Fishoman's Guppy

[bactrus]

Extracted from TheStar.com.my 04022010:

Thursday February 4, 2010

From drain to glory
By WINNIE YEOH


THEY are tiny, colourful and pleasing to the eye. The guppy, or more commonly known as ‘bee kok’ (in Hokkien) fish or the longkang (drain) fish, is fast gaining popularity and can be quite pricey if one is really into them.

Its scientific name is poecilia reticulata and it was discovered by Robert John Lechmere Guppy in 1866 in Trinidad.

guppy.jpg

Prized hobby: Guppies are no longer from the drains, but created.
Local part-time guppy breeder Andrew Lim, 35, who started rearing the fish swhen he was 10, said people should change their mind- set about the guppy being a longkang fish.

“No doubt it is cheap with the prices ranging from 30sen to RM5 each at aquariums, but that is because the fishes are from mass breeding. And aquariums only sell the males and not the females.

“But for breeders, what we do is selective breeding which requires genetic analysis. And a minimum of two generations are needed to get a specific strain. We sell in pairs (male and female) and depending on the strains, some can fetch up to US$80 (RM280),” Lim said.

Among the strains that he has created are the Japan redtail albino and the saddleback red roundtail.

He added that guppies were easy to breed, stressing that the challenge was selective breeding.

“Guppies are live bearers, which means the females will give birth to baby fish instead of laying eggs.

“They carry the eggs inside their body for about a month and each time, they can give birth to between 20 an 100 fish.

“It takes about three months for the fry to reach maturity,” he said.

Lim also said the fish had a life span of up to two years.

“They can give birth all year round but normally, breeders don’t let them do that,” he said.

He has won several prizes with his creations as well as being invited to organise workshops and judge in overseas competition.

He is the co-founder of Malaysia Guppy Club and member of World Guppy Association and Inter-national Fancy Guppy Associa-tion.

For more details, go to www.fantasyguppy.com.