FISHY FAQS

The Answers You Didn't Know You Needed

Fish are interesting pets!  Each species exhibits specific behaviors and every once in awhile they learn something new.  I have one young adult Roseaura Endler Hybrid female that discovered a strong, focused current in part of her tank. Not only does she love to swim against the current, other fish in the tank are trying to mimic her (the males can't get as close or swim as long in the current due to their long finnage.  But they try).

This fish has chosen this activity for herself.  She could stay in the calmer side of the tank with the fry, but she is young and adventurous.  I have seen similar behavior in Betta Splendens as well.

​

Both Endlers and Betta are very curious fish, and always want to be part of whatever you're doing in the tank, as long as you are gentle. While your cloud of tetras tightly schools up and hide when your hand enters the fish tank, endlers and bettas want to play.

Fish are also trainable to some degree. They know when to swim over to you when it's feeding time, right? That is the first thing they've learned to do.  Check online for ideas on how to train your fish. Fish like Betta Splendins and even common goldfish can learn tricks like swimming through hoops and moving tiny objects around inside their aquarium. Get creative and see what you can teach you fish to do!

Um.... no, unless your home is a giant, heated, non-chlorinated pool! Fish and other aquatic animals need to live their clean, cycled aquarium. They can't breathe or stay warm without their aquarium.

​

If you have a fish, snail or shrimp out of their tank and on the floor, please get them right back into their home. 

No, not really.

​

Fish can eat shrimp food (it won't hurt them), but shrimp food has extra minerals the shrimp really need when they molt.

​

Fish should be offered their food with the lights on, and then shrimp and other bottom feeders (like cory cats) should be feed their food with the lights off. Otherwise, the fish will see and eat everyone else's food.

​

There are different types of fish foods geared toward certain fish nutritional needs. Then, there are dry, frozen and live foods. Learn about the species you are keeping, and then you can decide which food is needed.

​

One final word on fish foods: Unless you have a fish farm, buy the smallest jars of fish food you can. Fish food, once exposed to air, goes stale/bad just like our food does. This is because air that gets into the container and oxidizes the food (makes it bad). Smaller packets/jars mean fresher food for your pets, just like you'd want for yourself.

Frozen food can spoil if the container if left out while you feed your pets. Live food can crawl away or have limited life spans. Manage your aquatic pet's food carefully, and you'll save money in the long run.

Yes, you ARE seeing things, and those things are Chromatophores! Without getting too technical, chromatophores are tiny cells on fish that control the shades and amount of colors, and the iridescence and shine of colors. 

​

Some marine animals take chromatophores to the extreme. Creatures like octopi and squid can match the colors of their surroundings and create patterns of colors to make the match more convincing. It's like their skin is a liquid 4K screen, which their brains continuous run aquascapes on!

​

Endlers, bettas and many other fish to a degree use their chromatophores in a similar fashion. although to a much simpler degree. If the fishes' colors are dull, they could are scared, sick, cold, positioned or injured. If the colors appear brilliant to the point of glowing and/or new colors and patterns appear, the fish could be ready to breed or fight. Most of the time, your fishes' color should be well-saturated and active.

​

Even Endlers' eyes change color, depending on their mood (so do some people's).

​

Male Endlers and Betta are some of they showiest, colorful and active fish an aquarist can get!

That is a great question!  It is important for one to know what one's fishkeeping goals are.

​

• If you have a very small nano tank, one Male Endler can be a great choice. They have big personalities (like a betta) in their little bodies. Endlers however put less of a bioload on your nano tank than a betta.  One male betta can equal the bioload of several male Endlers!  That is because male Endlers are tiny in size (average 1"). They require heat, light and filtration, maybe a little java moss to pick at. 

​

• A single beautiful male Endler "works" in the smallest of nano tanks. It is important to note however, that all fish do better in the largest size tank you can provide for them. Nano tanks can lose their habitability very quickly when the power goes out. With a miniscule amount of water to hold heat, the buffer between stability and disaster is razor thin. The bigger the body of water, the more stable the living parameters are for the fish.

​

• Depending on the size of your tank and available dither fish, you can house many males in an aquarium.  They can be the same species or different species. But there must be plenty of cover and hiding places, and also dither fish, to mute any aggression between the males.

​

• If you want to have a happy male Endler showing off his best colors, provide him with at least three Endler females. Why three females, you ask? Why won't just a standard male/female pair do?  Well, Endlers are livebearers - they give birth to fully-formed and capable babies, called fry.  The females are constantly pregnant, and the males want to keep them that way. So, they pester the females 24/7 with the, uh, "urge to merge". This leads to some spectacular mating dances by the males, a part of raising Endlers that should not be missed. That being said, if only one female Endler is available to the male Endler, his constant ardor will kill the single female.  With a few females, the male Endler always has a tail to chase, and the ardor is spread out among the female Endler group. Dither fish and plenty of hides will help slow down the male Endler's pursuit.

​

• Females Endlers/Endlers Guppy hybrids are much bigger than the males chasing them. They occasionally SNAP and, having had ENOUGH of the ardent male Endler's pursuit, will kill them. Sometimes males' sparring also goes to far. Sometimes the parents or tank mates eat the fry. Nature is not a theme park. Be prepared to remove any bullies for the tank and keep the female to male ratio high.

​

• Generally speaking, the bigger aquarium and filter you have (and the more you want to do water changes and maintenance), the more fish of any sort you can keep. Turning out the tank lights, adding dither fish, real plants and a zillion hides all help to reduce fish tension.  Also be sure to adequately feed your mating Endlers so they are not tempted to eat their fry.

​

• Word to the wise: If you don't want to deal with fry or risk them occasionally getting eaten, only keep male Endlers.  

​

© 2021-2024 PK Endlers/Screaming Fly Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

​