying for some reason, so I didn't expect any fry from her, hence she was the only platy in my swordtail/Molly tank before the male mini platy-thing got introduced..) 

He was only in there as a last resort as I couldn't find a male swordtail similar enough to my females, and he just had to do at the time..

It wasn't preferably to add him, but I could only find male swordtails with black markings or ones that were all orange in color which I wasn't trying to breed. The females were getting quite old and near their time which is why I was in a hurry to find them a mate. I've since found a couple of nice white/koi male swordtails, and removed the little platy-thing into my mixed tank, so all's good


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## allllien

toommm said:


> It is quite a massive male guppy but I've had similar sized ones in the past. I personally prefer smaller ones but that's just my opinion. I have no idea why they get so much bigger than others but I assume it has something to do with genetics or what not.


It spins me out to see him next to swords/Mollys/Platys because he's basically almost the same size -I've got him in my mixed tank now so I'll get some more photos soon of the comparison. Were yours really wide from top on as well? I had him in my indoor tub pond since I bought him and he looked huge from the top as well.


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## allllien

Summer said:


> wow he is big. Im interested in whether or not he is actualy fertile or not.


Same! I will keep you posted  I'm interested to try and breed 'giant guppies' now lol -I'd really love to breed a new strain that looks closer to Platies/Mollys/Swordtails in body shape and size, with round tails, so hopefully his genetics can add the size if he is fertile! He just happened to be one of the round tailed varieties too


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## allllien

He's actually GROWN!! ..he's now even bigger than in those photos lol -I'll get a new pic tomorrow if I get a chance  You'd swear he has bloat but he doesn't, he's at least 1cm wide! (and at least 4cm long).


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## ArtyG

That's a trans-sexual guppy who started as a female and switched teams. Probably caused by hormone under treatment undertaken too late.


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