🐡 FOTM ENTER NOW: October 2025 Fish of the Month Contest(Livebearers)

[connorlindeman]

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Enter Now

It's time for Fishforums bimonthly Fish of the Month Contest. This month we are featuring livebearers. If you have that species in your household, we hope will enter one of them into the contest.
Please note that if you won a previous FOTM contest, you must skip one FOTM contest before you can enter a different fish in another FOTM contest.

RULES:
A picture (no videos) uploaded via our "attach files" tool with a handwritten note held in front of the fish stating "October 2025 TFF FOTM" is required to validate your entry. If you wish, you may also post a second recent picture without the note attached. If you do post a 2nd pic, that will be the pic that will be used for the poll. The picture(s) should focus on one fish.
Upload the picture(s) in FULL SIZE using upload controls in "reply" area.

• UNDER the picture(s), post any information about the fish such as species, age, tank mates, tank size, name you gave it , unique traits, feedings, etc.
• Submit the entry
• Latest date for you to enter the contest is October 21th at 4 PM ET or once we have 12 entries--whichever comes first. Any entry posted after we have 12 entries will be deleted and they will be asked to enter the next FOTM contest.
• Winner will be decided by fellow members via a poll which starts after the entry period has ended.
• Please note: you are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for your entry

What do I win?

• You will get a cool banner in your profile area noting that you are a winner of Fish of the Month.
• Your winning entry will be showcased in a "FOTM Winner" thread where members can congratulate you.
• Your winning entry will be added to our Wall of Fame

You are allowed to change your vote if you wish.
Comments about any specific entry are not allowed and will promptly be deleted. This thread will be cleaned up frequently for readability.

 

[connorlindeman]

We haven't had a contest featuring livebearers since February 2024. I'm hoping for a lot of participation!

 

[Back in the fold]

Does it have to be a single fish or can it be a group ?

 

[connorlindeman]

Does it have to be a single fish or can it be a group ?

1 single fish.

 

[connorlindeman]

We had a lot of great entries last time.
For this contest we only are allowing one single fish to be entered. Please read rules before entering.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have zero expectations, and had quit doing the contests ( life style ) but anyway... this is one of my two original Santa Maria Endler males... I started with 2 pairs, and now have a tank full of them... the females are much larger, and plain, like female guppies, my original males are both between one inch and an inch a quarter in length... I have offspring males in full color that are 3/4 of an inch long... these share a heavily planted 10 gallon tank, with blue Neo shrimp...I'll get a verification picture up, before the contest begins... and understand if I don't find the time, you'll have to remove me from the contest.

 

[gwand]

I have been raising Yellow Tiger Endlers in a 29 gallon tank which also contains 10 dwarf red coral Platy and a sailfin ocular albino Molly. Recently I started breeding the male Yellow Tigers with female green cobra guppies to obtain more variety in the tail phenotypes. Here is an F2 that has a lyre tail. In this generation I have males with top swords, bottom swords,spear tails and pin tails. Tank temp 77F, GH 214 ppm. AquaClear 30 and a Tidal 35 HOB filters and an air driven sponge filter. Olushy 200 W heater.

 

[Abaddon]

This is one of the lesser-known livebearers, the barred topminnow (Quintana atrizona). Unfortunately it's almost impossible to find on the market - I was very lucky to get mine (at a borderline unreasonable price) from a guy who was getting rid of his stock, and one other breeder (the only one in the country AFAIK). This species is classed as critically endangered according to the IUCN and hasn't been seen in the wild since 2009. It's native to only 2 small areas in Cuba and threatened by the usual suspects - pollution, invasive species, water management etc. I have lofty aspirations (lol) to breed and give away or exchange as many of them as possible so as to hopefully make them a bit more popular, and I'd be happy to donate to any conservationists that will take them. I realise I'm very lucky to have them & want to do everything I can to help raise awareness about this species. These guys may not be as flashy as some other livebearers, but they're adorable, easy to keep and beautiful in their own right. They have splashes of yellow, black & iridescent blue (not really visible here), and are otherwise totally transparent, except for the vertical black bars (usually around 5) on both sides of the body. The fish in the photo is a juvenile male, one of the original stock I got back in August.
When it comes to husbandry, they're some of the smallest species available (about the same size or slightly bigger than tiger teddies, which is another criminally underappreciated species imho ) & can do quite well in nano tanks. They are extremely shy, though, and are only suitable for single-species tanks. They will get stressed even when paired with similarly-sized and docile species. I keep mine with dwarf & amano shrimp and they seem to get along fine, although the amanos are absolutely *enormous* compared to them, so I'm keeping an eye out for any signs of stress. They don't eat their young, but they also don't breed as prolifically as guppies. I just had my first fry recently (that I've noticed, there may be more hiding in the plants) & am very excited. I currently have just under ~30 individuals split up into 2 tanks. I feed them a mix of dry, liquid and frozen foods (cyclops, daphnia, insect meal, baby brine shrimp, regular flakes), plus microworms. It was a bit challenging to find foods small enough to fit in their tiny mouths, but I think I've figured out a pretty decent combo, at least for now. I've only had them for 2 months and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they establish a happy & thriving population. I'm very much still in the process of figuring them out.
Interesting fact about them: The males shouldn't really be netted, as their gonopodium has a tiny hook at the end which can get caught & damaged in a mesh, rendering the fish infertile (at least temporarily). Moving mine was a bit of a pain because of that lol