Endlers Livebearers?

angelabrock75

Anyone have these, I have about 5 females and 2 males in my 55 gallon tank...they are thriving and having the time of their life! I can tell that all the females are pregnant since they all have that huge black spot!

Its funny, I actually got them as trial fish to make sure that my 55 gallon tank was cycled well....I wasnt actually planning on keeping them long since I have 2 angelfish, and 2 sharks......but surprise surprise....they are FINE!! My bigger angel ate 3 of them when I first got them, but hasnt touched a single one since then, and he doesnt even care about them anymore.........no more stalking!

I have gotten quite attached to these guys, and want to save some of the fry.

So yeah, anyone have any experience with these guys? They are the Guppy relitives that stay pretty tiny, and instead of having pretty colored tails, the males are multi colored all over them!

Oldman47

They are very easy to look after and will fill that 55 in less than 6 months. The angels and sharks may take a toll of their fry but the females will push ahead to fill the tank anyway. With a gestation period of only 23 days, they can fill a tank up pretty fast. If you only have endlers and peaceful fish in a tank, it can get to looking like this fairly quickly. It is a picture of my 45 gallon around feeding time.

angelabrock75

I wouldnt mind that at all, my tank still looks really empty! I might try and help them out though...I would save some of the babies! Thats only if I can get permission from the bf...he cant stand the sound of the batery powered airfilter I use for brineshrimp, LOL!!

Oldman47

Unless you have a lot of predators in the tank, the endlers will just go on producing. I do nothing in that tank to help save the fry but the betta in there does not get very many and the endlers don't even try to eat them. There are fry less than a week old in that picture just swimming around with the adults and the adults pretty much ignore them.

Krinedawg

They are very nice looking, I may have to look into these. I would suspect the life span to be the about the same as the guppies two years?
Okay I can't stop scrolling back up to look at them, I love the colors.

Oldman47

They are similar in many ways to guppies. They do have a bit shorter gestation period and the males spend more time and effort courting females rather than just chasing them like a Guppy. They should not be mixed with guppies since they can cross breed with them.

Krinedawg

I was gonna as you about that. I was kind of wondering what a fancy Guppy and one these would turn out to look like?
Or if it would be voodoo to even think about breeding them that way!

Oldman47

There are people like Adrian Hernandez that have done wonderful things crossing guppies and endlers to develop every pattern imaginable. Many of the "endlers" that you find in the LFS are, unfortunately, the result of crosses that are not properly labeled. In the US, I would go to Aquabid and look for two vendors. One is Swampriveraquatics, which is Adrian's company and although he has lots of nice hybrids, he also keeps some very nice line bred wild type endlers, the class N fish. Another person with very nice endlers, and my source, is Tampafishman1. I seldom see him advertise endlers any more but he keeps the species maintenance ponds of the original wild endlers and at one time sold some almost daily to the hobby. If you contact him, I am sure he can still sell you some although lately he has been selling more profitable fish on Aquabid.

immune

I hate to be one of those people...but due to pollution in small range of rivers and lakes in Venezuela that these little guys originate from they don't really exist in the wild.

Though many people have found that endlers and guppies do make very interesting fish when breed together (called tiger endlers most commonly) the Endler's themselves are more than a treat to the eye and appreciating them for what they are, helps to ensure that this neat little packages of molecules will be around for years to come.

In other words: Please think twice before creating hybrids and for the love of god don't sell them to an unsuspecting LFS as actual endlers.

sorry for the rant.