So I’m making this post, not really asking anything, just writing down what I notice.
Now, I’ll be honest, I have only purposely bought 1 male endler and the rest various batches of guppies so my observations regarding endless may be biased.
However! Mr. Endler, liked to get down and dirty with the ladies. When I had both genders in the same tank divided by a divider (didn’t work btw) he always was jumping over the top to get to the ladies. And a ladies man he was. Every single batch of fry before I got completely separate tanks for the genders grew into either identical copies of the Mr. Endler or had a Mr. Endler body with a red and black spotted guppy type tail.
I was annoyed by this, I didn’t like having 10 exact replicas of Mr. Endler, I wanted variety and Mr.Endler’s Armstrong cyclone cannon was powerful and his genetics were infectious, so once I had the separate tanks, most of Mr.Endlers kids lived and died virgins.
But. The endler offspring were exceedingly healthy and there were many of them. The fry were plump and they grew fast without deformities. This was when I was still new to fish keeping and didn’t really know much.
So while I didn’t breed the sons, Mr.Endler’s plain Jane in comparison daughters were free game.
I wanted to play and see what combinations I could get by breeding pairs on purpose. No I haven’t read any books, I didn’t want it to be a whole official thing, just wanted to see what I could get if I just kept pairing together fish I thought would make pretty kids, not to sell or anything. Just for me.
And for awhile, I kept detailed logs on who was who’s child, parents, grandparents, etc. I avoided breeding siblings until well. 200+ guppies later and you can’t really remember left from right anymore. But I still try to keep track of who’s siblings and i try to bring in fresh blood every now and then by buying a new guppy to freshen things up a bit.
And all in all I have noticed this one persistent and kind of frustrating but also amazing fact: Mr.Endler’s line is far healthier, and longer lived, than any pure guppy mix I tried or bought from a store.
I had an ich outbreak when I didn’t quarantine a fish long enough, and costly mistake. It wiped out almost all my pure guppies. But Mr. Endler and his kids? Alive and well. Fin rot doesn’t seem to even touch Mr.Endler. No twisted spines. No misshapen fins. Granted, some still did pass, but the ratio was far lower.
During my breeding, I started getting completely overwhelmed by the number of fry and experienced a harsh wave of deaths as the tank occupancy was so far beyond suggested you couldnt even see it over the horizon line. I’ve learned. I keep my numbers lower now by selling to my LFS.
But take a wild guess who most of my survivors were.
And now, my current round of fry are the great grandkids of Mr.Endler. And I still have one of Mr.Endler’s sons, or maybe it’s even Mr.Endler himself, I can’t tell, but you can still clearly see the patterns of the endler in their genetics, even though these latest batches are at best 25% endler or less. I’ve ended up breeding various shades of blue guppies, so most of the endler genes are seen in the body patterns. Some have full on endler spots and while have more green spots which pairs quite nicely with the blues so far And, only my endler line of babies have made it to a year old and beyond, the rest dying of problems around 8 months old and I’m still scratching my head over who what where and whys. Most of the time, the death was caused by popped organs. Since my continued breeding however, popped organs have appeared less and less with each passing generation. And besides a female guppy who died during childbirth, I have not had a guppy death in a couple months.
So I guess this feels sort of like watching natural selection in action. I choose the breed based on looks, but the guppies ability to survive past 8 months determines who I have to choose to breed.
I’m honestly considering getting a fresh round of Endler’s as my next batch to keep the linage fresh simply because Mr.Endler was an aquarium wonder boy.
I guess if there’s a question to be asked here, what the hee haw are Endler’s made of?!?! Or was Mr. Endler like a god level Endler??? For his influence to still be seen so far in the future??
Now, I’ll be honest, I have only purposely bought 1 male endler and the rest various batches of guppies so my observations regarding endless may be biased.
However! Mr. Endler, liked to get down and dirty with the ladies. When I had both genders in the same tank divided by a divider (didn’t work btw) he always was jumping over the top to get to the ladies. And a ladies man he was. Every single batch of fry before I got completely separate tanks for the genders grew into either identical copies of the Mr. Endler or had a Mr. Endler body with a red and black spotted guppy type tail.
I was annoyed by this, I didn’t like having 10 exact replicas of Mr. Endler, I wanted variety and Mr.Endler’s Armstrong cyclone cannon was powerful and his genetics were infectious, so once I had the separate tanks, most of Mr.Endlers kids lived and died virgins.
But. The endler offspring were exceedingly healthy and there were many of them. The fry were plump and they grew fast without deformities. This was when I was still new to fish keeping and didn’t really know much.
So while I didn’t breed the sons, Mr.Endler’s plain Jane in comparison daughters were free game.
I wanted to play and see what combinations I could get by breeding pairs on purpose. No I haven’t read any books, I didn’t want it to be a whole official thing, just wanted to see what I could get if I just kept pairing together fish I thought would make pretty kids, not to sell or anything. Just for me.
And for awhile, I kept detailed logs on who was who’s child, parents, grandparents, etc. I avoided breeding siblings until well. 200+ guppies later and you can’t really remember left from right anymore. But I still try to keep track of who’s siblings and i try to bring in fresh blood every now and then by buying a new guppy to freshen things up a bit.
And all in all I have noticed this one persistent and kind of frustrating but also amazing fact: Mr.Endler’s line is far healthier, and longer lived, than any pure guppy mix I tried or bought from a store.
I had an ich outbreak when I didn’t quarantine a fish long enough, and costly mistake. It wiped out almost all my pure guppies. But Mr. Endler and his kids? Alive and well. Fin rot doesn’t seem to even touch Mr.Endler. No twisted spines. No misshapen fins. Granted, some still did pass, but the ratio was far lower.
During my breeding, I started getting completely overwhelmed by the number of fry and experienced a harsh wave of deaths as the tank occupancy was so far beyond suggested you couldnt even see it over the horizon line. I’ve learned. I keep my numbers lower now by selling to my LFS.
But take a wild guess who most of my survivors were.
And now, my current round of fry are the great grandkids of Mr.Endler. And I still have one of Mr.Endler’s sons, or maybe it’s even Mr.Endler himself, I can’t tell, but you can still clearly see the patterns of the endler in their genetics, even though these latest batches are at best 25% endler or less. I’ve ended up breeding various shades of blue guppies, so most of the endler genes are seen in the body patterns. Some have full on endler spots and while have more green spots which pairs quite nicely with the blues so far And, only my endler line of babies have made it to a year old and beyond, the rest dying of problems around 8 months old and I’m still scratching my head over who what where and whys. Most of the time, the death was caused by popped organs. Since my continued breeding however, popped organs have appeared less and less with each passing generation. And besides a female guppy who died during childbirth, I have not had a guppy death in a couple months.
So I guess this feels sort of like watching natural selection in action. I choose the breed based on looks, but the guppies ability to survive past 8 months determines who I have to choose to breed.
I’m honestly considering getting a fresh round of Endler’s as my next batch to keep the linage fresh simply because Mr.Endler was an aquarium wonder boy.
I guess if there’s a question to be asked here, what the hee haw are Endler’s made of?!?! Or was Mr. Endler like a god level Endler??? For his influence to still be seen so far in the future??
