Book: The Theory and Practice of Guppy Breeding

After seven years of research. three years of writing, over 500 illustrations and pictures, 350 pages of layout, and 1.2 kilos of paper,  I have finally finished the massive book project.

I never thought it would take this long, but then I was not in a hurry. Only one-third of the book is genetics theory and research, the vast majority of it flows out of the systematic breeding experiments I have been performing in the past three years. So the book sits on a pretty solid foundation of data.

Included is a summary of modern genetics theory. I thoroughly review and comment on seven major scientific papers on the guppy, including the classic Winge 18 genes paper, the Michael Dzwillo domestic guppy genetics paper (translated from the German), the Goodrich paper on the Blond and Golden Mutations that contains a key insight into guppy genetics that almost everybody has missed, Kirpichnikov's absolutely essential summary of guppy genetics, a rare Russian article on the genetic makeup of the Moscow and its history stretching back to the middle of the last century and others. 

Included is an introduction to genetic analysis, with practical examples of how you can use it to put your breeding program on fast forward. There is a compendium of practical breeding strategies and their outcomes.

But the vast majority of the book, over two-thirds, is a survey of the major guppy mutations and their modes of inheritance, information largely drawn from my own crossing experiments. And there is a big surprise in the midst of it...a discovery that came about very recently about the basis for black and metallic patterns. 

Read the Press Release.

Read the introduction I have made to the book here. 

Read the Table of Contents here.

The book is shipping now. Here is the link to the sales page.