Aggressive Endler's Livebearer?

A

Alreadyinuse

AC Members
Mar 9, 2006
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Hi All,

I just picked up 3 Endler's Livebearers from the LFS and one of them is being very aggressive towards the other two, chasing and nipping at them whenever they get in his sight. Is this normal? They seemed pretty peaceful at the store, and I didnt notice any aggressive behavior in the bag before introducing them to the tank.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
what I would do is

if u can remove bully from the tank, bring him back refund or exchange him
If they don't consider your complaint they are risking losing u as a customer . I don't know these fish to well. I have a 90 gallon tank with 2 Tger Oscars 2 red devils and 1 pleco they get along well. watch it that bully can cause stress on those other 2 fellas to fatal levels. another 1 would be a question What is the tank size I always go with 2 gallons of water = 4 inches of fish so crowding would be a problem.

Mike
 
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Alreadyinuse , what is the sex of endlers? Usually males tend to chase or attack males and females do the same with other females. I just lost a molly due to similar, same gender attacks. Separate them or introduce more females in case of excess males.
 
All 3 of them are males. I know that getting a few females would help, but the problem is female Endlers are extremely hard to find.

Actually, the aggression has subsided quite a bit, they'll still chase eachother around the odd time, but now most of the time they're pretty peaceful...I guess they just needed to assert who is the boss and who are the followers.

Now theres one that will sometimes swim frantically up and down along the front or sides of the tank, then it will stop for a bit, then it will do it again. The other 2 are fine though.
 
From Arizona Gardens website


"Extremely hard to find, yet simple to keep is this live bearing guppy native to North Eastern Venezuela. They can tolerate diverse water conditions. We only sell the MALE of this variety (pictured), which show a beautiful array of bright oranges, reds, blues, and greens. Females look like drab colorless guppies and are quite hard to find in the industry. Endler's are omnivores that will nibble on algae. It is common to use regular or fancy female guppies as mates."
 
The problem with using female guppies instead of female endlers is that you end up with a bunch of hybrids. This is not a problem unless you turn around and sell them or give them away. Then you'll end up muddling the endlers bloodline. At any rate, you can buy females on e-bay.
 
I'm guessing it was just the boys straightening out the pecking order...seeing as how they were put in a new environment. Thats probably why they seem to have calmed down after a bit.

They should be fine once they settle in I would think.
 
i had the same problem when i added the new male balloon molly in my tank. The old male balloon molly didnt like him one bit and would chase him everywhere. after a couple days it calmed down. He only chases him about 5 minutes after feeding time then quits
 
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