Help! ... Influx Of Endlers!

JoanneH · May 17, 2009

Hi, can anyone advise me please ... my daughter has a 8.5 gallon tank with what started off as 5 enders and a siamese fighter ... great, except from day one they are breeding like crazy. The siamese eats a few but quite a few are making it to adulthood, so now we have far too many in the tank. I have a larger tank and am wondering if to seperate the males and females and put the females into my tank but I have a boesmani .... will he eat the females (they are much larger than the males) other fish in my tank are 5 banded bars, harlequins, rosy barbs, golden barbs, platies and a bristlenose The only other option is to take them back to the shop, but that is about a 40 mile round trip, so we cant keep doing that!
Can anyone help please?
Thanks in advance.

AdAndrews · May 17, 2009

JoanneH said:
Hi, can anyone advise me please ... my daughter has a 8.5 gallon tank with what started off as 5 enders and a siamese fighter ... great, except from day one they are breeding like crazy. The siamese eats a few but quite a few are making it to adulthood, so now we have far too many in the tank. I have a larger tank and am wondering if to seperate the males and females and put the females into my tank but I have a boesmani .... will he eat the females (they are much larger than the males) other fish in my tank are 5 banded bars, harlequins, rosy barbs, golden barbs, platies and a bristlenose The only other option is to take them back to the shop, but that is about a 40 mile round trip, so we cant keep doing that!
Can anyone help please?
Thanks in advance.

the other fish will eat them, so if you dont want to be overun, i suggest you put them all in, unless you want to keep a couple(in small tank)

just let the bosemani and the barbs eat them

youngfisher · May 17, 2009

Why dont you try selling some? - Or even giving them for free for pick up/if they pay for postage. (Just an idea) :good:

JoanneH · May 17, 2009

AdAndrews said:
JoanneH said:

Hi, can anyone advise me please ... my daughter has a 8.5 gallon tank with what started off as 5 enders and a siamese fighter ... great, except from day one they are breeding like crazy. The siamese eats a few but quite a few are making it to adulthood, so now we have far too many in the tank. I have a larger tank and am wondering if to seperate the males and females and put the females into my tank but I have a boesmani .... will he eat the females (they are much larger than the males) other fish in my tank are 5 banded bars, harlequins, rosy barbs, golden barbs, platies and a bristlenose The only other option is to take them back to the shop, but that is about a 40 mile round trip, so we cant keep doing that!
Can anyone help please?
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

the other fish will eat them, so if you dont want to be overun, i suggest you put them all in, unless you want to keep a couple(in small tank)

just let the bosemani and the barbs eat them

Oh i couldnt put them in knowing they would be eaten, I thought the females may be big enough to survive being eaten .. I'll have to take them back, because the few people I know who have tanks dont have suitable tank mates for them.

AdAndrews · May 17, 2009

JoanneH said:
AdAndrews said:

JoanneH said:

Hi, can anyone advise me please ... my daughter has a 8.5 gallon tank with what started off as 5 enders and a siamese fighter ... great, except from day one they are breeding like crazy. The siamese eats a few but quite a few are making it to adulthood, so now we have far too many in the tank. I have a larger tank and am wondering if to seperate the males and females and put the females into my tank but I have a boesmani .... will he eat the females (they are much larger than the males) other fish in my tank are 5 banded bars, harlequins, rosy barbs, golden barbs, platies and a bristlenose The only other option is to take them back to the shop, but that is about a 40 mile round trip, so we cant keep doing that!
Can anyone help please?
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

the other fish will eat them, so if you dont want to be overun, i suggest you put them all in, unless you want to keep a couple(in small tank)

just let the bosemani and the barbs eat them

Click to expand...

Oh i couldnt put them in knowing they would be eaten, I thought the females may be big enough to survive being eaten .. I'll have to take them back, because the few people I know who have tanks dont have suitable tank mates for them.

ok then.. only a suggestion, what are you going to do then

JoanneH · May 17, 2009

youngfisher said:
Why dont you try selling some? - Or even giving them for free for pick up/if they pay for postage. (Just an idea)

Yeah I would willingly give some away, but I dont know anyone who has a tank with suitable tank mates .. and I wouldnt know how to post them???

