Endlers

[CinGA]

I may have made a mistake lol. I loved the look of endlers and loved the idea of breeding some fish at home because I’ve never successfully bred any fish and I’d heard Endler live bearers were easy. I have 8 juveniles in quarantine right now that I got from a breeder. And I’m suspecting that I have two females already pregnant - at least they have big bulging bellies already. 

so I’m trying to make an emergency plan to separate the sexes and try to keep this under control. And I could use some advice here. 

My initial thought is to move any fish I can already identify as male out and into the tank I’d planned for them. I will keep the rest of the juveniles in the quarantine tank.  As soon as they can identify as male, I’ll pull them out. The females I want to move to another tank but I have to be sure they aren’t pregnant first. 
 

is this even workable or am I just screwed? Any other advice please?

[JStrutt]

One unique aspect of live bearers is that the females can reproduce multiple times from one "breeding encounter". That doesn't mean you are screwed, it just means that you will have to remain vigilant for a while (at least a few months) and keep separating males and females as soon as you can tell the difference, if you don't want the breeding cycle to continue.  

[lefty o]

it depends on just what you mean by juvenile. if they are old enough to breed, there's a decent chance they have.

[CinGA]

I figured out that the females were constipated not pregnant. lol. Thank goodness. I have moved my males to one tank and most of my females to another. The only ones still in quarantine are the babies too small to determine if they are male or female yet and the female I intend to breed with the best of the males. I will keep 1-2 breeding females and their fry in the quarantine tank until the fry are old enough to sex and move them out. That way I can control the breeding and keep it under limits. Not really what I had originally planned but I hope it will keep me from having hundreds of fish in a short time. And I can still enjoy the beauty of them and enjoy letting them have fry and letting the kids see that, just not get overwhelmed with fish. 

[DallasCowboys16]

On 12/11/2023 at 5:52 AM, CinGA said:

I figured out that the females were constipated not pregnant. lol. Thank goodness. I have moved my males to one tank and most of my females to another. The only ones still in quarantine are the babies too small to determine if they are male or female yet and the female I intend to breed with the best of the males. I will keep 1-2 breeding females and their fry in the quarantine tank until the fry are old enough to sex and move them out. That way I can control the breeding and keep it under limits. Not really what I had originally planned but I hope it will keep me from having hundreds of fish in a short time. And I can still enjoy the beauty of them and enjoy letting them have fry and letting the kids see that, just not get overwhelmed with fish. 

If your only motivation for being so careful about separating males and females is to try and limit the number of fry born, and not an effort at line breeding, I would not worry about it.

While livebearers are generally quite prolific, you’re not going to necessarily get overwhelmed by fish.

A tank will only support so many fish, and this carrying capacity is often determined by how much food goes in. More food = more endlers. If you want less fry, just cut back on feeding. It generally is that simple.

[CinGA]

I’ve never had endlers before so I can’t speak to whether they “self-regulate” their population. Everything I had read about them indicated not so much, but I have no experience with that. I would be interested in a little line breeding to see if I can strengthen the colors and patterns I have in my existing males but it’s a secondary concern. 
 

My only questions now are whether I should upgrade to a slightly larger aquarium for the breeding mamas and the fry until they are old enough to sex and separate, and to know when the females are old enough to breed safely - I don’t want to do it while they are too young and risk them dying. 

[smm333]

My endlers quickly overwhelmed me! They definately breed nonstop and they don't predate on their fry. I have them all separated now and I gave away two tubs of them! Definately a great fish if you want a successful breeding project, but not for the faint of heart, lol!

[CinGA]

Yup. I heard more stories like that so I separated the males and females and have a small tank for breeding purposes with two unbred females in there. Since I learned they can store milt, they will forever stay in that tank. I just brought one of my two males over to visit for a day and we’ll see how that goes. He definitely was doing his little courting dance so I’m hopeful we’ll have fry in mid January or so. Once I can identify male fry, they will get moved to the male tank. Hopefully that way I can keep the numbers down while still having a little fun experimenting with line breeding.