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I've been breeding Endler's for over a year...in a tank of ~30-40 fish including fry there are three fish I can identify as males. Would it have something to do with the water or is there a chance the larger, older females are eating the males? The other tankmates are pygmy cories and two otos who pretty much never leave the back glass.

pH is 7.4
tank temp

Thanks for any info. I think I've found a lfs that will buy them from me, but only in pairs.

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

I read somewhere that pH and temperature have something to do with the "creation of male or female" but it has to be way over the top, so I doubt that is the problem...So it is possible that the males just haven't shown their gonopodium yet, ie aren't sexually mature yet...it can take them 6 months and sometimes 9 months to show if they are slow developers...so be patient it will comeand then you'll be wondering what happened:%) And hey just think if those little boys are keeping busy, and hopefully not overworking any one female....best of luck and be patientheidi

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

i have know that bettas, anyway the higher the ph the more males u can have. idk if it is the same with all fish, or just bettas. it could also be other factors. like you said, the others eatting them, and just quincidence that the males are being eatten.

I once read somewhere that livebearing fish give off a hormone to regulate the number of males to females in their environment. This makes sense as there only needs to be one little male in an entire tank of females to get babies.

You could try removing the females before they give birth and raising the fry seperately in a tank with frequent water changes and no adult fish. This is more work certainly, but would cut down on any hormones in the water and also any other environmental factors that we don't know about.