From Our Mailbox

Hello,

I just found your site and I am interested in breeding pure yellow guppies in the hope of one day getting an exceptional strain that would be show quality. I currently have two trios of Albino German yellow that meet IFGA standards. They are very pretty, but I would like to intensify the yellow. What are your thoughts about cross breeding your yellows with mine? Do you think they would be a good match?

Sincerely,

Angela

Hello Angela,

There is a great article on Yellows in the Jan/Feb issue of the IFGA Bulletin. It was originally published in 1974, and there has been a great deal of improvement towards solid yellow fish since then, but yellows typically still do not have the caudal and dorsal size of many of our other strains. There is discussion in the article of crossing with albinos, and they evidently are saying that might be a way to remove other colors from the strain. Most yellows have good yellow color, though some strains still get some black occasionally. I think crossing with albinos would remove that black, and probably produce better yellow. However, if your albinos have good caudals and dorsals, the real benefit might be better caudals and dorsals on the yellows.

Charles Pratt

Hello,

I am Paul Hahnel's Grand child (Rose Meta Hahnel is my mother). I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about my grand father. He died before I was born and I never got to know him. . . . Can you give me some information on the times you met him. What was he like?

Another thing, I now have a baby and am setting up some fish tanks. I want to breed guppies to teach my kid about our family history, but I can't find any good guppies anywhere. I have a pair of snakeskins, but they’re not that good. Can you tell me where I can get a hold of some good fish.

I would also like to know if you have any tips on breeding guppies (possibly from my grandpa)?

Any information would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Jason Auerbach

Hello Jason,

It was a real thrill for me to receive your communication. Your grandfather, Paul Hahnel was the developer of the first delta tailed guppy, at least as far as I know. I began raising guppys as a 12 year old boy in North Carolina. In about 1954 or 55 I was in a pet shop in the Friendly Shopping Center, in Greensboro North Carolina. I had been raising guppies for about two or three years, had read all the literature on them and was absolutely fascinated by these remarkable fish.

In that store I saw my first big tailed guppies. They were red, and very obviously an enormous step forward in development. I remember they were selling at $25 per pair, which was a lot at that time. However, they had dropped some babies, and I persuaded the store owner to sell me a few of them at 25 cents each. The store owner told me they were Hahnel guppies, and that Paul Hahnel who had developed them lived in New York.

Over the next few years I read quite a lot in magazines such as Tropical Fish Hobbyist, and The Aquarium about Paul Hahnel and his work with guppies. I also raised many fish from the original fry I had acquired at the pet store. He was certainly my idol at the time, and in about 1958 I went to New York, and to his home. I brashly knocked on his door, and sure enough it was he who opened it. I introduced myself and said a few words about guppies. He immediately invited me in, and we spent the next hour or more lost in guppy talk.

Your grandfather could be a bit gruff, but was a big hearted man with high standards. During that first meeting he allowed me to select any pair of fish I wanted from one area of tanks, and after I had caught them, he looked at them carefully and said “You did well”. To me that was about as high praise as an 18 year old could have had from anyone.

Probably 15 years or more later he visited in San Diego with Frank Dayes, who I also remember as one of the finest guppy breeders I have ever met. Frank was a good friend of mine and brought Paul over to my wholesale fish operation. When he first came up to the door Paul saw a couple of sawhorses where I had been cutting wood for some minor repairs on the hatchery. He looked them over, picked up a small scrap of leftover material, and the first words to me from this highly skilled cabinet maker were, “You call that square?” as he pointed to a saw cut on the end of the wood.

We had a great visit, but that was the last time I saw him.

Charles Pratt