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Why aren't my female endlers breeding?

Breeding
By YuppieGuppie
from the yuppieguppie department, Section Ask Guppylog
Posted on Sat Sep 02, 2006 at 09:43:35 PM PST
I have had my 3 female endlers for about a month now. They are paired with 3 male endlers that I've had for about 2 months now. I hear that guppies are constantly breeding. My female guppies don't even look pregnant. How long do females usually take to get pregnant? I hope nothing is wrong with my female fish/male fish.



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Why aren't my female endlers breeding? | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
Are you talking about Endler's livebearers, (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott on Sat Sep 02, 2006 at 10:51:39 PM PST

a.k.a. Poecilia wingei or guppies? You use the terms interchangeably for females and you really shouldn't. :)

I would suggest that there is a difference, even between Endler's and wild guppies, though the differences may be more behavioral than environmental. Sometimes P. wingei live in warmer and more saline water.

It may just be that the females haven't dropped because they were slowed down by the trauma and stress of being moved from one aquarium to another elsewhere in the world. The 30-day rule for guppies and Endler's is just a guide. And the fish have never read it!

My Endler's went a long time in dropping (and I can identify with your frustration. After a couple of months w/o Endler's fry, the temperature of my fishroom rose above 72 F and they dropped like there was no tomorrow.

I came to understand why Corydorus columnist and popular speaker Jinny Eckstein could speak of them as "Endless Livebearers."

I don't know precisely what the temperature is, but try to keep them above 76 F/ 24.5C. This looks like a job for Manders to determine the precise temperature. ;)

Also, despite the fact that Endler's livebearers are renowned for tolerating fry, if they are starving and if the fry have no shelter, not many may survive. Please look in Immediate Help in sections 3-6 for more ideas in helping them to survive.

For a little background on Endler's/ P. wingei please see
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2006/8/14/171114/315
http://www.guppylog.com/story/2006/4/28/112649/278

"Like everyone else, owing to the inflexible architecture of this site, you misunderstood the instructions (like 99% of us) and submitted this as a log. However a log is a multi-page dissertation of something in the hobby or a very complex question. I voted for your entry - this is your "Mulligan" - because I hope this is retained on the front pages of GL long enough for you to get started. :)

Your post is more of a short diary - which will usually get responded to more quickly anyway in that section. In the case of an emergency, that is definitely the route to go. So too for short takes of a few lines. Cruise several diaries and you will see what I mean."

All the best!
uncle scott



Re: Are you talking about Endler's livebearers, (none / 0) (#3)
by YuppieGuppie on Mon Sep 04, 2006 at 11:34:18 PM PST

Thank you for your comments. All of my fish are endler livebearers. I keep my temperature at 78 degrees. I have alot of java moss and java fern in the tank. I do apologize for I am not sure how guppylog works because guppylog is all new to me. This is my first entry on the internet, so I am not familiar with this site. In the past, I read the logs as a guide on what I should or shouldn't do in terms of taking care of my endler's. Thanks for the help!
"Fish are FRIENDS...not FOOD"...either way...I LOVE fish!!
[ Parent ]


Don't worry about the trouble with learning the (none / 0) (#4)
by unclescott on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 02:49:16 PM PST

system here on GL, we all go through that process. And welcome to the net - as bewildering and even predatory as it can be. (Not here of course.)

Thank your for responding. Your tank sounds like a great place for Endler's livebearers to hang out. It may be that your females just need a little more time to drop. You might find them a meaty food to supplement what you are feeding them with.  I would suggest one of the live foods available (maybe a few blackworms at a time, squirted into a soap-less, clean jar which is just 2-4 inches high. (The worms can't crawl away into the gravel and the fish can get at them.)

A frozen food, which can be defrosted, gently rinsed and fed to them could be bloodworms. Feed only as much as they can eat. If you handle the bloodworms, don't rub your eyes with your hands - some people have had nasty allergic response to that. Despite the cautions mentioned about the bloodworms (see also Immediate Help), a lot of Guppyloggers have borne witness to their usefulness as a food for guppies and P. wingei.

The reasons I'm suggesting the meaty food is 1. that it increases the protein in the diet and may help the female produce more fry at a time. Also, even though Endler's are very fry tolerant, a protein hungry adult will still resort to cannibalism. If the adults are sated, they will leave the fry alone.

For really cannibalistic fish, and there are livebearers like this, the trick is to fill the parents up to the point where they almost "waddle." After miserable failures with the red tailed Goodeid (Xenotoca eiseni) and Brachyramphis rhabdophora and near failures with the western Gambusia and Caracodon lateralis, I fed the adults until I wondered if they would explode. ;) Relatively good-sized batches of fry (for the respective species) were saved, even where there had be NO fry before, when the females had obviously dropped. (And the Endler's should be far, far "easier" to deal with than those species.)

It has been the experience of a number of aquarists that once one or more fry has/have been around in a single-species colony of livebearers (also in the case of many killies and some others) that very often the adults will come to accept those fry as just a part of their colony and environment. (There may be an issue with crowded sibling cannibalism later though.) I have seen this with a number of hard to save fry, including a couple of species where articles had declared (chuckle) that keeping fry with those adults was impossible. :)

Do you know what strain yours are? For instance, I have that old strain, where because of the founder's effect of having too few males, the double sword males now are as alike as the proverbial "peas in a pod." They are therefore very likely descendants of the original Endler's collected by Dr. Endler himself. Fortunately, they are very attractive "peas" and I treasure them. Scott Lockwood has informed me that they are "Peacock Endler's" which is a nice name and probably sells well. ;)

There are also several newer strains and some color morphs of Endler's around. Look back at Armando's fish pictured in the articles above or look (don't necessarily buy from there) on www.aquabid.com

All the best!
unc

[ Parent ]



Re: Are you talking about Endler's livebearers, (none / 0) (#2)
by Scott Lockwood on Sun Sep 03, 2006 at 06:34:58 AM PST

Ditto. Voted to section for that reason only.

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Why aren't my female endlers breeding? | 4 comments (4 topical, 0 hidden)
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