Thrive not Survive

Resilient by nature, adaptable by necessity, and hardy by design, endlers (P. Wingei) can survive in conditions that would kill most fish. Provided with conditions resembling their natural environment pure-blooded endlers have virtually no health issues. Straying from these parameters causes stress, weakens defenses, and allows secondary infections to attack. They will survive and propagate given even the poorest conditions, but in perfect conditions, they will thrive and you will see the difference. We will teach you the ins and outs of how to make sure your endlers Thrive not Survive.

How We Raise Our Endlers

General: Overfeeding is the biggest reason Endlers die. Feed light, do regular water changes, and remove any fish not acting well to a hospital container for evaluation.

Water: Endlers evolved in a shallow large surface area lagoon fed by fresh and saltwater and heated under the tropical sun. The salt content of their environment fluctuates yielding higher levels of trace minerals left from evaporation. Ark BioRite Replenisher is a proprietary blend of sea salt and trace minerals designed to replicate the native waters of endlers in Laguna de Los Patos, Venezuela. One tablespoon of Replenisher per 10 gallons of dechlorinated water (we use Ark BioRite Total Water Conditioner), will provide a stable environment for pure-blooded endlers.

pH: Waters wild Endlers live in seasonally ranges between 5.5 to 8pH. Our facility maintains our water at 7.0pH

Temperature Range: Optimal from 77 degrees to 84 degrees. Our production facility is heated to 78 degrees, we use preset heaters at 78 degrees as back up.

Lifespan: Endlers will survive in normal aquarium freshwater for 1-2 years. They thrive in a covered tank, with a proper diet and water treated to replicate native waters; 2-5 years

Breeding: “Just add water.” We find gestation to be 23-25 days for Pure Cumana endlers and 25-29 days for Genuine Campona Endlers. Drop size ranges from 1-50 babies depending on age and size. Females can be bred as early as 30 days old. Females can have up to 6 fry drops from one breeding.

Diet and Feeding: Most health problems can be traced back to overfeeding or feeding low-quality food. Endlers are omnivores/micro predators (meaning they will eat nearly any food they can fit in their mouth). Endlers will survive on fish flake food, they will thrive on high protein foods specially made to meet their needs. Six days a week, we feed Ark BioRite Community Complete Balanced Food (sized for 1-day old fry through 2-inch adult females) twice a day and Ark BioRite Grazing Wafer between feedings, nothing else. When we provide the right amount of food, it is cleaned up in 10 minutes. Our fish fast one day a week.

Why Ark BioRite Community Complete Balanced Food: This proprietary blend provides the correct size food for adult endlers, with some larger particles for older females both dropping with a varied float time for optimal delivery. The blend is loaded with more powdered food designed to float longer entering mid-stream slow allowing fry extra time and privacy needed to find, see, and eat.

Why Ark BioRite Grazing Wafer: Wild Endlers graze throughout the day. Ark BioRite Grazing Wafer is designed to soften slowly over a 3-5 hour window allowing both adults and fry the opportunity to supplement their diet. It is made of a proprietary vegetable blend that is formulated for the digestive track of an omnivore, as opposed to a strict herbivore that has a longer intestinal tract. Never use more than 1 a day, if your colony is new or small the wafers can be broken into fourths

TankMates: Per 10 gallons of water in each tank, we stock 3 cory catfish, a minimum of 20 Ramshorn snails and at least 20 Cherry or Blue Shrimp to clean up excess food.

Plants: We fill 25% volume of each tank with plants. Hornwort, Guppy Grass, and Duckweed are all we raise. They provide safe-haven for fry, a great environment for microscopic food to grow. The more plants in a tank the less % each water change will need to be.

Water Changes: 30%-40% every week. Overcrowded tanks 30%-40% two times per week. We dose all water for water changes with Ark BioRite Stress Relief (1 teaspoon per gallon of water) and Ark BioRite Replenisher (1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of water).

Lights: We use only white-based grow lights in our facility. They are on 14 hours per day.

Medications: Our facility is pathogen-free and self-contained, we have found no need to medicate our Endlers once they have adjusted to water treated with Replenisher.

New Endlers: Isolate new endlers for 8 weeks in quarantine tanks. Treat using fed Ark BioRite Full Spectrum food for 2 weeks for internal parasites, medicated use Ick Off and Knock-em-out for fungal, bacterial, and parasite infections followed and do a 50% water change before introducing new endlers into your colony. Endlers are fed with our normal food and feeding cycle for the remainder of the 8 weeks (by this time most have dropped fry).