The black bar endler carries the pattern most people picture when they hear endler. It is a peaceful, active fish and a good choice for a beginner.
Did you know
The black bar endler's species had no scientific name until 2005, thirty years after Endler collected it. The name honors Ojvind Winge, the Danish biologist whose work on Poecilia genetics traced much of male color down the male line.
Caring for the black bar endler
Keep black bar endlers in a group, in a tank of at least 10 gal (38 L), which can hold a small colony. A planted tank with floating plants suits them. They are active fish that cruise the middle and upper water.
Keep the water at 72 to 86°F (22 to 30°C), with a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. Feed a quality flake and micro pellets, plus the occasional frozen brine shrimp or daphnia.
Black bar endlers are peaceful and safe with other community fish. Keep more females than males, which spreads out the males' constant courtship and eases the stress on any one female. Keep the line away from guppies and other endler strains, since they interbreed freely and the young are fertile.
Only the males carry the black bar pattern, and the females show none of it. Females can reach twice the size of the males, so a mixed pair looks like two different fish. Endlers are livebearers that drop batches of fully formed fry, and they breed readily.
Good to know
Male color in Poecilia wingei rides largely on the Y chromosome, so a pattern passes from father to son. A line can hold its look for generations. The double black bar is a melanophore pattern on the flank, overlaid by orange and metallic green. Shops use the name loosely, and stock ranges from documented N class lines down to undocumented fish and guppy crosses.
In the wild
Unlike most named endler lines, the black bar is the wild pattern rather than a bred one. It comes from the Laguna de los Patos lakes near Cumana in Venezuela. John Endler sampled that water in 1975, and Franklyn Bond before him in 1937. The N class lines carrying the name trace to collections made there by Armando Pou in 1997, 1998 and 2004. That population is threatened by runoff from a municipal garbage dump and by introduced fish.
Weekly picks
Tank mates
The black bar endler is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.
An adult black bar endler reaches about 1.6 in (4 cm).
How can you tell a male black bar endler from a female?
Males carry the black bar pattern, and females show none of it. Females can also grow to twice the size of the males.
How does a black bar endler breed?
Black bar endlers are livebearers that drop batches of fully formed fry, and they breed readily. They interbreed freely with guppies and other endler strains, and the young are fertile.
1.6 in (4 cm)11 gal (40 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
2 in (5 cm)15 gal (55 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
2.4 in (6 cm)16 gal (60 L)77–86°F (25–30°C)
2.4 in (6 cm)10 gal (38 L)64–82°F (18–28°C)
2.8 in (7 cm)29 gal (110 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)
3.1 in (8 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)