Don't combine the guppies and endler's, or you won't be honestly able to say the endler's are santa marias. Their value will drop like a stone, and you'd have hybrids really quickly.
Parasites and QT? If the best seller in the world combined fish, parasites could be a problem. If even one farmed fish is put with wilds, parasites would be a problem. They get around, quickly. I would QT any new fish for 6 weeks, in a tank as good as the one that will be their permanent home.
Right now, I have 3 platys in week 4, and two pairs of Aphyosemion cf louessense in week one. The killies came from a longtime acquaintance whom I trust to have done things well. But he told me he bought some white clouds recently to keep with shy killies, so the risk of cross contamination is real. It's nothing personal - just basic caution.
You can make 20 purchases and dodge a bullet with every one of them. But the one that brings in a serious parasite can be devastating.
Ten or so years ago, I had large numbers of livebearers. My water was good for them, and I had a friend who brought me all kinds of weird and wonderful fish from her travels for work in Central America. At some point, fish from a trusted source (home bred) came in, and I was sloppy with QT. They developed a parasitic infection I had never seen before, and it resisted all treatments. It was a very tough dinoflagellate things that created a velvet like film, but wasn't velvet. I'd been overconfident with net transfer, not having seen a disease in my tanks for years. I lost 3 tanks of montezumae, 7 species of mollies, 5 swordtail and platy species, and a bunch of other really treasured species that were all several generations in and doing well. When the parasite burned out, or responded to a desperate med (I'll never know) I took stock, realized it had only affected livebearers, and changed directions. My three favourite species were all dead, and I had gone to great lengths to find them.
Lesson learned, and lesson shared.
Parasites and QT? If the best seller in the world combined fish, parasites could be a problem. If even one farmed fish is put with wilds, parasites would be a problem. They get around, quickly. I would QT any new fish for 6 weeks, in a tank as good as the one that will be their permanent home.
Right now, I have 3 platys in week 4, and two pairs of Aphyosemion cf louessense in week one. The killies came from a longtime acquaintance whom I trust to have done things well. But he told me he bought some white clouds recently to keep with shy killies, so the risk of cross contamination is real. It's nothing personal - just basic caution.
You can make 20 purchases and dodge a bullet with every one of them. But the one that brings in a serious parasite can be devastating.
Ten or so years ago, I had large numbers of livebearers. My water was good for them, and I had a friend who brought me all kinds of weird and wonderful fish from her travels for work in Central America. At some point, fish from a trusted source (home bred) came in, and I was sloppy with QT. They developed a parasitic infection I had never seen before, and it resisted all treatments. It was a very tough dinoflagellate things that created a velvet like film, but wasn't velvet. I'd been overconfident with net transfer, not having seen a disease in my tanks for years. I lost 3 tanks of montezumae, 7 species of mollies, 5 swordtail and platy species, and a bunch of other really treasured species that were all several generations in and doing well. When the parasite burned out, or responded to a desperate med (I'll never know) I took stock, realized it had only affected livebearers, and changed directions. My three favourite species were all dead, and I had gone to great lengths to find them.
Lesson learned, and lesson shared.
