Platy/Guppy cross?

[kensacco]

Ok, so pretty random, but in my discus tank I also have a m/f pair of Mickey Mouse Platy, and one lonely male guppy. I have other fish in this tank as well, but these guys ended up in there when my sons tank crashed, so they needed a home until the cycle is finished, and no QT available. The funny thing is, the male platy is constantly trying to mate with the female - as per usual with platys, but lately the male guppy has also been trying to mate with her, always angling and flicking his gonopodium at her. Besides being funny, I was also wondering if this could ever possibly produce a viable brood?

[Tommo]

Ok, so pretty random, but in my discus tank I also have a m/f pair of Mickey Mouse Platy, and one lonely male guppy. I have other fish in this tank as well, but these guys ended up in there when my sons tank crashed, so they needed a home until the cycle is finished, and no QT available. The funny thing is, the male platy is constantly trying to mate with the female - as per usual with platys, but lately the male guppy has also been trying to mate with her, always angling and flicking his gonopodium at her. Besides being funny, I was also wondering if this could ever possibly produce a viable brood?

You may be interested in a thread on the Seriousl Fish (UK site) that is currently discussing hybridisation?

(not enough posts to let me paste the link so try this) all the Ws dot seriouslyfish dot com/forums/index dot php?showforum=45

[Pardal]

The Platy Xiphophorus Maculatus has been cross with the swordtail Xiphophorus Hellery for improvement and also the X.Variatus, and a bunch of other Xiphophorus species, for improvement. the so call Introgressive Hybridation, is being used to improve the different species of Mollies a Poecilia ie P. Veliferara (sailfin molly). The guppy although a Poecilia reticulata in this case when breeding with mollies will produce infertile males.
In your case I don't think the guppy will get the female platy pregnan specially when there is a male on the same specie present his sperm will have the advantage, also in the case of any possible hybrid it most likely will be infertile.
One thing you should know is that a lot has been done in hybridation like treating infertile fish with hormones to make them fertile.
What I trying to say is we can never say never but most of this are controlled experiments hard to recreate in a hobby's home.

[kensacco]

Thank you Pardal for your thorough reply! I didn't think it would really work out, just more curious to see if anyone had that happen to them. I've been successful in the past with a Black Convict/Pink Convict cross, which resulted in some really gorgeous Purple Convict though!

[Pardal]

Yes,
Is really interesting what we can do with oviviparus fish, because you can see quickly the results, I keep these when I was a little kid like everyone I suppouse. Now I went back to them. I have to confess I was intially using them as feeders to condition my pairs , something I learn from my days of breeding Angels, but my Discus are kind of nicer and they only ate a few of them and then they start to grow and I end up with a tank now with platys, swords and guppies.
TC
Julian.