Endlers Crossed With Guppies

[omen666]

I keep seeing posts that say " Endlers have never been crossed with Guppies" In america I always thought they were a wild form of guppy and always kept them together. But thats been years ago and I can't even remember what the offspring looked like..does anyone have any photos of a cross?

 

[dwarfgourami]

I keep seeing posts that say " Endlers have never been crossed with Guppies"

Where do you see those posts? I thought it was common knowledge that guppies and endlers often interbreed, and that lots of guppies have some endler in them and vice versa.

 

[omen666]

It is common knowledge that they can cross , am not disputing this but I keep seeing people advertise as " pure strains never crossed with guppies" in the buy and sale ads. I have read where alot of people frown on crossing them too. I never knew it wasn't acceptable to do so , we just chucked them in as part of a community guppy tank and never gave it a thought.

 

[nmonks]

I think this issue needs some clearing up. As dwarfgourami says, they hybridise easily.

The main problem is not whether or not it can be done, but what you do with the offspring. If you leave them in your aquarium, or sell them as guppies, that's fine. Breeding some Endler blood back into our overbred fancy guppies will probably do them a world of good.

What isn't fine is selling them as Endlers. Unfortunately, that's done very often now, and many of the so-called Endler guppies sold commerically are in fact guppy-Endler crosses. This is especially true with female Endlers. It's just too tempting for retailers and wholesalers to sell mix-breed females as female Endlers and get two or three times the price per fish. Female Endlers and female guppy-Endler crosses are virtually identical, hence no-one but an expert on these fishes would know the difference.

In fact, some Endler breeders say that it is impossible to get real Endlers via retailers, and the only safe way is through clubs where the pedigrees of the fish are followed closely.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[bettawen]

these pics are of black bar hybrids, there are many variations so lots to look out for ,the bodies tend to be short and stocky , also a lot you may find commercially will have long dorsals and the colouring may look faded or patchy and often you will find pastel colours on the body and dorsal, the swords will extend a long way past the end of the tail, which is not common on "pure" endlers, most of the time the "swords" stay within the tail or only just come past the end of it.

this is a common peacock endler, can you see how the body is longer and more streamlined and how short the dorsal is compared to the hybrids, the colours are well defined and bright.

the bottom one in the pic is pure stock endler, theres a size difference as well, the hybrids tend to be larger.
the females are harder to tell, but generally female endlers once mature are smaller than guppies and tend to have a lighter body colour (bronze/gold), but even that is no guarantee unless you can trace the fish. most males wont get much bigger than an 1" for the pure stock.
hope it helps

 

[dwarfgourami]

Those are brilliant pictures bettawen; that really makes it a lot clearer! I see wht you mean about those dorsals.

 

[omen666]

bettawen


Thanks alot for those, I did an image search on google but it came up with nil!
Would you suggest putting some in my community tank with my guppies or no? I'm not really worried about my guppies because I love the mixture of different colours they give me. But am I doing them harm by letting the endler's mix with them? I read an article in another forum of a girl who was doing cross matings and some of her fry were deformed. I do not want to bring something into the world with problems ...your thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[bettawen]

lol thanks for the vote of confidence, on a personal basis i wouldnt mix, if the endlers you get are a hybrid mix, you wont know what you are introducing. im not a purist and i do have various hybrids but a lot of work has gone into them. but i do believe in keeping pure as pure. in the long run i think it would do more harm than good but again thats my personal opinion. get some more guppies from a decent breeder /keeper if you can. by introducing fresh genes to your existing fish.it will help minimise inbreeding and deformed fry and help promote health and vitality. its your choice at the end of the day, you could get some stunning mixes or you could get mutts. but i think long term you would be better keeping what youve got at their best and just enjoy

 

[omen666]

U're most welcome!

I've tried finding decent guppies in the UK but they are impossible to find unless you know someone , I even posted an ad in the buy and sell sections and didn get one reply lol

 

[dwarfgourami]

U're most welcome!

I've tried finding decent guppies in the UK but they are impossible to find unless you know someone , I even posted an ad in the buy and sell sections and didn get one reply lol

Have you tried the British Livebearer Association?

 

[omen666]

U're most welcome!

I've tried finding decent guppies in the UK but they are impossible to find unless you know someone , I even posted an ad in the buy and sell sections and didn get one reply lol

Have you tried the British Livebearer Association?

I didn know they existed until now but I will do a search for a link unless you have one available??

 

[bettawen]

yup the bla are still going strong, (im biased as im a member lol)i dont think we are allowed to post links but im prob wrong