There are many fish that are not good parents because they eat their offspring. In this article, you will learn if Endler fish could eat their babies or not. Endler fish which are popularly known as Endler guppies are in the family of Guppy fish, little wonder why many people regard them as Guppy fish. Endlers are livebearing fish, meaning that they don’t lay eggs, but bore live fish. Many livebearing fish do feed on their fry, so if you want to know if Endler guppies could do the same, then read this article to the end.
Will Endler fish eat their babies? Endler fish will feed on their offspring if they are kept with them after giving birth to them.
It is not uncommon that many fish are not good parents because they take on their fry as food.
Although many non-livebearing fish could do this by eating both their eggs and fry, but this act is very popular among livebearing fish like the Guppies which Endler fish are among.
Endlers and Guppies at large are omnivores because they could eat both flesh and other things such as plants, fruits, vegetables, etc. They will take on anything that they could eat, including their babies.
There are a few reasons why they do this, we will have to look at the reasons below.
Why Guppies Eat Their Babies
A few reasons why they eat their fry are:
1. When they are hungry: They pose a great threat to their babies when they are hungry because being able to eat them, they will always see them as a source of food and maybe nutrition, especially when they are hungry, as they will disturb them less if they are very okay with food.
2. Naturally they are not good parents: The fact is, it is in their nature to eat their babies no matter what.
Although they don’t feed on them much when they are well-fed, but all the same, they will still eat some of them, at least before they grow, so they are not good at parenting.
3. Sometimes they do it because of a lack of nutrients because they could see their babies as a source of nutrition when they lack it.
How To Stop Guppies From Eating Their Babies
As I explained above, Endlers are guppies, and since all guppies eat their offspring, you might be wondering how to stop them from going for their babies.
1. Plant a lot of plants in their tanks: One of the effective ways of preserving some fish fry is to put in place plants and some other hiding places such as caves, pipes, etc where they will hide and stay away from their parent in order not to be eaten.
The issue with having their tanks planted is that although it could preserve a lot of them by providing hiding places where they will hide and stay away from their parents, but it is not 100 percent guaranteed because the parents will still eat many of them.
So, plants give them a chance of survival but do not protect them in totality.
I would advise you to get plants like Java moss because they grow very slowly and won’t give you much problems.
2. Provide a breeding box or tank for your pregnant guppy: It is not advisable to keep your pregnant guppy or Endler guppy in a community tank.
There are many negative effects of that which include other fish feedings on the fry when they are born.
Keeping the pregnant fish in a separate tank all alone will give the fry a much chance of survival than when they are kept in a community tank.
Although the Mother is very likely to cannibalize on them, so it is still recommended to transfer the mother back to the community tank after she is through with delivering her babies.
By far, I recommend this strategy because it is 99% effective in preserving the fry.
3. Use a tank separator to separate the mother and the fry.
This is another strategy I strongly recommend because it is very effective in preserving fish fry.
If getting another tank is costly for you, you can buy a tank separator or divider and divide the tank, keeping the mother, or other fish on one side and the fry on the other side thereby bridging the Gap of closeness between the adult fish and the fry.
By so doing, there is no way the mother or other adult fish could cannibalize the fry because they can’t get to them.
4. Providing enough food for them: As I stated above, one of the reasons why Endlers and other fish cannibalize on their fry is because they are not getting enough food and enough nutrition.
Once they are well fed and with quality foods too, their level of aggression and hunger will reduce, making them to also reduce their level of cannibalism toward their babies.
There are many quality foods you can get, especially from online stores.
I would advise you to use this method only if you don’t want to have much population of guppies in your tank, because the adults will still cannibalize on the babies, thereby killing many of them before they could grow, despite being fed.
How Many Babies Do Endlers Have?
Endler fish could produce between 5-30 fry at once and their gestation period is 23-25 days.
All guppies don’t lay eggs, including Endler guppies and neither are they hermaphrodites because they have separate genders in different fish.
The male needs to mate with the female in order to fertilize her, which will get her pregnant.
So, when they are born, they could have up to 30 babies per adult female Endler.
What Fish Will Eat Endler Fry?
All adult fish will eat Endler fry, including the parents.
The truth is that all fish could be classified as omnivores and some as pure carnivores because fish will naturally eat anything that could enter their mouth, including smaller fish.
Endlers fry being very small will become a great meal for any adult fish that could get to them, including their parents.
Conclusion
Endlers do eat their babies and they should be separated from them after birth or you will lose some of them.