AdAndrews · May 17, 2009

JoanneH said:
youngfisher said:

Why dont you try selling some? - Or even giving them for free for pick up/if they pay for postage. (Just an idea)

Click to expand...

Yeah I would willingly give some away, but I dont know anyone who has a tank with suitable tank mates .. and I wouldnt know how to post them???

to post you would need a heat pack... to be honest posting them is too much trouble, i would try and sell some just saying buyer has to collect

JoanneH · May 17, 2009

AdAndrews said:
JoanneH said:

AdAndrews said:

JoanneH said:

Hi, can anyone advise me please ... my daughter has a 8.5 gallon tank with what started off as 5 enders and a siamese fighter ... great, except from day one they are breeding like crazy. The siamese eats a few but quite a few are making it to adulthood, so now we have far too many in the tank. I have a larger tank and am wondering if to seperate the males and females and put the females into my tank but I have a boesmani .... will he eat the females (they are much larger than the males) other fish in my tank are 5 banded bars, harlequins, rosy barbs, golden barbs, platies and a bristlenose The only other option is to take them back to the shop, but that is about a 40 mile round trip, so we cant keep doing that!
Can anyone help please?
Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

the other fish will eat them, so if you dont want to be overun, i suggest you put them all in, unless you want to keep a couple(in small tank)

just let the bosemani and the barbs eat them

Click to expand...

Oh i couldnt put them in knowing they would be eaten, I thought the females may be big enough to survive being eaten .. I'll have to take them back, because the few people I know who have tanks dont have suitable tank mates for them.

Click to expand...

ok then.. only a suggestion, what are you going to do then

Will have to be a journey back to the shop i think and maybe take all the females back too and only keep males in future ... thanks anyway.

JoanneH · May 17, 2009

AdAndrews said:
JoanneH said:

youngfisher said:

Why dont you try selling some? - Or even giving them for free for pick up/if they pay for postage. (Just an idea)

Click to expand...

Yeah I would willingly give some away, but I dont know anyone who has a tank with suitable tank mates .. and I wouldnt know how to post them???

Click to expand...

to post you would need a heat pack... to be honest posting them is too much trouble, i would try and sell some just saying buyer has to collect

Ok, thanks for your help :good:

Honeythorn · May 17, 2009

It's a pity you can't post or I'd glady take a few males off your hands. I have a lonely male endler in with my female bettas and I haven't been able to find any here. I'm also nowhere near Lincolnshire so I can't pick any up :sad:

Mikaila31 · May 17, 2009

I'd be so happy if all mine got eaten.......all 100 of them. No luck of that happening though...

karigupi · May 17, 2009

I would happily have taken some of your hands if I were closer, I think lots of other people in your area would probably be keen too, you might even make a few pennies.

There is a classified section on this forum, down the bottom, go in the UK bit & post in the livestock section, you may find someone local there, or pop over here http

/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/ I often see people asking for any surplus fishies for their tanks

drobbyb · May 17, 2009

AdAndrews said:
... to be honest posting them is too much trouble, i would try and sell some just saying buyer has to collect

Ummm.... I post fish all the time. It isn't much trouble at all. All you need is a small cardboard box, some R5 pink insulation to hold the heat in/heat out (can be found at home improvement stores), a fish bag and some tape.

Line the inside of the box with the insulation. Do a 50% water change the night before you are planning to ship. Scoop out enough water to fill 1/3 of the bag and leave the rest for air. Tie the bag shut with a knot, place it lengthways in the box and fill in the empty space with crumpled newspaper. After that all you need to do is to shut the box with the tape, and send it 3 day post.

JoanneH · May 18, 2009

Honeythorn said:
It's a pity you can't post or I'd glady take a few males off your hands. I have a lonely male endler in with my female bettas and I haven't been able to find any here. I'm also nowhere near Lincolnshire so I can't pick any up

Yes its a shame we dont live closer, you could have had some with pleasure - they're beautiful little fish.

saz326 · May 18, 2009

You really shouldnt feel bad about the idea of a fish eating another fish.

It would really be very good indeed for your larger fish to have an "endler treat" every now and then. The Endlers/Guppy population would benefit from the reduction in numbers and the larger fish would benefit from a natural prey and some extra vitamins etc.

....have another think about it. But if you really really really cant - you could advertise feeder fish available and I bet someone would take the lot.