Converting P. wingei to salt water

[Matt_95]

I thought it'd be a good idea to create a thread to follow the progress of my endlers that I am converting from freshwater to marine conditions for my pico. Laguna de los Patos, where endlers originate from is a series of estuaries that range from hard freshwater to brackish water, the can live in both these conditions and are also able to be slowly acclimatized to marine conditions. I'm not sure if these are pure P. wingei, I doubt they are as I have never seen conclusive proof of any in Australia. But that doesn't really matter because guppies (P. reticulata) have an even higher tolerance to saline water, apparently they can survive in double strength sea water.

 

I got given my endlers today, the tank I have prepared for them has a SG of 1.008 and the water in their bag is 1.002. I'll change a small amount of their water daily with water from my pico until I get the SG up too 1.025. I will go slowly to avoid shocking them as I don't want to loose any. I'll get some pictures once I have finished acclimatization.

[HVani]

Good luck! I love endlers and would love to have a few for my tank

[dtitus1]

So the ones you got are already brackish? That's pretty cool I'm going to start a saltwater Endlers colony soon too it's been an idea I've toyed around with for awhile. I'm in contact with a guy that has a couple different strains so I want to eventually get a large enough population to maybe sell them and have good color mixes.

 

Make sure you raise the salinity REALLY slowly as any significant increases they won't be able to catch up with. I would raise your gravity to 1.025 over a few days seems to be what people say about them.

[Matt_95]

The ones I got were freshwater, but they're in brackish water now, I took them from 1.002 to 1.008 over the course of around an hour and a half. I usually keep my endlers on the low side of the brackish range and I've found no problems with a large jump in salinity to brackish water. But I do plan on slowing it down now and taking 5 or so days to bring it up to the required salinity.

 

These ones I have gotten don't look the same as the endlers I used to breed. The ones I used to keep were these, clearly of hybrid desent but they look fantastic. I'm wondering if these new ones aren't so colourful because of stress?

I have previously moved many mollies into marine conditions, I usually give them around three hours.

 

Edit: after looking at the swamp river aquatics site, they look like a non line bred type, I might try get a hold of the standard black bar strain as well and have two lines going.

[dtitus1]

Just saying, they have a much higher mortality rate during acclimation than mollies, mollies you can just throw in and most will do fine. It sounds like youre doing good so far though.

[Chew_Magna]

I've done mollies, figure 8 puffers and monos but I've never touched these guys. Mollies are easy, they need literally zero acclimation between fresh and full salt. Match the temp and dump them in. The same with the mono, it went from fresh, straight into brackish, then straight into full salt. I've always read that guppies aren't so easy and they need to be brought up fairly slowly, up to weeks to get to full salt. The guy that works in the store here in town has some full salt, next time I'm in there I'll ask him how he went about it.

[Nocturnal]

I still can't wrap my head around seeing a molly cruising around a reef tank. For me that is like seeing a polar bear at the beach.

 

They can be very pretty fish tbough.

[Acielot]

Wow I have 1 pure endler and 3 offspring. I might try this out out it works well for you.

[Chew_Magna]

I still can't wrap my head around seeing a molly cruising around a reef tank. For me that is like seeing a polar bear at the beach. They can be very pretty fish tbough.

 

Had one in my old 15 gallon.

 

 

[llama roadkill]

I'm following this, might be cool to have some Endlers.

[RC1313]

I had some mollies from Wal-mart once. Like chew said, I floated the bags, and dumped em in. They were pretty cool, but I don't think they liked the flow very well.

[Matt_95]

Thanks for all of the advice guys, I'll try to bring the SG up to 1.010 today. So far 0 losses with the 0.006 increase in SG yesterday and the makes have coloured up more than they were yesterday.

 

I put some of my mollies into an old nano I used to have a few years ago, I noticed they had white spot so I figured acclimatizing them to marine conditions would kill it off. It worked and they cleared up a lot of the algae in my tank.

[Matt_95]

I finally got a picture, nothing great as the tank is dirty and they're hard to focus on. I may end up keeping them as a colony in a larger tank and putting a pair of more colourful ones in the nano, maybe a chili red pair.

