Purple Moscow guppies or purple guppies are not very common due to their price tag. Purple guppies can cost around $40-$100, depending on their strain.
Due to selective breeding, purple guppies are not as hardy as general fancy guppies. Therefor you should only buy these types of guppies if you have good experience in fish keeping.
In this article you can learn how to care, breed and feed purple Moscow guppies. Will also give you some tips on the best water parameters
The Origin of Purple Moscow Guppies
The Moscow guppies are a strain that was developed through selective breeding in Russia in the late 80’s for their beautiful blue color.
Moscow guppies are usually larger in size and males are fully colored featuring a bright, shiny, metallic sheen. Female Moscow guppies tend to be more colored than other guppy strains.
These guppy types usually have longer dorsal and caudal fins. Some very rare strains feature really long anal fin, which is one or two times longer than their body.
Moscow guppies come in different colors: blue, black, purple and green.
Here is a short video of beautiful purple male Moscow guppies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkTIpLxHOyk
Breeding Purple Moscow Guppies for Profit
If you are going to spend a hundred dollars for a pair of purple Moscow guppies, probably you would not do it only to admire them. Most likely, you are going to breed them as soon as possible.
If you want to maximize your profits on breeding purple Moscow guppies, you will want to setup a small breeding operation.
I would do the following:
Setup at least 6 aquariums, of 10 gallons each and let them cycle for at least 3-6 weeks.
Get a pair of high quality and healthy guppies from a well-known breeder.
Place the male and female in a tank and let them breed for one week.
Separate them after one week and put them in separate tanks. You can allow line of sight between them.
It is necessary to separate the female, because the male will stress her out constantly. You want to avoid any stress in order to produce the best quality guppy babies.
Feed them live food daily and do regular water changes. Remineralized RO/DI water would be the best option to avoid any contamination.
Before the female is due, add a breeding mop or lots of live plants into the tank. You want to save as many purple Moscow guppy fry as possible. If you lucky enough, you can end up with 30-50 fry from the first batch.
Once the female is done giving birth, you can scoop her out and place it in the tank with the male. And start the process again.
With proper food, feeding schedule and water changes you can raise the fry in just 3 months to a decent sellable size. I’ve wrote a complete guide on how to dramatically increase guppy fry growth.
Sorting the fry by sex and size is also important as well the culling. When your fry reach around 3 months old, you can already see the colors and shapes you want to bring further in the next generations.
Select 3 males and 4 females, which you will breed in the next months. Don’t select only one male and female.
You never know what could go wrong and you always need a backup plan in case one of your fish from the breeding pair dies.
Feeding Purple Moscow Guppies
Just like all guppies, purple Moscow guppies are omnivores. They will eat basically anything, including commercial flakes, veggie pellets, frozen food, spirulina or even home-made food.
If you want to grow beautiful and healthy purple guppies, I recommend avoiding the commercial foods. Try to feed them as much live food as possible such as brine shrimp, daphnia and vinegar eels.
Micro worms and blood worms are also a great source of fat and protein, but these are best for fry. You should avoid feeding too much to adult guppies due to the high fat content.
Male and Female Purple Moscow Guppy Fish
Just like other guppy types, Moscow guppies are also very active breeders. Males will flare, chase and breed with the females all they long.
This process is stressful for the females. So if you decide to keep males and females together, I suggest a 1:3 male to female ratio.
From my experience and other’s suggestions, this is the best way to keep your female guppies in best shape.
Size of Purple Moscow Guppy Fish
As mentioned before, purple Moscow guppies are larger in size than general guppies. They have longer tails, fins and a thicker body.
Adult Moscow males can reach 2 inches (5 cm), while females 2.5-2.8 inches (6-7 cm) in length.
Purple Moscow Guppy Life Span
For such a rare and expensive fish, you might expect to have a long lifespan, but unfortunately the average lifespan is around 2 year for Moscow guppies too.
As I mentioned in one of my previous articles, the lifespan of guppy fish depend on various factors such as: water temperature, food, water parameters, frequency of breeding, stress, etc. I had guppies that lived for almost 5 years.
Best Water Parameters for Purple Guppies
Guppies can support a wide range of water parameters. However, if you want to breed purple Moscow guppies for profit, you will want to give them the best water parameters.
These are the best water conditions for a successful breeding operation:
- Water Temperature: 74 °F (23 °C)
- Water pH: 7.5
- Water Hardness (dGH): 10
- Ammonia and nitrites: 0 ppm
- Nitrates: 10 ppm maximum
These water conditions combined with good and variety of food will result in great success.
Minimum Tank Size for Purple Guppies
For stable water parameters and temperature, I recommend keeping Moscow guppies in at least 10 gallon aquariums.
In a 10 gallon tank, you can fit 3 males and 4 females for a short amount of time (one week). As I suggested before, if you want to breed them successfully, you want to keep males and females separated.
So keep 3 males in one 10 gallon and 4 females in other 10 gallon aquarium.
For about 3-4 weeks you can keep up to 30-50 fry in a 10 gallon aquarium. After the fry grow, you need to separate them.
Purple Moscow Guppy Tank Mates
Moscow guppies are compatible with a wide range of fish, just like other guppy strains, though I would not keep Moscow guppies in a community tank.
I would not take the risk of losing such a beautiful and expensive fish due to aggression or some diseases.
Conclusion
I really hope that this article was useful and gave you some helpful information on how to care for purple Moscow guppies.
If you have any questions regarding purple guppies please leave a comment below.
If you want to learn about other guppy strains, please check out my other detailed guides.
Awesome info. Where can one find purple moscow guppies to purchase and how does one verify or tell.if they are quality of unable.to physically view? I’m down in south africa.
Many thanks