# How do I make little boy Endlers....



## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

And not little girl endlers? I've had pure N-Strain Peacock Endlers for a few months now. They have had multiple births of fry and I've yet to see 1 male fry. Between the two tanks I have them in there must be about 25-30 fry yet they all look female. The oldest are about 2 months old now. Does water conditions or temperature affect the sex outcome of Endlers when breeding? How long does it typically take for male fry to begin showing even the smallest amount of color?


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## ryzilla (Feb 3, 2007)

The warmer your tank temps are the more females you will have. When I breed my endlers I keep the temp at around 68. This gives me around 70% males and 30% females. It is much easier to get females then males. If you keep your temps around the avg tank keeping temp which is probably 76 you will get 80% females I bet. Any higher then that you may get almost all or all females. I used to keep my tank temp at 78 about 1 1/2 yrs ago and I got 95% or so females as so it seemed. If you can keep your tank at 66 you will get roughly 80% males I bet. The gestation time at 66 may be around 42 days, at 77 degrees it will be around 32 days. These are all estimates that will vary. From my experience this is my rules and other people have had different but failry similair experiences. I bet John N could chime in.


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## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

Ahh. That's my problem. My tanks are always between 75-78 degrees. They're not going to get much cooler. I don't even have heaters in my tanks.


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

My first batch of fry in my tank was 1 male and 1 female, so can't tell for that, though my female did have another batch of 7, so I'll see how that goes. 
My temperature is really high being in Hawaii, probably in the low 80's without a heater(which reminds me to get a thermometer).


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

ryzilla said:


> The warmer your tank temps are the more females you will have. When I breed my endlers I keep the temp at around 68. This gives me around 70% males and 30% females. It is much easier to get females then males. If you keep your temps around the avg tank keeping temp which is probably 76 you will get 80% females I bet.


I've been getting 75% females all year with my tank in the mid to high 70's.
unfortunately, unless you have a cool basement or garage, temperatures
in the high 60's can only be achieved using an expensive chiller, which is
hardly worth the expense for the hobby level breeding of a $1-$2 fish.


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## Adragontattoo (Jun 3, 2007)

My tanks are kept at Ambient room temp year round.

I do know that my endlers take awhile to mature up to the point where they show coloration other then silver though.


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## ryzilla (Feb 3, 2007)

spypet said:


> I've been getting 75% females all year with my tank in the mid to high 70's.
> unfortunately, unless you have a cool basement or garage, temperatures
> in the high 60's can only be achieved using an expensive chiller, which is
> hardly worth the expense for the hobby level breeding of a $1-$2 fish.


I bought one of those fan coolers off of ebay and I was able to keep my temperatures 3-6 degrees LOWER then room temp depending on how long the lights have been on for. I never have a heater on, on my endler tanks except if the temp falls below 65 in my house. I spent i think $40 shipped to my house this 4 fan cooler and it has given me a TON of males. This spring through fall I have probably produces about 65-75% males which is a HUGE incrase from when I was keeping them at 78 degrees. Longer photoperiods is also said to increase the amount of males but I feel that this is not entirley true when temperature is a larger factor. Hey spy you are in NYC you shouldnt have any problem 8 months out of the year keeping your tank temp at 72 or lower.

Youc an sex females within a few weeks. They have a larger black spot on the lower part of their abdomen. With that information you can make asumptions about the fish that do not have that size of black spots. Peacock males will start to show their black spots on their belly and tail at around 1 1/2 months if you keep the temps for the fry at 80 degrees. I move my fry from the breeder tank to a grow out tank. My breeder tank is currently at 69 and my grow out is set to 80. I drip acclimate them when I move them from breeder tank to grow out tank. Endlers grow faster in warmer water but they also require more food.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

This works with other fish - raise them 2 at a time in some container. They almost always sex out as 1 male one female. This works especially well with killifish - egg laying tooth carps and Endlers are, by recent taxonomic changes now killifish - they're live bearing tooth carps.

But try the temperature thing first. I've raised thousands of Endlers and at about 75 or so get abot an even mix of male and female.


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## Brilliant (Jun 25, 2006)

When I did my reading on this I found pH is more a factor then temperature...even that was up for debate and pH seemed more of a factor for certain sex survival rate. I can not find the article now for reference. I would like to think the temperature idea is true because I just saved/relocated a few females and they just released fry in a tank thats 70F. Unfortunately Ive raised them in 82F with pretty even M:F ratio....so. I have my fingers crossed that one of my new fry is male. 

You should see faint colors within the first month which indicates a male.


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