Endler X Platie?

[Lynden]

Okay I get the point! My imagination is too big!

However, well, I have never ever seen a female Endler, and I keep endlers with my guppies. I actually based my post on experience and research. I once bought a little Endler and put it in with my home-bred guppies, and 5 months after he died, I recently found two male endlers in the tank, but there is no females that even begin to resemble the males. Also, the males looked identical to their long dead father. On top of that, that little male was my very first Endler, ever. And all I keep in that tank is home bred Poecilia reticulata, 2 little mollys, a swordtail, a betta and a corydoras.


P.S. Just wait until I astound the world with my freakish Elephorse!

 

[sylvia]

Female endler's don't look like male endler's. Like I said before, they look very similar to wild female guppies. A lot of the characteristics you see - both in guppies and endler's - are sex-linked. That's why you don't get brightly colored female guppies or females with double swords for example. It's also why you found two apparently pure male endler's but no obvious females. The fact that they were identical to their father says nothing - it was just one generation removed. If you take a look at 'domestic' strains of guppies that were derived from endler's hybrids - take the 'green double swordtail' guppy for instance - it still retains a lot of the endler's coloration. However, due to being bred back so many times to guppies (which is what you assumed happened in the wild), it doesn't look all that much like its endler's anscestor any more. Most obvious differences are in the fin shapes and color. Endler's, as you know, have patches of bright color while guppies tend towards being more monochromatic. Endler's dorsal fins are signficiantly different to that of guppies, being more up-right. Female endler's are slightly smaller than (wild) guppy females just as male endler's are smaller than (wild) male guppies. Female endler's are also a different color to female guppies - being green-gold opague as oppposed to silver opague. Obviously, these compariosons are with the wild fish as domestic strains of guppies have been bred selectively for so many generations and so many new mutations have popped up that they no longer look much like their wild counterparts - size, in particular, has diminished due to inbreeding.

Here are some endler's female pics I found:
http/www.petfish.net/endlers.htm
http/www.aquariumhobbyist.com/endlerslivebearer/page2.htm
Just scroll down, where necessary, to see the females. Do a google search if you want more. Unfortunately, as the females are not so spectacular, the number of pics is limmited.

I was going to add something else but I've forgotten now

 

[Lynden]

Yeah, I understand now. There is some females in the tank that look like that.


And thanks for the pictures, they helped in ID. Wow, and those endlers are absolutly stunning!

 

[Miss Dib Dabs]

Never thought this would spark off. Sadly the male platie hasn't listened to a single word and he's still trying it on with the endlers.
As I don't keep guppies at all there's no chance of interbreeding that way so any fry they do have will be endlers. Assuming the males can get near enough with the platie being daft.
Hugs,
P.