GUPPY ASSOCIATES OF MILWAUKEE

BILL KLEIN

With the Annual just behind us, we have all winter to pump those young fish up and get them ready for the Spring show season. I want to thank everyone who helped at our show and everyone that supported our show. I wonder if this will be our last Annual? By the time we are eligible for our next Annual we will all be on Social Security.

With our international participants present at our show. I had the opportunity to spend some time with Herman from Germany. Our focus was to bring different types of guppies to the IFGA shows. Not having a class for A.O.T. (Any Other Tail Shape) we decided to make one.

At the mid meeting GAM will ask the IFGA to create a roundtail class sponsored by GAM. We would hope to start showing them at the 2002 Annual. GAM will also have a Milwaukee Special class for the roundtail at our July 21^st. 2002 show. The reason I am bringing this up now is to give other clubs a chance to include the class in there show rules.

For those interested in showing roundtails I will import 50 pairs from Germany. I hope to have several different colors available at our show in July. Anyone interested in showing the roundtails can contact me at nicepitbul@aol.com.

The roundtail is nothing like my regular show guppies. The roundtais are what I call a low maintenance fish. They are so healthy they can take lots of neglect and still thrive. It’s an active fish that’s extremely fun to watch. They never seem to get sick, live forever, never get tail rot, don’t clamp, and are extremely prolific. If they only could feed themselves, they would be perfect.

Whenever someone comes into my fish room they always comment on the roundtails. Like what’s this, wow those are neat, where did you get them and then can I have some? I am trying to visualize 100 males in a big tank, wow that’s gotta be something to behold.

The roundtail can come in every caudal or body color we presently see in our shows. So out crossing a male roundtail to your favorite female will bring some unusual and interesting fish. My roundtails have a snakeskin pattern, with a red and black caudal with matching dorsal. There snakeskin pattern is extremely bold and well defined. You can see the pattern across the room. With no zebrinus bars, thank God. I just set up some crosses and will try and produce my own strain to show. I find no enjoyment in showing someoneelse’s line.

Because the roundtail doesn’t conform to the IFGA standard we have to judge them a little different. I will use the IKGH Show Standard as it stands and unchanged in anyway. It’s simple to understand and easy to learn. There is an important lesson here also, the IFGA has to think as a real world organization and be open to new ideas. Our club has changed dramatically during the time I have been a member and I am sure it will be ever evolving. I think it’s important to be aware of the European judging standard for a number of reasons. First GAM hosted the World Guppy Contest a few years ago. Guess what we had to judge the European entries with there standard. Last June I judged in Vienna at the World Guppy Contest, there again I used there standard. .In 2003 the IFGA is again hosting the World Guppy Contest and it will need to be judged by local breeders.

The ideal roundtail should have a body one inch long with a caudal ½ inch long. The body should be 1/4 the thickness of the length, 1/4 inch being ideal. Longer body size does not get more points. The roundtail caudal is round with a diameter of ½ the body length. The dorsal fin is rounded and stretches to the base of the caudal. Let me be very clear that IKGH measures the body all the way to the end of the peduncle, not like we measure the body. They also put emphasis on intense body color, deportment, health, and how active the fish swims in the show tank. It’s actually quite simple, there isn’t so much concern about dorsal caudal color match. To them that isn’t that important. An entry is three matched males. So if the caudal is red and the dorsal is yellow, that’s fine, as long as they match each other.