endlercollector
- #1
I've been really thinking hard about where things are going with my current Endler's collection, and it's going to be a longer evolution that I'd thought before. My husband is going to have a llama (smaller than a cow but bigger than an alpaca, which I still want).
After intensive sexing of the Endler's to slow down their rate of reproduction in my tanks, their numbers have levelled off though they're in way more tanks than I'd anticipated. I'd originally thought that I'd base things on my 2nd collection: 1 female/fry tank and 1 male tank.
Then, things immediately got out of control I found out that I had only 3 weeks to get set up before they were slated for euthanasia at the lab. My old 20-gallon turned out to have gotten too weathered where it was abandoned outside when I got too ill a couple of years ago to maintain all of my tanks. Insane complications were going on with my bigger tanks
Time ran out, and so I grabbed my tetras and threw them into a hurriedly redone 10-gallon. I received 100 Endler's, mostly juveniles, and stuck them in what had been the tetra 29-gallon. And then the intensive work began of making that first tank into an adult female tank, setting up a male tank, a sexing tank, and a fry tank--a total of 4 tanks.
Then I found out that the Endler's remaining in the tank at the lab had come down with a gram negative mycobacterium. Our friend had apparently tried to save them even after telling me that he was going to put them down last spring but then did end up euthanizing the rest due to the disease.
I decided that I needed the 29-gal female tank to be a permanent quarantine for the first generation. I turned what had briefly been my 10-gal sexing tank into a 1-generation male permanent QT and what had been my 10-gallon QT into a 2nd for the the rest of the adult boys. Babies went temporarily into what was to be a 20-gallon 2nd + generation male tank while I began work on a 29-gallon 2nd + generation female and fry tank. So then there were 5 tanks.
I had to go out of town for a bit, and one of our sitters' children apparently brought on the demise of over 100 fry in the 2nd-generation female/fry tank, The survivors went into the male tank while I redid the fry tank. It took just long enough that some girls were pregnant when they went back into the the rebuilt tank. Sigh.
In the meantime, the 1st-generation QT girls were still having babies. I was catching the newborns and putting them in with the other females and fry. But then sexing the juveniles among them was getting harder and harder. Too many girls in the way. I needed another tank.
So I got #6: a 20-gallon retirement tank for the 1st generation boys. They all went in there except for Smiley because he is assymetrical and (thank you, kevymd, for the term) an emoticon boy. He is now with 2 2nd-generation girls in a 10-gal (he was too annoying for just 1 girl).
I managed to sell off a bunch of boys locally, thank goodness.
Next, I tore down the other 10-gal and rebuilt it as a sexing tank. But the 2nd-generation girls were getting so obnoxious about hiding boys that I finally caught everyone, and now that 10-gal is a combination fry/sexing tank. At least, the fry have really slowed down as there appears to be only 1 pregnant girl left, and she ought to be done bearing babies in Feb.
But yes, you're right, Smiley's girls should start having babies any day now. So I'm looking at another batch of 3rd generation babies, averaging 20 per month for the next 6 months if I can bear to rob Smiley of his minI harem.
To be continued because, of course, I have about 210 total currently despite lotsa lotsa work...
After intensive sexing of the Endler's to slow down their rate of reproduction in my tanks, their numbers have levelled off though they're in way more tanks than I'd anticipated. I'd originally thought that I'd base things on my 2nd collection: 1 female/fry tank and 1 male tank.
Then, things immediately got out of control I found out that I had only 3 weeks to get set up before they were slated for euthanasia at the lab. My old 20-gallon turned out to have gotten too weathered where it was abandoned outside when I got too ill a couple of years ago to maintain all of my tanks. Insane complications were going on with my bigger tanks
Time ran out, and so I grabbed my tetras and threw them into a hurriedly redone 10-gallon. I received 100 Endler's, mostly juveniles, and stuck them in what had been the tetra 29-gallon. And then the intensive work began of making that first tank into an adult female tank, setting up a male tank, a sexing tank, and a fry tank--a total of 4 tanks.
Then I found out that the Endler's remaining in the tank at the lab had come down with a gram negative mycobacterium. Our friend had apparently tried to save them even after telling me that he was going to put them down last spring but then did end up euthanizing the rest due to the disease.
I decided that I needed the 29-gal female tank to be a permanent quarantine for the first generation. I turned what had briefly been my 10-gal sexing tank into a 1-generation male permanent QT and what had been my 10-gallon QT into a 2nd for the the rest of the adult boys. Babies went temporarily into what was to be a 20-gallon 2nd + generation male tank while I began work on a 29-gallon 2nd + generation female and fry tank. So then there were 5 tanks.
I had to go out of town for a bit, and one of our sitters' children apparently brought on the demise of over 100 fry in the 2nd-generation female/fry tank, The survivors went into the male tank while I redid the fry tank. It took just long enough that some girls were pregnant when they went back into the the rebuilt tank. Sigh.
In the meantime, the 1st-generation QT girls were still having babies. I was catching the newborns and putting them in with the other females and fry. But then sexing the juveniles among them was getting harder and harder. Too many girls in the way. I needed another tank.
So I got #6: a 20-gallon retirement tank for the 1st generation boys. They all went in there except for Smiley because he is assymetrical and (thank you, kevymd, for the term) an emoticon boy. He is now with 2 2nd-generation girls in a 10-gal (he was too annoying for just 1 girl).
I managed to sell off a bunch of boys locally, thank goodness.
Next, I tore down the other 10-gal and rebuilt it as a sexing tank. But the 2nd-generation girls were getting so obnoxious about hiding boys that I finally caught everyone, and now that 10-gal is a combination fry/sexing tank. At least, the fry have really slowed down as there appears to be only 1 pregnant girl left, and she ought to be done bearing babies in Feb.
But yes, you're right, Smiley's girls should start having babies any day now. So I'm looking at another batch of 3rd generation babies, averaging 20 per month for the next 6 months if I can bear to rob Smiley of his minI harem.
To be continued because, of course, I have about 210 total currently despite lotsa lotsa work...