Advice On Endler Guppy's Please!

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suzann1999

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Hello,

We recently bought a cold water Baby Bio-orb (I have since read the negative points about them...)

Went today to buy 4 white cloud mountain minnows but they had sold out so the shop told me Endlers Guppys would be fine in my orb. I bought 4 males as they seemed smaller and I was assured they wouldn't mind being without females.

Since buying them I have found out they are meant to be tropical, so I am questionning everything they told me in the shop. Will these fish be OK in the coldwater? From what I've read they are quite hardy, but I wouldn't want them to be stressed and unhappy. They seem fine so far (only 4 hours!) but seem very busy - swimming round and round incessantly in a little gang.

I was wondering what they're 'normal' behaviour is if they are content. Will they be OK with just 4 fish in there or will they feel lonely - and is 4 males acceptable? Do they always swim or should they have resting grazing times as well? Is there anything else we could to to ensure they are OK? Do they prefer lots of vegtation or some open water?

I don't want to get a heater for the tank as I understand coldwater fish are much easier to keep - I just wish I'd been better advised at the fish shop!

Thanks for any advice.

Suzanne
 
as far as am aware you do need a heater for the endlers never heard of any one who has kept them in cold water
 
I don't want to get a heater for the tank as I understand coldwater fish are much easier to keep


You need a heater. Basic tropical fish are no harder to keep than coldwater fish. The only major difference is simply the temperature.

Just get the heater for the biorb and set it to around 26 degrees C. Do 25-50 % wtaer changes every week with dechlorinated water ( which is what you would do for coldwater fish anyway, more in fact, in the case of goldfish ) and feed them finely crushed tropical flake food or tiny pellets.

DO NOT get female endlers. These fish are livebearers and you would soon be overrun with babies. Not what you need in a small Biorb.

I would get a couple more males to bring the total to six, and keep it at that if you're just starting out.



I wouldn't say coldwater fish are any easier to kep at all. Even the common goldfish, if kept in a tank indoors needs around 40 gallons PER FISH in order to have space to grow and swim. They also need strong filtration ( preferably an external cannister filter ) and very regular , fairly large water changes. This is because they are messy fish and produce a lot of waste.

A basic 20 gallon tropical tank can be run with a Fluval 3 internal filter ( for example ) and contain a fairly varied collection of easy to keep smallish species of fish ( instead of only 1 or 2 ) . Water changes would be around 50% per week.

So really no easier at all to keep coldwater fish.
 
I breed endlers in 3 of my tanks. As others have said they can be quite prolific, I have heard that rabbits can breed like endlers but I don't really believe it. With only 4 males, you will have room if you have at least 2 or 3 gallons of water. I keep my endlers at about 25C but they can live quite nicely down to about 21C. Below that they will experience a bit of stress. If you have some kind of guppy / endler hybrid, they might even go a bit lower.
The high activity level is perfectly normal for endlers. My wife describes mine as looking like guppies on speed.
 
Thanks for the replies - from what you've said they do need warmer water than they are in at the moment so I've decided to give them away to someone with a tropical tank (and buy those minnows I was planning on getting).

They still seem fine but I'm worrying about them all the time!

I've posted them for free in the other section, if you're reading this and interested - I live in Sheffield.
 
Well you really only needed to add the heater and set it to 25 C but fair enough. WCMM's are pretty in their own way.
 

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