Been running a planted community tank of tiger endlers, cherry barbs and giant danios with some RCS for about a year now and the endler's population is starting to get out of hand.

The danios nab any fry that comes into midwater, but those are few and far between.

As such I'm looking for two things.

Advice on additional predators which might be more enthusiastic on hunting the fry in the floating hornwort.

Anyone living in the Cambridge MA area who would be interested in a dozen or so mixed sex tigers.

Ideal would be a trade for a fish(s) which could solve my population problem.

Thanks in advance.

Though they have a reputation of being difficult to raise and expensive, I had a BEAUTIFUL German Blue Ram that in my personal experience was actually very easy to take care of, didn't bother any of the platies I had and was like a heat seeking missile on the baby platy fry.

I mean as soon as he got out of his bag that boy just immediately started hunting the fry and I'm pretty sure caught every single one.

Good Luck!

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IslandRzrbk

35g Planted Freshwater tank - 4 platies, 2 veiled angelfish (juvenile), 1 pictus catfish (juvenile), 1 golden Chinese algae eater (juvenile), 1 candy-striped plecostomas (juvenile), 1 female veiltail betta

Why don't you start trading some into a LFS for credit towards things you want/need? Or sell the babies?

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36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

I was thinking about a ram, but I think my pH is too high and my temp too low (e.g. 8.2 and 70 resp).

I had also thought about trading them to LFS, Petco, but I'm not sure they will take them.

And as for selling them, I don't have the time to do non-local stuff, e.g. shipping and what not.

Thanks for the responses so far.

Yeah 8.2 is WAY to high for a Ram. Oh well.

I've spoken to Petco and Petsmart, etc. about selling babies to them before and the managers all said the same things. The breeders have already been determined and contracted with (whomever they are) by the higher ups and most store managers don't have the authority to make decisions about purchasing fish from private breeders. I don't know what LFS is, but I know a lot of smaller, privately owned stores are usually very happy to deal with smaller breeders for trade or credit.

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IslandRzrbk

35g Planted Freshwater tank - 4 platies, 2 veiled angelfish (juvenile), 1 pictus catfish (juvenile), 1 golden Chinese algae eater (juvenile), 1 candy-striped plecostomas (juvenile), 1 female veiltail betta

lfs = privately owned fish store.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

What d y'all think about like a female betta or a dwarf gourami?

I've heard they either eat them all or don't even try.

I did some reading in regards to bettas being used for population control. From what I've read it seems that bettas seem to have an "all-or-nothing" attitude and will gorge themselves on fry. This is great if there are only a small amount since they are very nutritious, however, it can also lead to bloat, swim bladder, constipation, etc. if there are so many that the betta just eats and eats and eats. I can't find anything in regards to gourami's. Although a friend of mine had a ~60g tank in which he had 3 dwarf gourami's, 2 regular gourami's, platies, and a fuss load of other fish including chinese algae eaters. And I can assure you there was NO form of population control in that tank!

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IslandRzrbk

35g Planted Freshwater tank - 4 platies, 2 veiled angelfish (juvenile), 1 pictus catfish (juvenile), 1 golden Chinese algae eater (juvenile), 1 candy-striped plecostomas (juvenile), 1 female veiltail betta

I had a friend that tried to use a betta for population control with endlers, they produce so many that the betta couldn't keep up. One thing I know about endlers is once the tank reaches a certain capacity of endlers they will stop breeding until some are removed or some start dieing off. I've been keeping endlers for about 6 years, now I just keep then in 30 gal tanks and they aren't over populated yet.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

Thanks for the input.

Definitely don't want any fishing bursting from eating too much :-).

If the endlers really do stop breeding when the population gets too dense that would be great. As it stands now, my water parameters are perfect but I've been monitoring closely as the population rises.

I guess I'll just wait and see what happens and then reassess...the cat is enthusiastically offering to help as we speak...

Oh one other question for susankat.

Do you keep them in planted tanks e.g. with places for the fry to hide?

I keep them in tanks with lots of plants. but the fry don't hide that much as endlers aren't known for eating their fry. There is a few that probably will but most don't.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

So... putting Endler's in with my Fire Honey gourami (who are about 1.5 inches long and don't bother with the minute sized Chili rasbora or the cardinals) isn't a good idea?

Although... I did have 3 of the Chilis and now only have 1... o_O

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981