Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 I have 2f/1m endler since May and finally decided to move them into my quarantine/breeding 15 gallon last night since one of the females was a bit plump... within a few hours she had popped out a couple fry and I now have 16 healthy fry schooling together in the tank. Too bad I hadn't done this earlier when I still had a good breeding stock of 3 males and 4 females. 2 of the males disappeared one day (no bodies evident) and 2 of the females just died for whatever reason. They have been pregnant before but I never moved them to another tank. My question here is that I noticed that near the end of her labor she popped out 4 still born /unfertilized fetuses. Is this normal for the endler or other livebearing fish or did my moving her while carrying cause her to prematurely drop before she was ready and the fry were fully developed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 I'm not an "endler" person but mollies do drop fry prematurely when stressed. Don't worry, you'll have more endlers before you know it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted August 12, 2009 Report Share Posted August 12, 2009 It's been a LONG time since I've kept livebearers, but it the stillborns could be stress-related. If the other fry are fine, then it could just be that those ones didn't develop for whatever reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 13, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2009 Cool.. thanks for replying. The fry that made it do seem to be in great health and are very strong swimmers and seem to like to school together at the surface... I have a few betta fry in there with them and its interesting to watch the bettas attempt to follow the endler fry which are half their size around the tank. Playing with the neighborhood kids I guess. As for the mother she is looking very very thin after giving birth but seems to be gaining some weight back as she slowly starts to eat more. I am actually not sure if I really stressed her out much when I moved her. As per my usual procedure, I put the net in and let her swim up above it and slowly put the net up and around her... she didnt even act crazy or anything when she was in the air for the 2 secs or when I put her in the other tank. She simply looked around then swam out of the net and started nibbling on a java fern I have in the breeding tank. I am planning on leaving the endlers in the breeder tank so I guess I will have to see if she has any still borns the next time or not. I wonder if its an indication of how healthy the livebearer might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EowynJane Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 Any moving of the fish will cause stress though... it's pretty much impossible to say what caused the deaths but the two things already mentioned are the most likely. As mentioned you will soon have lots of Endler. I started with 7 in my 20g, I'm not going to try counting to tell you how many I have now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted August 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 yeah. The plan was to try breeding them once and see what happens... I really like the colors of the males so I might just let them run rampant for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfong Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 It won't take long. I used to have a lot, and gave some to EowynJane and others. Then I moved them in with my angelfish and soon only had 5 (3M 2F) and now that they have their own tank I have too many to count again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Dawg Posted October 16, 2009 Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) Don't worry, you'll have more endlers before you know it!! If the Endlers are breeding order the bigger tank now.... I have not seen still born, but we do have occatioaly have a few fry that just go away now and then. If the fish are stresed tehy can keep them in and not drop. Some of our Endler girls get huge! Then nomal looks so tiny afterwards. Once you have more females it is easy to see what is the "normal" width. Edited October 16, 2009 by T Dawg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted October 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2009 Well since the time of this writing the female endler that gave birth to the 18 fry has passed. After the birth she looked really skinny but was eating and I figured she would eventually fatten up again. About a month afterward she was still pretty skinny but not really sickly looking or anything and one day I found her belly up. I am thinking she might have been an older gal. At least she left me with a good brood of 11 males and 7 females. I have since separated the sexes into 2 different tanks to make sure I am controlling the population and the males are all colored up and probably old enough to breed. My second female just dropped a few weeks ago and 3 fry that are not yet sexable have survived that. I think she may have eaten a few of them as I saw her making chasing them, stop and makin chompin motions otherwise I wouldnt have noticed she was giving birth. The plan to control the population longer term is to drop one lucky boy into the harem for a few weeks at a time and see what comes along in a months time. :P Its quite entertaining to watch him dance for the ladies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outacontrol Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 where do you get your endlers from? is there different color strains available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cgy_Betta_Guy Posted October 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 I got mine from Big Als about 7 months ago. Saw them and just had to have them cuz of their color and activity. That second female dropped again but I only see one fry swimming around from it. Maybe some more will turn up from hiding. I might have to check the canister filter since people have been mentioning finding surprises in theirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Dawg Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Well since the time of this writing the female endler that gave birth to the 18 fry has passed. After the birth she looked really skinny but was eating and I figured she would eventually fatten up again. About a month afterward she was still pretty skinny but not really sickly looking or anything and one day I found her belly up. I am thinking she might have been an older gal. At least she left me with a good brood of 11 males and 7 females. I have since separated the sexes into 2 different tanks to make sure I am controlling the population and the males are all colored up and probably old enough to breed. My second female just dropped a few weeks ago and 3 fry that are not yet sexable have survived that. I think she may have eaten a few of them as I saw her making chasing them, stop and makin chompin motions otherwise I wouldnt have noticed she was giving birth. The plan to control the population longer term is to drop one lucky boy into the harem for a few weeks at a time and see what comes along in a months time. :P Its quite entertaining to watch him dance for the ladies. Even adding the male once could get you thee batches, from each of the romanced. Them females is tricky folk, they can store enough,er, genetic stuff, for a few batches! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmyg Posted October 29, 2009 Report Share Posted October 29, 2009 Ive been breeding Endler's for about a year now. both in a community tank and in a seperate breeding tank. skinny females - females get skinny because they are stressed from being prego continuously and being chased around all the time by males. a good way of preventing this is to seperate big prego females into their own tank. or provide places for them to avoid males / distractions for males. for example I noticed that when one of my female big female endler's was being chased she entered the school of Rummynose and the male chased around a rummy while she moved to a good holding spot. young endler's being eaten by their mother - I have never seen this. Chasing/ eacting could be because of severe stress / hunger. I have seen chasing but it was because she was trying to protect here young by herding them away from danger. Endler's are usually good mothers/fathers unlike most guppies which eat their young. My community tank which has rummynose tetras, usually doesn't produce many adult Endler's as the young become snacks for the other fish. Dedicated tank is important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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