Perhaps the most well-known tropical fish, the guppy today continues to be very popular among both beginners and advanced breeders. Today, there are hundreds of beautiful varieties, from lyretails to fantails coming in a rainbow of colors and patterns, seemingly only limited by the imagination. Because of all the intense breeding, however, most of the hardiness has been bred out of many strains of this species. As a rule, the fancier the variety, the harder it is to raise it well. In fact, I would not recommend them for community tanks at all,
as many seem more susceptible to disease lately. Their big tails seem like the perfect sites for infections and infestation to take hold. They are however, beautiful and peaceful little fish that can do better in smaller, species-only tanks or ones with a few other species, such as a livebearer community tank. They need vegetable matter supplemented to their diet (as their shape implies, they are surface-feeding fish and like to top level of the tank), but show their colors best with live food. Males can be easily distinguished by their larger, far
more colorful tails (but smaller body size) and by the modified anal fin (like all livebearing fish). They reproduce like crazy, even in a lively community tank, but young must be protected from hungry parents by way of a spawning grill or dense plant cover--please see the platy section for more details.