Dedicated to Fancy Guppy breeding in the UK
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The Theory and Practice of Guppy Breeding - © Phillip Shaddock
PRESS RELEASE (Vancouver, September 22, 2009)
Philip Shaddock releases "The Theory and Practice of Guppy Breeding."
Philip Shaddock from the Guppy Designer site has just released his long awaited
book on guppy genetics. "It's taken me three years to finally put the cover on this
book," he says. "While it was not a full time project over that entire period, there
were at least six months off and on that I took out of my regular work to write it,
plus many, many weekends and nights. It's really the culmination of seven years
of guppy experimentation and research at the universities, plus conversations
with many fellow hobbyists.
Of the 350 pages on the book, about a third is on genetics theory and a review of the major relevant
scientific papers on guppy color genetics. The purely theoretical part of the book is meant to reboot
the average hobbyist's view of genetics and show them the potential role it can play in their
enjoyment of the hobby. The reader is encouraged to think of genetics as the software for the guppy's
color cell hardware. The book teaches you to be a "programmer of guppy beauty." The book sends
you back to the fish room to become a keener and more knowledgeable interpreter of your guppy's
colors and patterns, and provides the tools for predicting the outcome of crosses.">>
After ranging through such classic papers as Winge's 1927 "18 genes" paper, Goodrich's 1944
"Blond and Golden" paper, Nayudu and Hunter's studies of the cellular basis for black patterns,
Kirpichnikov's summary of the fundamental features of guppy genetics, a paper written in 1971
on the history of the Moscow by a famous Russian breeder and a scientist, and others, the book
then introduces the breeder to genetic analysis, the classic method for studying the inheritance
of patterns of animals and plants. Philip shows you how to employ the same tools as those used
by Winge, Kirpichnikov and the other major guppy scientists in your own fish room. By the end of the
book you will have the means and the knowledge to turn your fish room into a hobbyist genetics
lab. A compendium of breeding strategies offers practical advice for solving such problems as
developing a strain from a single male, developing a triple recessive, determining the location of a
gene and other practical applications of genetics.The use of the Punnett Square to predict the
outcome of crosses or to analyze a puzzling cross is covered in several examples. With all this
theory firmly under your belt, you now move on to the chapters on the major guppy mutations
and strains. There is an entire chapter on the Moscow, another on the snakeskin family, the
Asian Blau mutation, the metal mutations and so on. Philip comments: "One of the reasons the
book took so long to write is that I have been writing articles for the book site on over 25 crosses
I have performed in my own fish room using classic cross analysis. The insights I have gained
into guppy genetics flow directly from that upfront and personal exploration of mutations and strains.
I even reached back to a large library of microscope studies I did about five years ago, and
discovered things in those old slides I never knew was there. So writing the book really helped me
to connect the dots. Suddenly I began to see a picture emerge of the major mutations of the guppy
that was there all along. It was very exciting.I have been taken to task about my more speculative
theories. And that is how it is supposed to work. Ideas need to be challenged. The amazing
thing was that one of my most speculative theories about the relationship between the snakeskin
pattern and Moscow black actually got a huge confirmation in a study of the microscope images.
It was there all along. I just did not have the theory and experience to comprehend it." It's an
expensive book because of the cost of producing it. It is 350 pages and has over 500 illustrations
and images. It is printed on 24lb paper and perfect bound with a high quality glossy hard cover
and steel spine. It is printed on a solid ink printer, which gives its images a glossy finish.
Each book is printed and bound by hand. It has a tiny audience, but for the hobbyist who wants
to really learn how to manipulate the guppy's color software, it is priceless. There is simply
no book that has been written on any hobbyist fish quite like it.
Think of it as the "missing manual" for guppy breeding.
Review:
The above press relase by the author gives a comprehensive description of the book, it is certainly crammed
with information on Guppy genetics and information on the creation of Guppy strains.
Of particular interest to me was the chapter on "Guppy Species Basics" which, unusually gives
Julius Gollmer as the discoverer of the species and the chapter on "The Moscow".
This book shows the way to breed Guppies taking out some of the "hit and miss" of pairings.
It is a useful edition to the the library of the serious hobbyist , it does not, of course, include information on the
practical aspects of fishkeeping such has tank sizes, feeding, disease etc.
It may be of interest to take a look at the Genetics Primer article by the same author available to download here.
Derrick Clayton
Rating: ****