Can guppies and endlers interbreed?

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Pure endler and wild guppy males dance around the female while courting. They can even do that backwards. Fancy guppies don't do that.

Oh! That's interesting, I wonder why? Maybe being trapped in a tank in pairs or trios, the males learned that the females can't escape and find a better male, and they wear the females down with the persistent chasing, rather than the dancing. I'll be off looking for videos of guppy courtship now, and wind up on some kind of government list as a weirdo... lol.

When it comes to hybrid endlers, it's harder to tell. For what I've already mentioned before, it's a matter of time before you'll see if they'll behave like an endler or like a guppy.

Sadly, I don't have any females anymore! I couldn't cope with rehoming all the fry anymore. I kept the retired males, and have two left, but no females anymore. I do remember watching the males display to the females though, and too each other! Fanning their fins out and moving in front of her, curving his body, and almost shimmying at her, or at a rival male. Is that what you mean by the dancing?

There's also something like a sneaky male. Sneaky males don't court but make advantage of the opportunity to mate with a female when the more dominant males aren't close by harassing her in a sudden (mostly from the bottom of her body).

Ah! There are sneaky males in several species! Lions sometimes do this too, and it happens in several bird species, that while the flashiest, dominant male bird is displaying and outcompeting the other males (and distracted) the sneaky male gets away with courting a female Viable and successful trait that helps pass along those genes! No wonder it crops up in all sorts of species.

But the Endler/Guppy behaviour differences - is that only a difference in courtship behaviours? Do they behave differently in the tank in other ways as well though?

 

[emeraldking]

Is that what you mean by the dancing?

Yep...

Do they behave differently in the tank in other ways as well though?

Adaption in behavior "can" occur when kept in captivity.

 

[Alice B]

You’re bad! The feeder guppies I had were not nearly as colorful as the Endlers. They were solid grey and the Endlers have bright metallic markings, the boys, that is.

The feeder guppies I bought from a little store that closed in 1999 had the orange and green and blue markings on the side and were just beautiful. We didn't feed them to anything, well much, I did have a marine betta with a taste for guppies at the time, but we used them to cycle tanks and my daughter had a tank of them she just loved in her room. When I ran a search on endlers they looked just like them.

 

[Ellie11]

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…

 

[Ellie11]

Thank you for your compliment. I really appreciate it.

A lot of people mix up wild guppies and endlers by their name. The commercial world made it worse by labeling wild guppies, wildtype guppies and small fancy guppy strains being endlers to make it more interesting. And to make more money out of it. Purely out of marketing purposes.

The main difference between pure endlers and wild guppies is their DNA. When we speak about wild guppies, there are three main wild guppy species:
Poecilia reticulata (formerly known as Lebistes reticulatus and also other former names have been in order).
Poecilia obscura from Trinidad and Tobago.
Poecilia kempkesi from Surinam.

The Poecilia reticulata is the most wide spread wild guppy species. When we discuss locality of a wild guppy species, we call them wild guppy strain. From the former remark of mine, it will make you clear that when we speak about wild guppy, that it could be one of the wild guppy species I've mentioned before. It also means that todays known fancy guppies are not only coming from Poecilia reticulata.
Nowadays, Poecilia wingei (pure endler) has been added to the group of guppy related species. Besides these mentioned species, also Micropoecilia species (which are subspecies of the Poecillidae family and close related to guppies) are added to this list. For DNA technically they aren't guppies but very close related. Nowadays, Micropoecilia species are labeled again as Poecilia species (just like decades ago). Micropoecilia species are:
Micropoecilia picta.
Micropoecilia parae.
Micropoecilia minima.
Micropoecilia branneri.

A questionable case is the Orangline, El Salto. There are two kinds of them. One that looks phenotypically more a Micropoecilia species and one that is phenotypically more a wild guppy. But both are now listed as being a wild guppy.

Claiming that a pure endler has got more of a metallic appearance, doesn't mean a thing anymore. For there are also wild guppies with a metallic shine on their bodies. Having more vibrant colors or metallic shine only tells us that the environment that they live in has got a low predation or just no predation at all. Claiming that a pure male endler has got a different number of fin rays in his dorsal in comparison to a wild guppy, is of no reference anymore.
When it comes to endler hybrids, it's always a matter of time to see how they will unfold in their behavior... more endler or guppy behavior. That's very individual. So, you just can not say that they will behave a 100% like a guppy or endler beforehand.
Wild guppies have the same courtship as wild guppies have. Not comparable to fancy guppies. And nowadays, also endler influence have been used to create new fancy strains. Which can also influence their behavior.


Nope. That won't make them the same species. They are closely related but have different DNA. And their sexual organs are compatible which makes a natural mating possible. It's a matter of the number of chromosomes to have fertile offspring. An even number will create fertile offspring and an uneven number creates infertile offspring. So, not every hybrid is infertile by all means.

Thanks for the great explanation!

 

[Benji k]

I have them in separate tanks, but wonder if they would interbreed. My guppies are all males, but I have female & male endlers in with my tetras. The males are shiny beautiful creatures. So far, I haven‘t noticed any endler fry, but I haven‘t owned them very long.
Would the other endlers and tetras eat baby endlers? I have GloFish, and black and white ones of the same type. Believe they‘re called long skirt tetras. Much bigger than the endlers.

the guppy's and glow fish will try to eat the fry but if you have lots of plants the fry will hide in them that's what my guppy fry do but it will work if you have enough space.

 

[Ellie11]

the guppy's and glow fish will try to eat the fry but if you have lots of plants the fry will hide in them that's what my guppy fry do but it will work if you have enough space.

Plants are a great idea. Thanks. I only have fake florescent stuff Now

 

[Benji k]

Plants are a great idea. Thanks. I only have fake florescent stuff Now

yeah they will still hide in that good luck.

 

[Naughts]

Plants are a great idea. Thanks. I only have fake florescent stuff Now

If you get live plants you will need to have the lights on for them, 6-12 hours a day.

 

[emeraldking]

If you get live plants you will need to have the lights on for them, 6-12 hours a day.

That depends on what kind of plants you'll use...

 

[Sgooosh]

if fancy guppies do not dance to show off, why do my "dumbo " guppies do it?