Endlers Livebearers

Ems

Ems

Betta lover!
Jan 4, 2005
1,140
6
38
39
British Columbia
Good evening/morning everyone!
After seeing some pics of these, I am very interested in keeping them. I've done a bit of research today on them, and found out if they are bred with guppies, the fry are not fertile, is this true? How can you tell you are getting a true endler as opposed to a guppy/endler mix? I currently breed guppies, but am very interested in breeding these gorgeous fish aswell. Any advice, anyone?
 
their babies are fertile. you shouldnt do that though because pure endlers are already hard to find. some endler/guppy mixes are hard to tell and a lot of times you cant. sometimes you will see the guppy coloring and the tails will be more fan shaped and longer rather than the regular looking endlers.
 
Thank you for the reply. I wasn't planning on breeding them with guppies, I'd like to keep them pure also. I think I saw some pure ones at my LFS, but I will have to look again. Anyone else?
 
The majority of guppies I see in stores look like they have endler genes in them. In fact, I'm watching two in my gf's tank right now that definitely have some endler in them. I'm not a fan of guppies, but would like to keep a pure strain or two of endlers at some point.

If you plan to keep pure endlers for breeding, I'd suggest buying stock that you know the genetic history of. Where they came from (in the wild), how many generations removed from wild stock, etc.
 
Aqualung said:
If you plan to keep pure endlers for breeding, I'd suggest buying stock that you know the genetic history of. Where they came from (in the wild), how many generations removed from wild stock, etc.
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I agree that you should buy pure stock. Apparently, the most reliable sources for pure stock these days are fish/aquariam clubs or reputable dealers. Many people have spoken highly of Aquabid.com and I regularly see Endler's for sale there. As to knowing where they came from in the wild, well, there were only two sources that could ever made it into the aquarium trade anyway, right? As for how many generations removed from the wild... are you nuts? These are livebearers that breed like... well, more than rabbits! In Endler's Livebearer you are talking about a fish that can and will breed in 30 days after being born. You could literally have 12 generations a year. The most dangerous threat to Endler's at this point, assuming that reports that it is extinct in the wild are actually true, is inbreeding.

I commend you on your taste, Ems! I love the look of these little fish and I am a livebearer fan. I have thought about getting a 20 gallon long, planting it heavily and having a trio or two of Endler's and a school of neon or cardinal tetras. I have never seen pure Endler's locally, so I was planning on getting mine through Aquabid. If you live in a larger metropolitan area, or if you just have a decent and trustworthy LFS (seems a rarity these days), then you could likely find or special order them. Good luck in your search, and keep us posted!
 
I'm actually just looking on aquabid! Thanks! I'll definitely keep you posted because I've been researching and finding beautiful pictures, and am eager to start asap.

Thanks again!
-Emily aka Ems
 
lousybreed said:
if endlers are so prolific and hardy, how would they go extinct??
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Because they only developed in one or two locations. If you do a search for Endler's Livebearer and find a letter from John Endler, you can gain some great insights into these little guys lives. If you want the Reader's Digest version, it is thus: Endler's Livebearers had a small habitat in Venezuela. Venezuela is a growing nation. The one or two (or few) places Endler's Livebearer's existed were industrialized. No more habitat, no more Endlers.
 
Males are generally not that hard to come by. It's the females that are guarded very closely by their owners. And I think that they should be guarded so closely with some people letting the endler breed interbreed with the guppies. Endlers are very interesting, but I will say that some can be very aggressive in my experience. I had two of them that eventually killed the 6 other tank mates. When placed in my community tank, they proceeded to attack fish that were over 5X their size. I had to return them to the store with a warning about these specific fish's agrressive nature.
 
yea males are around the femails arent. i emailed a local guy that was selling them on aquabid and he invited me over to get some for free i was given about 20 and then i ended up with enough to fill my 60 gallon! then i put some other fish in there to ake care of the babies and my colony died off.
 
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