Endler females give birth a few fry at a time?

[samuraikitty7]

About a month ago, I got a few female cobra endlers from another state...two fully mature, two less than. The two mature ones gave birth to a handful of fry. I don't have any mature males in this tank. Now I see a few more little fry. I know they can hold onto sperm for several months, but can they hold babies to have a few at a time? Only other explanation is one of the ones that didn't look fully mature were. I'm trying to get rid of the fry and keep the females that were shipped, due to them almost dying in transit. I'd like to let them retire/never have to bear young like I was going to do (I have a few males in a separate tank).

 

[emeraldking]

About a month ago, I got a few female cobra endlers from another state...two fully mature, two less than. The two mature ones gave birth to a handful of fry. I don't have any mature males in this tank. Now I see a few more little fry. I know they can hold onto sperm for several months, but can they hold babies to have a few at a time? Only other explanation is one of the ones that didn't look fully mature were. I'm trying to get rid of the fry and keep the females that were shipped, due to them almost dying in transit. I'd like to let them retire/never have to bear young like I was going to do (I have a few males in a separate tank).

Endlers and hybrid endlers like yours are not superfetative. But the explanation of giving birth in a couple of days time, has got to do with the amount of nutrients in the individual eggs. Usually, before fertilization, the developed eggs will be provided with an amount of nutrients. This is called pre-fertilization. Normally, this amount of nutrients will be the same in each individual egg. But sometimes, there's more or less nutrients in there. If there's more in an egg, the embryo will grow faster and will be born faster than the other embryos. When it's got less nutrients, the embryo will develop slower and will be born later than the rest. But if a female is stressed she can still drop an egg with less nutrients earlier. In that case, the newborn fry is smaller or even underdeveloped depending on the matureness of the embryo.
This phenomenon is quite normal. And this goes for most ovoviviparous livebearers.

 

[samuraikitty7]

Endlers and hybrid endlers like yours are not superfetative. But the explanation of giving birth in a couple of days time, has got to do with the amount of nutrients in the individual eggs. Usually, before fertilization, the developed eggs will be provided with an amount of nutrients. This is called pre-fertilization. Normally, this amount of nutrients will be the same in each individual egg. But sometimes, there's more or less nutrients in there. If there's more in an egg, the embryo will grow faster and will be born faster than the other embryos. When it's got less nutrients, the embryo will develop slower and will be born later than the rest. But if a female is stressed she can still drop an egg with less nutrients earlier. In that case, the newborn fry is smaller or even underdeveloped depending on the matureness of the embryo.
This phenomenon is quite normal. And this goes for most ovoviviparous livebearers.

I'm sorry if I'm a little slow, but I think you said that they can't keep sperm like regular guppies, and they can give birth a few days from the first batch. What about two weeks? I know I counted about eight fry from the second female to give birth, now there is more and small like newborns.

 

[emeraldking]

I'm sorry if I'm a little slow, but I think you said that they can't keep sperm like regular guppies, and they can give birth a few days from the first batch. What about two weeks? I know I counted about eight fry from the second female to give birth, now there is more and small like newborns.

You didn't get me right. Endlers and endler hybrids do store sperm as well. But that's something totally different than superfetation. But yes, even two weeks as an interval before dropping new fry. But that's got only to do with what I've wrote you about the amount of nutrients in each egg.

 

[samuraikitty7]

You didn't get me right. Endlers and endler hybrids do store sperm as well. But that's something totally different than superfetation. But yes, even two weeks as an interval before dropping new fry. But that's got only to do with what I've wrote you about the amount of nutrients in each egg.

Okay, sorry! I don't know what superfetation is. Good to know! Thanks

 

[emeraldking]

Okay, sorry! I don't know what superfetation is. Good to know! Thanks

Superfetation is a state of multiple pregnancy stages at the same time. So, a small number of embryos (or even just one embryo) start to develop and after one or more days a second small batch of embryos start developing and so on. But endlers and hybrid endlers are not superfetative. Livebearers from the genus Poeciliopsis, Xenophallus, Micropoecilia (part normal and part superfetative), Girardinus, Neoheterandria, Heterandria, etc. are superfetative livebearers. So, these are just some of the superfetative livebearer species there are. There are way more.
So, superfetative livebearers won't have that many fry at once. Even the total of fry is not always large in number. And in general, it takes 10-14 days before a superfetative female has dropped all fry.

 

[samuraikitty7]

Superfetation is a state of multiple pregnancy stages at the same time. So, a small number of embryos (or even just one embryo) start to develop and after one or more days a second small batch of embryos start developing and so on. But endlers and hybrid endlers are not superfetative. Livebearers from the genus Poeciliopsis, Xenophallus, Micropoecilia (part normal and part superfetative), Girardinus, Neoheterandria, Heterandria, etc. are superfetative livebearers. So, these are just some of the superfetative livebearer species there are. There are way more.
So, superfetative livebearers won't have that many fry at once. Even the total of fry is not always large in number. And in general, it takes 10-14 days before a superfetative female has dropped all fry.

Wow, okay thank you! I had a couple of moscow females that would give birth to about 8-12 fry at a time, and less than the 28 days that is normal. Very interesting! I was surely wondering if one of the other females was more mature than I thought.