Endler's livebearer

Care at a glance

Overview

They are peaceful, active fish that do best in a group. Keep more females than males to spread out the males' constant courtship and reduce stress on any one female. They cruise the middle and upper water. Feed quality flake, micro pellets, and the occasional frozen brine shrimp or daphnia. A 20 liter tank can hold a small colony, but expect numbers to climb fast since they breed readily.

In the wild

Endler's livebearers come from warm lagoons and small streams in northeastern Venezuela, around the Paria Peninsula. The water is usually clear, warm, and slightly alkaline, with heavy plant growth that shelters them and the tiny invertebrates they eat. A planted tank with floating plants and a temperature anywhere from the low 20s to around 30 C suits them. They handle pH from 6.5 to 7.5 well.

Good to know

This is a poeciliid, closely related to the common guppy, and the two will interbreed. Males stay small at roughly 2.5 cm, while females grow to about 4 cm. They are livebearers, dropping batches of fully formed fry rather than laying eggs. Wild populations are limited in range and under pressure from habitat loss and pollution.

Did you know

Because they breed so easily and stay small, a single trio can fill a tank with fry in a few months with no effort on your part. Many keepers use them as a steady source of live food for larger fish, since the colony replaces itself faster than the predators can eat it.

Related species

• 

  Melanzona Guppy

  Poecilia parae

  2 in (5 cm)15 gal (55 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Cauca molly

  Poecilia caucana

  2.4 in (6 cm)16 gal (60 L)77–86°F (25–30°C)

• 

  Guppy

  Poecilia reticulata

  2.4 in (6 cm)13 gal (50 L)64–82°F (18–28°C)
• Amazon molly

  Poecilia formosa

  3.5 in (9 cm)20 gal (75 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)

• 

  Gill's molly

  Poecilia gillii

  3.9 in (10 cm)26 gal (100 L)72–86°F (22–30°C)

• 

  Shortfin molly

  Poecilia mexicana

  4.3 in (11 cm)32 gal (120 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)