Overview
Endler’s livebearer originates from Laguna de Patos in northeastern Venezuela — a warm, hard, heavily vegetated coastal lagoon that sits slightly above sea level and receives strong sun year-round. Males reach around 2cm and carry some of the most intense colouration in the nano fish hobby: electric orange, iridescent green, and jet black in patterns that vary noticeably between strains. Females are plain silver-gold, larger at up to 3.5cm, and look almost like a different fish entirely. Wild-type Endlers (sometimes called N-class) are the strain to prioritise if genetic integrity matters to you; the hobby is flooded with hybrids crossed with guppies, and many of these lose the compact body shape that makes pure wingei distinctive. Unlike guppies, Endlers tolerate moderately hard to very hard water without issue — this is a fish that actually prefers the kind of tap water many Sri Lankan hobbyists have access to.
Water Parameters
| Temperature | 24–28°C |
| pH | 7.0–8.5 |
| Hardness | 10–25 dGH |
| Ammonia / Nitrite | 0 ppm |
| Nitrate | <30 ppm |
| TDS | 200–500 ppm |
Tank Setup
A 30-litre tank is workable for a small colony, but a 45–60L gives you room to manage the population as breeding gets underway. Dense planting is the key setup decision: floating plants like frogbit and water sprite create the broken surface light males display under, and thick clumps of fine-leaved stem plants give fry somewhere to hide without intervention from you. Substrate doesn’t matter much to Endlers — they’re midwater and surface fish — but a darker sand or fine gravel brings out colour better than bare glass. Filtration should be gentle; a sponge filter rated for the tank volume is ideal, both for fry safety and because Endlers don’t want strong current. Keep the tank covered: males in particular are jumpers when startled. Avoid tankmates with flowing fins if you’re keeping males with fancy guppies, as fin-nipping dynamics can emerge in either direction.
Diet & Feeding
Endlers are unfussy feeders with a strong preference for small particle sizes. Crushed flake, micro pellets, and baby brineshrimp are the daily staples in my own colony tanks. They actively hunt anything that moves at the surface — newly hatched brineshrimp nauplii, daphnia, and vinegar eels are all taken with enthusiasm and noticeably improve male colouration over time. Spirulina-based flake rounds out the plant matter side of their diet. Feed small amounts two to three times daily rather than one large feeding; this matches their constant grazing behaviour and keeps water quality cleaner in a small tank.
Breeding Notes
Endlers are among the easiest livebearers to breed in the hobby. Females store sperm and can produce multiple broods from a single mating, delivering 5–25 fry every 23–28 days depending on temperature and condition. Fry are born large relative to body size and immediately free-swimming — in a well-planted tank a proportion will survive without any intervention. If you want to raise a higher percentage, a separate fry container or a tank divider works well; fry accept crushed flake and infusoria from day one and grow fast. The main management task is controlling population: a single trio will fill a tank in a few months. Separating males and females when you’ve reached your target population is the practical solution.
Tank Mates
Choose tank mates that are similarly small, non-aggressive, and comfortable in harder water. Ember tetras and chili rasboras work well in slightly overlapping water parameters and occupy different tank zones. Pygmy corydoras and otocinclus are useful clean-up crew additions that don’t bother Endlers at all. Nerite snails and neocaridina shrimp (cherry shrimp and similar) are compatible and useful in planted setups, though be aware that adult Endlers will pick off very small shrimp shrimplets if they encounter them in open water. Avoid any fish large enough to treat 2cm males as food, and avoid fin-nipping species like tiger barbs entirely.
Compatible Tank Mates
Species that pair well with Endlers Livebearer — linked where we've already covered them.
- Ember Tetra Hyphessobrycon amandae
- Chili Rasbora Boraras brigittae
- Pygmy Corydoras Corydoras pygmaeus
- Otocinclus Otocinclus vittatus
- Cherry Shrimp Neocaridina davidi
- Nerite Snail Neritina natalensis
- Exclamation Point Rasbora Boraras urophthalmoides
Similar Fishes
Other species with comparable care, size, or role in a planted tank.
- Guppy Poecilia reticulata
- Least Killifish Heterandria formosa
- Mosquitofish Gambusia affinis
- Platy Xiphophorus maculatus
- Norman's Lampeye Killifish Aplocheilichthys normani
- Clown Killifish Epiplatys annulatus
- Celestial Pearl Danio Danio margaritatus
Compatible Plants
Plants that work well in a tank stocked with Endlers Livebearer.
- Water Sprite Ceratopteris thalictroides
- Frogbit Limnobium laevigatum
- Java Moss Taxiphyllum barbieri
- Guppy Grass Najas guadalupensis
- Vallisneria Vallisneria spiralis
- Hornwort Ceratophyllum demersum
- Java Fern Microsorum pteropus
