Description
The Endler’s livebearer was originally collected from a Brackish lake in Venezuela, and has since been collected from two other lakes in the same area. These little fish are named after a Danish biologist Ojvind Winge, who did a lot of work with the color genetics in guppies, and was able to describe the difference between the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) and the Poecilia wingei. He was also known for his work with yeast, with which he proved you could selectively breed different strains of yeast. Even though it was in a completely different field, this doctor has contributed greatly to the understanding of genetics, and so it is easy to see why there was a species named after him in the aquarium hobby. The santa maria bleeding heart endler is a strain which is fairly particular even amongst endlers, with a clear separation of a fairly solid black and white body coloration, above and below the lateral line respectively. Typically we might see a different color between the head and the tail of the fish, but we seldom see such a stark divide between the top and bottom. The males also have a beautiful iridescent blue dorsal fin, and a rainbowy glimmer at the caudal peduncle right before a red double sword-patterned tail. The color pattern in the wild is only found in the “rio Morichal” color form of guppy, and so we can assume that these genetics exist somewhere in the pedigree of this fish.
These fish naturally would prefer harder water, but are able to easily thrive and breed in water that is much softer, even into the extremely soft 15ppm, and they do not seem to care about ph, doing well at almost any reasonable level. These fish are small bodied and great at zipping around both the open water and between decorations, and you should decorate your tank in such a way that fry are able to escape hungry mouths and mature. Due to these fish being livebearers, they will often make more fully formed, independently swimming babies which are ready to tackle the world from birth.
Most other fish make good tankmates for this fish, and due to their small size they fit in most tanks. Most fish that are a similar size to this fish will not outcompete this fish for food, and this fish is very peaceful and does not tend to bother others in the tank. Alternatively, you could keep a breeding colony, and they would naturally provide food for a predator fish, which could be a really great way to illustrate the natural food chain. Regardless of what you like, you are almost guaranteed to find a Poecilia that suits your taste, whether that be the wingei or the reticulata, there are just so many colors and fin combinations that they are almost endless. These fish ship individually bagged.
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