To understand what ‘Big C’ guppies mean, we first need to learn about “Ribbon Guppies”. The term “Ribbon Guppy” refers to guppies that possess the “ribbon gene”. The core characteristic is that the pelvic fins and anal fins (some individuals also have elongated dorsal fins) are significantly extended, making their swimming more graceful.
Meanwhile, “Big C” is a special shape of the ribbon guppy. The characteristic of the Big C guppy is that the first hard bone on the back of the ribbon female fish is elongated, forming the letter “C” shape with the ribbon, while the dorsal and anal fins resemble a bow shape, making it look very beautiful.
Among ribbon guppies, only female fish can achieve this special shape: the first hard bone of the dorsal fin is significantly elongated, forming the arc of the letter “C” together with the elongated pelvic/anal fins, while the overall dorsal fin appears “bow-shaped”.
When breeding Big C guppies, they will produce half ordinary guppies and half ribbon guppies. Only those ribbon guppies with stronger genes will exhibit the characteristics of Big C, so the actual probability of producing Big C is less than half. Additionally, Big C guppies have relatively high requirements for water temperature and water quality, making their breeding more challenging than ordinary guppies.
Because of this, Big C guppies are usually expensive (ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan per fish, depending on appearance), and are considered high-end ornamental fish.