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I was planning on making a planted 7 gallon minibow. I was just curious as to what kind of plants and how many endlers i should start with. I assume its the 1m/2f ratio, but should i just start with the 3 and let the fry come? Also what kind of filtration should i use with endlers...seeing how they are so small i don't want them getting sucked up any tubes. any info would be good thanks.

based on my experience with their "cousin" guppies, I would go ahead and get at least a 10 gallon or larger I would go with 1 male and 2-3 females. I use a UGF though many will disagree with this, but have always had good luck with it (you just have to make sure to clean all the way down to the grating when doing gravel vaccuming, and occasionally removing the uplift tubes and sucking from there.) I like to use Anacharis for the fry to swim and escape into. I like it because 1. I dont' tend to kill it 2. it grows like crazy 3. I plant it and leave some floating. For feeding fry I just take regular adult foods and grind it to dust and feed it to everyone. Let us know what you decide...I would love to get some Endler's but noone here seems to carry themHeidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

A 7g is fine for Endler's, but if you keep a M/F mix that tank will be very full rather quickly :%) If you're just looking for a peaceful, small, colorful tank I'd go with males only.

They tend to like water temps a bit higher, will eat almost anything, but they don't eat their own fry.

I breed them in a 10g. It's planted with anacharis, which grows like a weed so I give it trims and replant. In the past I also had the anacharis floating. I also have java fern attached to a rock, some small crypts, and dwarf sag.

I run a regular HOB filter. I've used nylon to cover the intake, but it gets dirty quickly, and cheesecloth which deteriorates.

They're not easy to photograph but this is a pic of feeding-time-frenzy:





Theresa_M attached this image:


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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Wow how many endlers do you have in that tank? I was looking for them to mate as well i want to have a somewhat full looking tank. How many endlers could live in a 7 gallon bow front before it became a problem? I would like to heavily plant it as well so the nitrates would stay low. I can't imagine endlers put out a large bio load at all being only 1 inch or smaller.

Last edited by Azrael_Darkness at 11-Mar-2005 13:08

that is alot of endlers. my grandpa doesn't even have that many and he has been keeping his for 30 years. yea a 7G mini is good, try a box filter. just that i think a penigune might be to strong.

It really is a lot of fish, when I open the hood for feeding time it's a swarming mass of fish :%)

I honestly have no idea how many Endler's I have. Females are larger than males but I don't believe their bioload is high. There are also 2 otos and 5 pygmy cories as well. I'm almost to the point where I consider the tank 'heavily planted', and I also run a Whisper 30 on it (it's a 10g).

When I first wanted to start breeding them females weren't available locally so I had just 4 males. I found a breeder to order from online, and I received 3M, 2F, and 7 fry. I haven't purchased any since then.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Theresa, honestly how much maintenance do you do on the tank and do you ever gravel vac your planted tank? I'm curious also if all the endlers live and if the water parameters are good. I would love to fill up my 7 gallon with nothing but endlers with a nice line of plants in the back.

I do 20% water changes weekly. When I vac I don't dig into the gravel but move it around just above gravel level, that stirs up what needs to get cleaned out. I decided to test the water after reading your post:

temp 77-78°
pH 7.4
ammonia .25
nitrIte 0
nitrAte 5.0

I can get two different types of pics of the tank. With the flash the fish are clear but the tank is dark. This photo was taken without the flash so you can see what the tank setup looks like. Like I wrote earlier, the anacharis has to get trimmed almost weekly, so eventually the back will be filled with that. I'm working on a plant order this weekend and will be adding 20 dwarf sags to fill out the middle section.

edit: Forgot to mention a couple things. I've lost Endler's twice. For some reason I get many more females than males, as high as 3 to 1. I decided to mess around with the pH but they didn't take too well to that. Another time fome sort of fungus struck the tank, mostly the older fish. Instead of treating sick fish I treated the entire tank. I've been very lucky otherwise.


Theresa_M attached this image:


Last edited by Theresa_M at 12-Mar-2005 17:09[/font]

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Your tank looks nice, i can never seem to get my tanks to look the way i want them.

I was also curious as to why you have a .25 ammonia reading, since everything else is reading ok it seems a little odd.