Why Are My Endlers Glass Surfing?! :/

[kelly528]

Hi guys, just a quick question:

In my explosion of MTS, I hastily slapped 5 male endlers in a 10g tank that I doubled as a 'grow-out' tank for my plant clippings. Therefore, it is a wild jungle in there with lots of plants for them to play in.

I never paid much attention to them before, but since I have finished my 5.5g I have noticed that all they do is swim up and down the glass! WHY?! I have heard this is a sign of boredom and/or stress, but don't know what I am doing wrong! Water params are all normal, tons of plants, pond snails, 6 dwarf pygmy cories (intro-ed last week), floating plants and driftwood. What gives?! They are not very fun to watch

 

[OldMan47]

If you want the fish to display more normal behavior, they will need a few girl friends to entertain Kelly. They are like the lion in the cage just pacing back and forth with no particular purpose. The problem with adding females is that you will suddenly find that you have dozens of endlers in that little tank. I am just curious but which kind of pygmy cories did you add? I have all 3 and like my habrosus best but the hastatus and pygmaeus each have their own appeal.

 

[kelly528]

Heh funny you should mention that... I was given four female fry for free, three of which turned out to be 'late-bloomer' males! I found that my one lonely female was getting harassed by the gang, so she is in QT until she drops enough female fry to keep everybody happy. I am shooting for an endler colony .

I put pygmaeus in my tank. Would have liked hasbrosus, but any type of pyg is rare and expensive in Vancouver. They don't feed off the bottom as much as I'd like, but their swimming habits are cute in their own way. I might grab 2 more, though-- my 6 don't really school together so I am thinking they are sort of 'losing' each other in the tank... is it normal for them to go their own ways? I have heard they like big schools.

If you want the fish to display more normal behavior, they will need a few girl friends to entertain Kelly. They are like the lion in the cage just pacing back and forth with no particular purpose. The problem with adding females is that you will suddenly find that you have dozens of endlers in that little tank. I am just curious but which kind of pygmy cories did you add? I have all 3 and like my habrosus best but the hastatus and pygmaeus each have their own appeal.

 

[OldMan47]

I bought a dozen when I got my pymaeus. They just looked too small to me to be happy with 5 or 6. They do not school as well as the habrosus do for me and neither one is near as tight schooling as the hastatus. Hastatus can make rummy nose tetras look like a loose schooling fish. I only every found the pygmaeus locally. I ended up buying the others at an on line source in Florida. That could be a bit rough when it comes to getting them shipped across that border. From what I have read on the Canadian Aquarium Connection, the border can delay a fish shipment long enough to lose all of the fish. On the other hand, I mailed some microworms with the proper declarations to a lady in Ontario and she got them in good condition so I guess it varies somewhat.
Pygmy size cories work great in my endler colonies. Both of my larger colonies have some hastatus in them that sometimes act like they are endlers and swim with them. They even swim up to the surface when I come by to feed the tank.
My endler colony right after feeding. As you can see the fry don't pay any attention to the adults.

My betta even has a home with some

 

[kelly528]

Oh wow! I tried endlers with my betta-- even though I never saw him stalking them, they disappeared over a period of weeks... I'm afraid to try pygmies with him! They're $6 each here! No thank you!

 

[OldMan47]

Mine was put in with some surplus endlers in the picture but he has since moved to the 45 gallon where I took the picture of feeding time. I am sure he must catch a fry now and then but the endlers can produce far more fry than he can eat. Once you have a few hundred in a tank, the value of individual endler fry falls a bit. There is very little market for them here but they run expensive since there are not many breeders either.