# "Cold water" Guppies?



## Tuigirl (Aug 3, 2014)

I have seen that my LPS is selling "cold water guppies"- they are less fancy and swim around with the goldfish.
These guppy look disturbingly like the strain of wild caught guppy from Brazil that I have kept for years.
So I went there and told them that I did not believe that something like a "cold water guppy" exists, because they are tropical fish- answer was, that these were special and a special breed.
I have to add that central heating and insulation in New Zealand are still rare, so a unheated room in NZ might be around 10-12 degrees Celcius (around 50F) during the day in winter (we have winter now). 
So I was wondering- any of you ever came across this? Is there such a thing as a "cold water guppy"? Or is it just male cattle droppings (I used the less politically correct word towards the staff of my LPS ;-) ) ?


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## tankman12 (Nov 13, 2012)

Probably mosquito fish.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Tuigirl (Aug 3, 2014)

No, I do not think they are Gambusia- because the males look like this:








But I do not know if more colourful Gambusia have been bred?

Edit- in addition, I have just seen that Gambusia are a restricted invasive species in New Zealand,
so they are not allowed to be sold...


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Guppies can be very hardy (less so the expensive fancy strains). There are populations of feral guppies in Australia in places where the temperature gets very low. It is possible that a population of fish can slowly acclimate to less than ideal temperatures. Those who cannot tolerate the colder water die off leaving only the hardiest individuals behind to reproduce. 

A lot of people do this with rainbows here, leaving a group in a pond over winter and when it gets to spring, only those fish who have survived the colder temperatures are around to breed. However, it doesn't mean that they aren't still tropical fish.


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## Seki (Jul 10, 2012)

+1 to LBF!! Well said!

The picture you posted looks like a cross between an endler and a guppy. To my knowledge, both are tropical fish.


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## Tuigirl (Aug 3, 2014)

Thanks guys!
I am just not sure of that practice can be called "humane".....


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