Endler Juveniles

[Bebobb]

Hey, I went to the aquarium club meeting last night, and I picked up about 20-30 Endler jeveniles. I have feed them crushed flake food twice since I brought them home last night. I have them in a breeding trap in my 40 gallon. Is there anything special that I need to do to care for them? I have some earthworm flakes, and regular fish food. Which should I be feeding them? Basically, could you give me a juvinile care guide?

 

[OldMan47]

Juveniles that are over 3/4 inch long should be let out into the general population unless you have especially predatory or large fish. They will do fine with the typical mollies, swordtails, cories, platies, etc. They are easy to care for if you have clean water. I feed mine by just feeding my endler tank. Mine get both spirulina flake and regular mixed flake. They are like most of the common livebearers and do better with a diet high in vegetable matter which is why I add in the spirulina flake. The tank temperatures where they do best is around 78F, 25C, although they can do fine at any temperature from about 70F to 82F.

 

[Bebobb]

I have only one that is MAYBE 3/4" long. I have one that is bearly 1/4" long. I am too afraid to let them into the tank. There are no other fish in there besides them, but what I am afraid of is them being sucked into the filter. I have been feeding them regular crushed flake food mixed with crushed, freeze-dried, brine shrimp and and blood worms.

 

[OldMan47]

What kind of filter do you have where it would present a hazard?

 

[Bebobb]

I have one HOB filter, and one internal filter. I'm just afraid that they will be sucked into the filter intake. I don't want to release them in the tank untill they are a decent size.

 

[OldMan47]

It is entirely possible to have such high flow in a tank that endler fry are sucked up but I have not seen it happen much with healthy fry. Endlers are generally good swimmers but at 1/4 inch long I would not call them juveniles, I would call those newborns. Mine are at least that size within a week of being dropped and I rarely notice them in the mixed age tank that I have. For protection of very small fry with a HOB filter I generally use a simple filter sponge with a slit cut in the top. I just slide the inlet into the slit and have perfect protection for the fry. This is one of the sponges that I have used.

and this is the same one in place on an inlet tube a month or so later. It is very effective at keeping fry out of the filter. I use it in my Heterandria formosa tank. Compared to Heterandria, the endlers are giants.

Internals are harder to deal with because they don't have a nice narrow inlet tube that can be easily blocked. I have seen reports of people using things like stockings slipped over the inlet but I would expect something like that to plug up pretty quickly.

 

[Bebobb]

Thank's for the reply. I don't have any filter sponges, and I have tried to use regular sponges, but they just stop the flow completly on the filter. I take back what I said about the 3/4" fry. I would say that the largest would be a good 1/2". The ones that are about a 1/2" have some tail markings. But only about two of them are that size. But, yeah, they are quite small. And that is what I am worried about. I just checked some of my flakes, and it said that it had some spirulina in it. Which I understand to be blue algae.

 

[OldMan47]

Spirulina is a very nutritious algae that is often sold in health food stores for people to use. I have no idea what color it is but know that spirulina flake ends up being a dark green color.
I bought my sponges as replacement filters for a filter that has sponges inside it. What I did was walk into my LFS and look at the replacement filter sponges they had on hand while keeping in mind how long and wide the tube was that I wanted to cover. I have another sponge on another filter that is a half of a sponge I bought and when I got it home I realized it was just too big for the job, so I cut it in half before cutting the slit to slide it over my intake.

 

[Bebobb]

I think I have the care of them under control. When they get bigger, I will make another breeding trap. ANd, if I need to, then I will make 3 breeding traps, but I think that I will only have to make two of them. I just love to stand above the tank and watch the little guys eat!

 

[OldMan47]

Having watched mine for hours on end, I am sure they are better swimmers as well as being tougher than you are giving them credit for.

 

[Bebobb]

You know, I wouldn't doubt that they are better swimmers than I think they are, too. It's just that I don't want to risk anything. I can't wait for the to grow up!

 

[Bebobb]

What is the average Endler lifespan? I have read one year, and I have read three to five years... So how long do they actually live?

 

[OldMan47]

Mine seem to go about 18 months plus or minus a bit. Most of my colony was born less than a year ago since I only started with endlers a bit over 2 years ago.

 

[Bebobb]

Okay. Cool. Somehow, one of the larger Endlers escaped the breeding trap and is now loose in the 40 gallon. I have seen him numberous times, but I can't seem to catch him with a net. I am kind of concerned about him eating, but I'm not going to worry too much about it.

 

[OldMan47]

Each one that gets out on his own is one less that you will need to worry about releasing. Inside about 4 weeks, they will be getting big enough to breed although it may take a short time after that before they have any success at it.