Guppy male "cobra red" - Poecilia reticulata

The Snakeskin Red Guppy, or Cobra Red, is an interestingly patterned color variation of Poecilia reticulata, the guppy or million fish from South America. Red Snakeskin Guppies are very popular in aquaristics, they are robust and very eager to reproduce. For this reason we recommend to buy a pure male group of Guppies, so that no uncontrolled Guppy reproduction takes place in the aquarium. Such a male WG is very harmonious, and the guppies even live longer, because they have less stress due to missing opportunities for courtship.

Snakeskin Red Guppies have a beautiful glowing orange-red, quite large caudal fin patterned with dark stripes and dots. Their caudal peduncle is dark, almost black, with colorful accents, and the body is iridescent colorful with a dark snakeskin pattern. Males of the Snakeskin Red variety are usually much more intensely colored than the associated females. These grow to about 7-8 cm in length. The anal fin under the belly of the males is formed into the gonopodium, an elongated mating organ. This makes sex differentiation very easy.

Poecilia reticulata belongs to the live-bearing toothcarps. Red Snakeskin Guppies can produce fertile offspring with the closely related Endler Guppies. These hybrids should be avoided at all costs and Endler and Guppies should not be kept together in the aquarium. With other peaceful, not too large aquarium fish you can ideally socialize the male Red Snakeskin Guppies, if the requirements are similar. When keeping male and female guppies together, it is advisable to use a group of fish or a fish (depending on the requirements) to take care of excess offspring - a shoal of small tetras would be suitable here, for example. Although guppies eat their young, they can reproduce very strongly in the aquarium. For this reason we recommend pure male groups for those who do not want to breed guppies specifically. Guppy females give birth to up to 20 live young per litter. If the little ones find fine finned plants and roots of floating plants , they can hide, so more young fish grow up.

A socialization with robust Neocaridina dwarf shrimps that reproduce well, with rather large shrimps like Amano shrimps or fan shr imps works, although guppies certainly go for small shrimps. Larger crayfish and dwarf crayfish, on the other hand, have been known to eat, nip or even prey on guppies sleeping on the bottom, so they are not good aquarium partners.

Red Snakeskin Guppies are typical surface feeders with their overhead mouths - they like approach foods such as insects, but in the aquarium they will also eat algae coverings, soft vegetable foods such as scalded vegetables or greens, frozen foods and live foods. Our special guppy food NatureHolic Guppyfeed was designed especially for guppy needs. Other commercially available flake foods for ornamental fish or granulated foods for aquarium fish are also suitable.

The small group fish Poecilia reticulata is found in its natural habitats in medium-hard to hard water, it is even found in the brackish water of river mouths . Also in the aquarium medium hard to hard water is no problem for Guppies. A water temperature of 22-28 °C in the aquarium is considered ideal for Red Snakeskin Guppies.

Our food recommendation: The fragrant NatureHolic Guppyfeed was tailor-made for the needs of guppies and other viviparous fish in the aquarium. In addition to high-quality animal ingredients, it also contains vegetable components that benefit guppies & co. The soft granules protect the sensitive mouth of the viviparous from injuries caused by hard food grains and provide the fish with a natural feeding experience.

Our plant recommendation: For planting, use NatureHolic InVitros. These are free of snails, planarians and other unwanted co-inhabitants. Also free of algae spores, bacteria and fungi.

Expert Tip: We recommend for fish keeping the NatureHolic 3 Phase Liquid. The care set offers the best all-round protection for your animals. It ensures optimal conditions for successful breeding and keeping.