Cumana

Overview

The original population that John Endler found in 1975 and that was first called "Endler's livebearer".

Pictured is a fish collected from Laguna Patos and then line-bred into the "black bar" phenotype.

Wild populations are valued as "pure" lines: crossing with common guppies produces fertile offspring but dilutes the gene pool, so breeders avoid it.

Appearance

A male with a greenish-gold metallic body, large orange patches and a broad black bar on the side. The upper and lower edges of the tail are orange with black borders.

Care

Shared with the species: Endler's Livebearer

• Volume: from 40 l for a small colony; base dimensions from 45 × 30 cm.
• Temperature: 24–30 °C. The species is hardy and will live at room temperature without a heater.
• Water: pH 6.5–8.5, hardness 8 to 35 °dGH. Endlers tolerate hard, slightly alkaline water well.
• Keep them as a group with more females than males, otherwise males harass the females constantly.
• Plants are essential: dense growth along the edges gives females and fry somewhere to retreat.
• Cover the tank — like guppies, Endlers jump.
• Keep the flow gentle and change part of the water weekly.

Life expectancy is around 4 years.

Feeding

Shared with the species: Endler's Livebearer

Omnivorous. In the wild they feed on zoobenthos and detritus, and graze algae and micro-organisms off plants.

In the aquarium they take almost any food of a suitable size. Because the mouth is small, flakes are worth crushing. Some vegetable matter in the diet is necessary. Live and frozen foods — daphnia, cyclops, baby brine shrimp — are taken readily.

Compatibility

Shared with the species: Endler's Livebearer

Peaceful, but too small for a general community tank with larger fish. Good companions are dwarf corydoras, small rainbowfish and peaceful tetras.

Males are peaceful towards each other, while females can behave territorially.

The key restriction: Endlers must not be kept with common guppies. The two species interbreed freely and the offspring are fertile, so a pure line is lost within a couple of generations. This is exactly how the trade filled up with hybrids sold as peacock, snake or tiger Endlers.

Breeding

Shared with the species: Endler's Livebearer

Breeding is extremely easy — given males and females, the colony grows on its own.

• Females give birth roughly every 23–24 days.
• A brood holds 5 to 25 fry; English Wikipedia gives a range of one to thirty or more.
• Males begin to show colour at 3–5 weeks and reach full coloration over their first six months.
• Females can reproduce from about two months of age.

Giving birth is stressful for the female, and some do not survive a large brood.

Adults rarely hunt the fry, but dense planting still helps them.

Fun facts

Shared with the species: Endler's Livebearer

• The species name honours the Danish geneticist Øjvind Winge (1886–1964), while the common name comes from John Endler, who rediscovered the fish in 1975.
• Sixty-eight years passed between the first collection in 1937 and the formal description in 2005.
• Hybrids with the common guppy are fertile, so pure lines are scarce in the trade — most shop "Endlers" are of hybrid origin.
• The IUCN Red List classifies the species as Endangered.