They females, or the 'girls' are drab - no color. But all the males have these huge tails with lots of differnt colors. Even their bodies are adorned in reds, yellows, blues and greens. I feel sorry for those poor females, so dull looking, not even a tie to jazz up their looks.
Oh Cat Landers, What can I do?
Well, first you need to think about the �poor females.� If you have had these guppies for very long, you are well aware that the males have tremendous egoes and seek to procreate continually. Perhaps the females are donning the drab attire hoping that they will NOT get his attentions. While the �hes� are donning their plummage to attract the attention of the female, she, likewise, is trying to appear drab and unappealing, hoping he will lavish his attentions on one of the other more unfortunate females. If it your desire to have a more �colorful� tank, you could invest in gender counseling for the females and hope to convince them that �crossdressing� is always an option open to them. Another option is to invest in �hormone enhanced� fish food....those intended to bring out the more vibrant colors in the fish. Both genders will be responsive to these male hormones. However, if you are raising these fish for monetary gain, or as a food source, remember that feeding male hormones to the females may reduce their fertility. If your desire is to enhance the entire aquaterium, you might consider FDA approved food colorings added to the water. And, if all else fails, you might investigate the idea of introducing a few lovely Angel fish to your aquaium. I doubt that that will enhance the colorings on the females, but your could do an entire T-thing and all the guppies would be changed into Angel Fish. On second thought, you could just take the attitude that the female guppies are just being �who they really are, inside,� and not subcombing to the pressures of the male fish. Hum...I think I like that!
Cat Landers
