Where do the many Guppys that populate the aquariums of the world actually come from? The answer: they come from breeding farms, where these animals are professionally propagated, just like plants in a nursery. The largest breeding centers are located in tropical Asia (Sri Lanka, Singapore/Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam) and Israel. Breeding is carried out under strict veterinary supervision and is scientifically monitored by geneticists. Thus it is possible to offer the beautiful high-bred forms in excellent quality for decades, after it had come in the 1980s by failed breeding methods internationally to a true Guppy crisis.
But where does the name “Moscow Guppys” come from? Are these animals bred there? No, they are not. The name goes back to an article in the now defunct magazine “Aquarien-Magazin” in 1976. At that time Viktor Datskevich reported about the community of guppy breeders in Moscow, which organized an annual exhibition with 50 to 70 guppy aquariums. Two male guppys of the hobby breeder A Gribov were shown, which he exhibited together in a motley mix, contrary to the rules of high breeding. This tank was the crowd puller of the exhibition, which somewhat dismayed the “serious” breeders.
The two fishes pictured to the article were colorful mosaic guppies with triangle tail, basic color gray, the front body heavily reticulated, the hind body (from the base of the dorsal fin) black with green or blue shimmer. And since that time more and more Guppy forms are called “Moskow Guppys”. Originally this was probably done to make clear that they were particularly colorful and attractive Guppys. Later the term was used mainly for guppys with predominantly black body coloration, which had a green or blue iridescent sheen. Today a whole range of different Guppy color varieties are called “Moscow“, which actually do not have much in common with each other.
From Sri Lanka we get at present a whole row of very beautiful Moskows, Guppys of which we show in this post the color varieties black, green and blue.
For our customers:the animals have code 418673 (Black), 418683 (Blue) and 418693 (Green) on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply to wholesalers.
Literature:
Datskewitsch, V. (1976): Hübsche Guppys aus Moskau. Aquarien Magazin 10 (1): 4
