Aquariums: Endler guppy jungle

In my tank the guppy females have hiding places for days! I know you can’t see them well. It’s better in person believe me!

This is the full tank as well as a few attempts to get shots of the animals from different perspectives. They unfortunately move too quickly for my phone to handle.

The colony has been in my keeping since 2012. Always in this tank (65L), moved house once and moved the tank to another spot once a few years back. There is no sunlight, no heater, no filter, very few water changes, light feedings a few times a week.

The light is a fluval sky, but it used to be a pretty dim cheap led until it broke because of water damage. I prefer slow growing plants because frankly I am not the greatest at trimming.

Plants are Cryptocoryne, Anubias, Java Moss, Duckweed. Duckweed removal is the biggest maintenance task, but it’s worth it. The fish are healthy.

There aren‘t any genetic defects that I can see. I don’t bring up many of the fry though, so it’s probably survival of the fittest at work. I started with four different strains of wild type Endler, bought online from a fish keeper in Austria who had caught his fish himself.

They all interbred of course. Until maybe five years back I still had two different phenotypes, now only the one you see is left. I never dared buy any „Endler“ to introduce new genes, for fear of losing my pure bred wild types. The ones you see in shops are almost guaranteed not to be 100% Poecilia wingei, but instead hybrids with the common guppy Poecilia reticulata.

I am in western Germany and interested in trading if someone knows someone who keeps real Endlers please feel free to DM.

However the point of my post isn’t about the genetics.

I made the post because of a discussion last night about how guppies always chase the females so much and what people were describing just doesn’t happen like that to mine. They can always get away if they are fed up with it and that’s important for their well being.