# Endler's Livebearer



## fishfinder

Has anyone had any experience with Endler's? I just bought a pair for my itsy five gallon community tank. I got them wingless fruit flies only to find out the flies are too big for them. The male is full grown at 3/4 inch and couldn't eat them, neither could my killis. I don't see them taking the flake food, but they are picking at the plants and bogwood.

PH 7 - 7.2
Temp 80 - 82 deg F
hardness 120/80 gh/kh
zero ppm amonia, nitrates and nitrites

Tankmates:
2 Psuedomugil Furcatus
2 Psuedomugil Gertrudae
2 Clown Killis
2 or 3 Cherry Shrimp juveniles
1 baby lemondrop bristlenose
(total fish/shrimp length is 5.75 inches)


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## roc-aquarium

I had Endler's a few years back. I lost them all with an unexpected winter power outage. If yours are true Endler's Livbearers (not hybrids) I would be willing to purchase some of your offspring when they come along.

Mine would eat baby brine shrimp well, both frozen and live. They also took flake food and would eat algae off of live plants. You can also try ground beef heart and freeze dried krill.

The Endler's will typically live for only about a year. The females can drop fry every 23-24 days (as opposed to the guppies 28). Warmer water (80-83 degrees) will help the fry grow faster but will lead to a shorter life expectancy. Supposedly, Endler's won't eat their own young, but mine would. I added lots of fake plants to give the babies a chance. You can try that or put the pregnant females in another tank if needed.

They will crossbreed with guppies. Some people say it dilutes the gene line, others say it makes a hardier fish. The choice is yours, but if you do end up crossbreeding please refrain from introducing the offspring into the hobby. It is hard enough to get a true endler's Livebearer as it is. Most of the ones sold in pet stores are guppy hybrids.

These are really great fish. Hardy and prolific like a guppy but with much better coloring. Please post some pictures when you get a chance.


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## fishfinder

Thank you for your reply. I'm certain these two are true Endler's, bought at a reliable LFS who likes to get in other than the usual offerings. Besides, they look just like the internet pics. I'm thinking there will probably be no surviving babies/eggs in my mini community tank. If I do get babies to grow in there, I'll build up my stock a little and then share. I only have the one pair. The female is a little smaller than the male still, she's maybe too young to breed yet. I'm afraid I'm all out of tanks to move them to, they are all full ... lol.

I did try to get pics of my male and female, but am having camera problems at the moment. It doesn't do so well with such tiny active fish. I'll keep trying though. He is such a pretty male, lots of red, some turqouise, black and green. But the camera comes up with an error message that my battery is empty. I've tried new batteries and cleaning the contacts. No luck. 

Thank you for the advise on foods. I see that they have full tummies tonight. A good sign!

So sorry about your power outage. It happens here every other winter or so. I wrapped my tanks in bubble wrap and towels and had candles lit next to them. It seemed to work, no dead fish or shrimp after three days the temps dipped to 38 deg. in the house. I shared the battery powered air pump between the tanks. Of course, hysterical calls to the power company and cable company helped bring results ... lol. The cable company loaned the power company a generator until the lines got fixed 5 days later.


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## johnsteve

hi


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## susankat

Endlers livebearers doesn't need much meat in their diet as they are basically omnivores. I have over 300 pure wild stock endlers that can be traced back to the collection point.

In most cases when bought in lfs they will be endler/guppy hybrids unless the source can be proven to come from a reputable breeder.

When breeding endlers I have found that when tank temp is around 73 to 75 degrees you will get more males and they will live a little longer life span. Temps 76 to 80 you will get more females. 80+ will make them grow faster but also shorten their lifespan.

In a community tank, that has lots of plants and mosses you will still have a better survival rate. Most of the time when they are eaten at birth its usually the females that does it. 

Feed a good quality flake food supplimented with treats of brine shrimp once a week your endlers will grow to be happy parents. The fry will eat regular flake food as long as its crushed to a powder.


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## fishfinder

Thank you for that information SusanKat. So far, the Endler's have not produced any babies. The male woo's her constantly, and although she is many times his size is not interested. My clown killies and Gertrude's Blue Eyes spawn regularly. The eggs are eaten within minutes. Perhaps the temp is too high for the Endler's, but the female is not cooperating ... lol. The strain I have is the Black Bar variety. Would that be a guppy cross?


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## susankat

Even though they don't look like the female is interested she will still end up pregnant. Once they start you will be having babies every month.

Black bars is one of the strains for true endlers, But I would need to see a pic to be sure. One way to tell is by the pendicule of an endler will be much more narrow than that of a guppy. And there is differences in the fins.


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## susankat

Here is a pic of some of my endlers.










And another









These are in a 75 gal. I started out with 4 young females after our ice storm with 9 days power outage. Got 10 more from the ERU site in March. Look at them now. Yours will soon out grow your small tank if the other fish don't eat the fry first.


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## fishfinder

My pair looks like your Endlers, but the males coloration contains red not orange. I see no guppy in my fish. Sorry my camera can't catch a clear picture of the little couple. The little male at the top middle of your second picture looks like my guy, but with red. The female just below him looks like my female. I'll let you know if they have fry.


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## roc-aquarium

Susan,

Those are some Gorgeous Endlers. Very nice.


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## susankat

Thank you, I am finally getting them back up to where they used to be after our big ice storm and lost power for 9 days. That was a real downer, lost over 5000.00 in fish.


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## fishfinder

Ouch!! Hoping for a better winter this year for you.


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## susankat

Will be now have a generator to run for the tanks


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## MediaHound

wow Susan that's a tough cookie to swallow! Glad to hear you have an insurance policy against that now in the form of your generator.


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## susankat

When I finally got back up after the freeze, I had lost 500 endlers, 245 bristlenose juvies, all my killies and cories. Most of my plants. On aquabid I had 15 orders for endlers and had to turn them all down and refund a bunch of money. I had made arraignments for most of the bns to go to a local lfs. I had also lost all my bn breeders. It was fun getting back up to what I have now.


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## Fishboydanny1

I see the differences between male endlers and male guppies, but what about females of each species? how do you tell them apart?


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## susankat

Usually the female guppy is more of a silvery color, and shows some colors in the tail. Where an endler female is more of a bronze color with no color in the tail.


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## Ulli Bauer

I gave away all my (true) Endlers as they were outcompeting any other fish in the tank and even the bettas didn't want to eat the fry any more - all except for one female which was too quick for me, and I didn't really want to rip my nice tank apart just to get that darned fish out...

So I left her. Since August she's been pregnant, dropping four to six fry every four weeks. So they definitely CAN store sperm... I now have a nice swarm of Endlers again . However, they're almost all females, with one still undecided...
However, this was also the case when the males and the other females were still there.

Cheers
Ulli


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