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Japan Blue Endlers

8K views 5 replies 2 participants last post by  Sylverclaws 
#1 · (Edited)
I am so excited. I've been looking for some Japan Blue Endlers for four years or so now, and I finally found some and ordered a trio. Unfortunately it's a reverse trio(two males and one female). But we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping to find some other females too. Otherwise if there are issues, and sometimes there are even with the more peaceful endlers livebearers, I may remove one male and pop him in a different tank with some black bar females. They wont be pure, but that particular mix is pretty and I have some extra black bar females. I had hoped to keep the strain pure though, but since I have a bunch of girls now...better to hurt the strain over killing my new beauties. I'll keep the pair a pure strain though, for now until I get in some more girls. Hard to find though! Anyone know where I can find some in the USA that wont cost me an arm and a leg?

They're supposed to get here today, and are out for delivery at this moment according to tracking info(should be here sometimes between now and an hour), so I've been milling impatiently around the front porch all afternoon. lol

I'll let you guys know how they are. The parents were stunning, these are supposed to be youngsters. I love raising them from fry though, this means I know the care they're getting. ^_~ I have a 5 gallon QT tank set up and waiting for them at the moment. Eventually they'll go to the planted ten gallon that has live plants and black sand. I imagine they'll look gorgeous in there!
 
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#2 ·
Haha. They got here, they look great. Been in the dark for two days so they look a bit dull, but their blues were showing up pretty quick once in the light. They're active, look really good, and the female is pregnant and looks about to pop. They don't seem too stressed out, but a bit.

I'm acclimating them now in a container with a drip where they will be for at least an hour, maybe more just in case. It was surprisingly cold for this time of year here. Well, been in the 50's and 60's, big rain, but the nights are darn cold and usually are in the 50's and 60's themselves(It's been going to the low forties and high 30's, glad they got here we're going to have a record low tonight, so we think)! Poor things were a little chilled, but they were well insulated so it wasn't too bad. I have them against the tank and with the drip it should warm them up nice and slow. They weren't frozen or anything, but their water temp felt at least 10-15 degrees colder than the tanks 78 degrees, and that's a biiig dip for livebearers. Which another reason I'm surprised they're so active.

Anywho, good color as it comes in, good size they're just about full adult if not full adults, and they're gonna love both that QT and their new home later in the ten gallon. I've made them nice and pretty for them. :3 Also got in some najas grass same time, lots of it. That's always handy for livebearers, even if endlers rarely eat their kids.
 
#3 ·
One of my boys died today. I don't know why. He looked perfect, acted fine, nobody has had any issues...I did move the other male out and the black bar female out since they were both still only paying attention to my very pregnant female...could he perhaps have died from....depression or something that fast? I can't believe it. =( Ten gallons, well established, stable, planted tank with four endlers, and kaboom, I wonder if the loss of the extra bioload maybe caused it or shocked him or something. BLAH! T_T Well, down to one male, one female. Four babies, and soon to be a lot more, by the looks of her. She's massive.
 
#4 ·
Why am I so stupid? I am stupid. The reason my gorgeous boy died was because I shocked the darn tank. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I added six kuhli loaches and two baby BN plecos at once, lost a Kuhli too. It was an emergency so I wasn't thinking. I had these guys in a 73 gal pool with a few baby crayfish, and the crayfish beat up some of them so I moved them out to a safe location, and the only larger sand bottom tank I have...and of course I did it all at once because I wasn't thinking. I could cry, I know better than THAT! T____T


On the bright side, my female Japan Blue popped, FINALLY. I mean REALLY popped. Since I got her she's had maybe a dozen babies...she ate a few, got four from her. For the last month she was just getting bigger and bigger, and occasionally dropped a baby or two here and there...but then yesterday morning when it was lights on(after my boy died and I did a large water change), she was skinny(she looked like she swallowed a marble before, she was absolutely massive!), and there were babies all over the place. =) I don't know how many...she isn't a big fish herself, but I counted more than ten, caught a bunch and moved them to a temp nursery, still see a few in the tank with mom, but there's so much cover the majority should be fine at this stage. After the first day or three, the parents usually ignore them when it comes to endlers...sometimes not. She's kinda a butt. Never had endlers that would hunt down babies like that, she does. Thankfully it takes them a few short days to get too big to eat more than one, and maybe a week before they stop even bothering. lol So, yay, got my bundle of Japan Blues now. <3
 
#5 ·
Congrats on the fry.

Question, who did the crayfish beat up on? I recall you have marble crayfish and mine are more peaceful than the fish they live with. I could see them going after the loaches, looks like worms to me yummy! I'm just asking because out of 400-500 of these crayfish I have only had no problem individual. They live peacefully with my corys and livebearers. Let me know.
 
#6 ·
Hennic, my crayfish juveniles, the ones that are almost four months old, shredded my Kuhli Loaches, all six of them, one died. The rest are pretty much fully healed now, they also ripped up my three inch BN plecos, and even messed with my 8inch long common(?) pleco.

Not ALL of my crayfish do that, but the majority actually will hunt down other bottom dwelling fish. The reason they didn't kill them is because those fish are either fast or bigger than them, or because I had some caves lifted up so they could actually get in them(not just the cave area but inside the decoration). And because there was a ton of space and only like sixteen young crays in there, but they really made a mess of my beauties. ^^; They leave my mosquitofish alone, but they and the mosquitos ripped up my calico fantail goldfish(I am actually unsure who the real culprit is, I think it was both, my fantail no longer has a tail, but it's coming back...of course unlike the other fish, he did have long-fins).

Anywho, yeah. 73 gallons and a foot deep didn't save anyone. lol Two were really aggressive and had to be removed from the bunch because they were trying to kill other crayfish and I now have three missing a claw. =( So they have their own place.
 
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