Baffled about my Endler's

[Dawn T]

I've had my current crew for almost a year. I occasionally see a baby, but I've yet to see a single one reach beyond tiny babyhood, even in their heavily planted 29 g tank. I keep seeing comments in videos and articles about how small Endler's are. My boys definitely are small, but my girls are HUGE. In fact, they're bigger than my platy girls of the past. They're also aggressive - with each other, with my males, and with babies (they eat them!). They leave the cories, plecos, and shrimp alone entirely. They're only rough on the boys and each other, as well as eating babies. I keep seeing folks mention how easy they are to breed and how docile/non-aggressive they are. Mine definitely don't fit that picture. Two of them are heavily pregnant again.

I don't heat the tank, so it stays right around 74 degrees F, so I don't think any aggression is due to the temperature being too high (I know that can cause issues in some species). Up until today, they've had only a school of pygmy cories, 2 female bushynose plecos, some amano shrimp, and multiple generations of cherry shrimp as tankmates. So nothing predatory. I feed this tank once a day, except 2 or 3 times a week when I also drop in sinking foods for the bottom feeders.

My Endler boys came from Aqua Huna. My girls from another reputable online source (not a hobbyist or anything like that). That said, is it possible my girls are NOT Endler's? If they're not, how could they possibly still be producing babies after almost a year when the only males they're in with are Endler's? I've seen some guppy girls over the years who were good size, but these are definitely bigger than those. About 2" in length. Other than the possibility they're a different species altogether, I can't imagine what other reason there could be for the aggression (these girls have killed some boys outright - I've seen them do it - the remaining boys are fast enough to evade them to hide in the plants). Any ideas?

Right now, I'm missing my platies and swordtails. LOL

[lefty o]

i dont currently have any endlers, but did keep them for about 12 years. when i first got them, for the first year or two i could not get them to breed, no matter what. after i gave up on them, and lost them all i went back to guppies, but there must have been a surviving baby or two, because after a short while i had endlers everywhere, to the point i couldnt give them away fast enough.

 endler females seem to run bigger than the males, but even if your females are guppy, guppies and endlers cross breed quite easily.

[Dawn T]

Were your Endler females as aggressive as I noted above? My girls are brutes!

I've thought about getting some guppy girls and just let them hybridize with my Endler boys, but these Endler girls are so rough on each other and the males, I hate to think how they'd be with guppy girls.

[lefty o]

i never saw any real aggression from any of them.