Mutations
June-2019 mixed of all
This one of the most important mutation from our first cross breeding from albino orange and black Moscow. the first batch gave us the first generation of Transnow, but this mutated male serve the purpose as starting male of all other four lines.
This male has metal blue body with rainbow connection between the tale and body along with a very outstanding red spot. top fin was somehow white with black strips.the tail is mainly transparent with light white and green/yellow in the center, orange around the edge and black spots at the end.
Even though we used it for four new lines with a lot of modifications, but we still can get some throw back or new mutations from batches now days.
March-2020 black spots of Transnow
This is very interesting mutation happened during early days of Transnow, it looks very similar as Transnow expect black spots on the spike edge tail with more brown body.
We think the black spots should from one of the original pair’s recessive gene got reactivated during the cross breeding, but we did not rule out the possibility of mutation.
We did not try to keep this type to cross breeding with Transnow, but gave up due to the overall aesthetic line selection.
We still get a few throwback or new mutation from current Transnow batches !
Jun-2021 Leopard or Tiger stripe of BlueLazuli
We lost the black Moscow almost at the first batch when cross with albino orange, but we really like to have a solid dark blue color line (BlueLazuli). Also to strengthen the lines with different genes , we brought another black Moscow to breed with a solid light metal blue line, this is one of very beautiful mutation we got.
We tried to create and enhance this as a new line, we tried for almost two years and with 4-5 generation and failed since the body color and the spot patterns are so hard to stabilize.
We still get this type of mutation with different characters on each individuals in our BlueLazuli line.
Feb-2022 Orange Transnow
We got some orange with black eyes right after the first cross between albino orange and black Moscow, but this orange version is from later matured Transnow cross with a red Moscow line. we try to create a new bright orange with metal like body and white top fin (BrightPoppy).
This is very much like Transnow but with all the white color replaced by orange.
We decided not to establish this as a new line, but this should be very easy to stabilize with certain enhancements you design to add.
Nov-2022 the purple BlueLazuli
This is a purple version when we tried to cross the red Moscow with our new BlueLazuli, nothing really good came out from the cross breed as red met blue. Most of fish somehow with a feel of dirty. Purple might be the best result but we never get really clean representation.
we still get some individuals like this one from our BirghtPoppy line. They all somehow got black strips on the tail and they grow in really large size, We got a monster male which grow more than 3 inches.
March-2023 White spot of SkySilk
We got this mutation when we cross BlueLazuliwith Transnow and resulted in a new line called SkySilk .
This is interesting character to see white spot on blue tail, we may want to continue enhance the white spot to cover more on the tail more like a Cobalt leopard.
May 2024 mutation notes
In every batch, I always get some very similar “mutations” ex: the orange version of Transnow. I put quate to quate for word “mutation” is because technically, those should not be mutations, they should be throw back to original source of genes. but the reason I still call them mutations is due to the comparison of original fish, they were not completely throw back to original fish. for example, the orange version of transnow is nothing like the albino orange, not just they are not albino, but the color pattern and details are also different.
the majority of male display color and pattern should come from male side but not always, Transnow is basically the albino take out the black color from black moscow, but still some male may take the orange color gene from the albino orange, and carry through the strain.
I did culling batches for breeding, although I picked only the one which trend to the strain I would like to create, even in the late time of strain process, for example for Transnow, in the 6 to 7 generation of stabled transnow line, I still got one or two completely orange version. either the display color gene can be hidden and enactive in a certain chance or female may carry as hidden all the time .
I have all the strains I worked on have such “mutations” , I will introduce them in each line mutation section later. this type of mutation may have small difference in each batch but majority of characters are the same.
The second type of mutation is completely random, normally represented in the patterns. it feels like you pour milk into coffee, the cloudy pattern in the milk is different every time no matter how consistent you operate.
This type of mutation is very unstable, sometimes the pattern appears really unique and beautiful, but there is no way I can stabilize it and make it as a strain.
The third type of mutation is very useful to create a new strain, basically, I can find new characters (color, pattern & shape) which I can stabilized them into a new creation of strain. For example, the orange radial pattern of spots in GreenRadial stain or the black spots in BrightPoppy as seeds in flower. They normally appear in small scale or single spot , but I knew they are solid and can be enhanced later.
it is not always true a repeated pattern mutation can be used to stabilized into a strain. The compatible of two genes is also important, I had a black guppy with big white spot in the middle of tail, looks like dark sky with a white moon, very beautiful fish ,and I used this male to breed with three females , but unfortunately, I did not get single fish from offspring looks like it.
The fourth type of mutations is related generical flaws, I got a black fish suddenly with the first half body became white, I also introduced born with deformed body guppies, most of fishes from this type of mutation have weak body and can not live very long, definitely I will not use those fish for strain creation.
actually albino should belong to this category , albino fish has weaker gene and easy to get disease , their body and tail are delicate. but since most of albino can still live healthy and decent life span as normal fish, so we still keep as a strain.
other examples like spit tail, sword tail , double ear, bloom body etc..
Strain creation should be a process of selective breeding and continues enhancements, from generation to generation to stabilize the characters of your strain creation.
I barely used any mutations in my strain creation programs since mutation can carry many unstable characters which I do not know what going to come out and even I got a individual which I really like , I also do not know how to stabilize it. I always use stabilized fish to cross breed to start new strain creation so I knew what I really work with.
Mutations are fun to work with as each individual is unique and one of the kind in the world. A lot of time I feel unfortune and pity such fish can not be reproduced and continue , and chance to have it again from mutation might be very small and always not going to be exactly the same. but I think that is what mutation mean to be.
May-2024 Mutation Tank update
I normally keep two types of mutations along with the strain male only tank , the throw backs or missing characters , most of them do look like the stain but just lack or different in the display characters. In the establishing strain of a 50 offspring batch, I will normally have about 10 mutations in which 7-8 are in this category. These fish will never be used for strain breeding unless I want to alter the strain towards some of the mutation’s character.
There is about 1 to 2 true mutations (looks totally different from the strain) In each batch, I put them in a special mutation male raising tank where I can observe them closely , they are very unique fish and normally they grow out to be totally different than any strain adults. I tried many times to use such male fish to stabilize the character to make into a strain. but have not got any success yet. The breed normally just throw back to the strain which this mutation came from, or something more different but not a single one which stabilized mutated character in the male as I want to create a strain with. I will keep trying, some of the mutations were really beautiful and unique which I really would like to share with the hobby rather than one of the kind in the world once it existed.
For solid color strain (transnow, bright poppy, bluelazuri and skysilk), there are two type of common mutations, tail with patterned spots or stripes or random cloudy wave like color cross the tail. I normally put them into my large mutation male raising tank,
female mutations are rare also even they carry different gene , it is hard to tell from the look of the female. I do have a large female only display tank, but mainly to overflow from a strain.