[Nocturnal]

Had one in my old 15 gallon.

 

 

 

Headasplode. jpg

 

As fast as they breed I bet they could provide some nice snacks for the rest of the tank.

[biocubedatx]

I catch wild mollies at the end of my dock on the river. I acclimate them over a 2 day drip in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

I also do this with killifish i catch in the same spot.

[B.S.]

Back in the day (30+ years ago) you could buy mollies and guppies already converted to saltwater for the purpose of cycling saltwater tanks. Back then even damsels were kinda pricey so mollies were the cycling fish of choice. Some shops would even loan mollies out and take them back after the cycle. Many folks considered the mollies disposable after the cycle, I never could do that as it seemed cruel and my first salt tanks in the 70's always had a molly or two swimming around as I didn't have the heart to flush them when the cycle was done.

 

B.S.

[dtitus1]

Think next month I'm going to order my endlers, I'm probably gonna start out with like 5-6 individuals of different strains and bring them up to full salt in a 5.5 qt tank I just bought today but I will be following to see how everything goes for you. I've been talking about saltwater endlers on this forum for so long I'm a little butthurt someone beat me to it but I'm still glad it's being done lol.

[tetraodon]

I've done mollies, figure 8 puffers and monos but I've never touched these guys. Mollies are easy, they need literally zero acclimation between fresh and full salt. Match the temp and dump them in. The same with the mono, it went from fresh, straight into brackish, then straight into full salt.

from what i know, mollies, figure 8s, monos, scats and such are collected from estuarys that go from slightly brackish to full salt, so i guess you could say for them its with in normal parameters for those fish

[Chew_Magna]

from what i know, mollies, figure 8s, monos, scats and such are collected from estuarys that go from slightly brackish to full salt, so i guess you could say for them its with in normal parameters for those fish

Yeah but they're all bred (the ones that can be bred) and sold in pure freshwater for the hobby because it makes them more marketable. Makes you wonder how many generations down they are outside their natural habitat and if some of them can tolerate the switch.

 

I always wanted a scat. I've never seen one here though.

[Tamberav]

Won't they get blasted by the flow in a full reef tank? lol They look like weak swimmers but I have never even owned a guppy. Wonder if cardinals/jawfish would eat them?

I'm following this, might be cool to have some Endlers.

[tetraodon]

Yeah but they're all bred (the ones that can be bred) and sold in pure freshwater for the hobby because it makes them more marketable. Makes you wonder how many generations down they are outside their natural habitat and if some of them can tolerate the switch.

 

I always wanted a scat. I've never seen one here though.

i only know mollies are bred, not sure about anything else, scats are cool but i know their collection is restricted, so usally its hard to get them, im actually thinking of adding a molly to my 20L brackish tank

[starrlamia]

very cool, i used to breed black bars, they are super fun and personable little guys!

[Chew_Magna]

i only know mollies are bred, not sure about anything else, scats are cool but i know their collection is restricted, so usally its hard to get them, im actually thinking of adding a molly to my 20L brackish tank

Ah didn't know that about scats.

 

I know that guppies can live in our tanks perfectly fine, but you'll have to put them in a lower flow area like a fuge because they can't handle the flow. The molly I had in my old tank didn't like it at first, I think it took him a few days before he was cruising around like the other fish.

[Matt_95]

Scats are pretty easy to get here, you can find them around pontoons in the ocean without much difficulty. I used to have one in a 6x2 with a cod, voltage and a few other medium sized reef fish I caught.

 

I'd never put a fancy guppy in a marine tank, they'd be toast with those long fins. And they're not very hardy to begin with. I'm not sure how well the endlers will do with the flow, I assume they will hang out in areas with low flow.

 

Sorry dtitus, you snooze, you loose! I've been considering endlers for this tank since I got it a few years ago, just been waiting to finish school. I wanted something active yet small enough for the tank.

 

They're just a tad over 1.010 now. Do you guys think it will be safe to go up 0.002 everyday?

[Fnard]

Wow, this is pretty nice! Never thought of this, but seems like you are having some good results. Was think of getting a red cap goby for my Mini M, but a couple of these may make for a nice alternative. Looking forward to your results. Following along.