If you are familiar with the history of Endlers you may recognize what a special treat these 1975 Black Bar Endlers are!
Where They Came From
I received these beautiful Endlers from Glen Hawkins a well known and respected hobbyist and breeder. Glen enjoys rare live-bearing fish, aquatic plants and the art of aquascaping. Be sure to check out his YouTube Channel.
Here is what Glen told me about these special Endlers: “The original collection 1975 Black Bar Endlers I have is particularly interesting and rare find. The hobbyist I found them from, purchased 50 wild caught Black Bar Endlers in 1975 and keep the colony going since and it is a huge colony now.“ Glen also told me “The owner said over the years there were several variations of the natural form. So there are chances to start some interesting black bars.“
We would also like to say a big thank you to Orlando Gonzalez who gave us some more important information about these beautiful Black Bar Endlers:
He kept them in large ponds in his greenhouses in CT. I maintain the direct descendants of these fish. They have not changed at all in 43 years.”
About 1975 Black Bar Endlers
The very first Endlers ever discovered were discovered by Franklyn F. Bond in 1937. After their original discovery Endlers were forgotten until they were rediscovered in 1975 by Dr. John Endler were found in Laguna de Patos, Cumana, in north-eastern Venezuela.
A few years after the 1975 Endlers were kept in captivity Dr. Endler said that the most of the original 1975 Endlers appeared to have been hybridized and had lost much of their coloration.
What Makes These Black Bar Endlers Different
The interesting thing we noted about these Endlers is that they were purchase as wild caught Black Bar Endler in 1975 and had been kept by the same hobbyist from that time forward until they were received by Glen Hawkins who then shared them with us.
This is as close to having the original Black Bar Endlers as one could possibly hope for as they have been kept in captivity many years, long before today’s Black Bar Endlers were captured by Armando Pau and line bred and introduced into the hobby by Adrian Hernandez (AdrianHD) in late 90’s thru 2004.
Endlers are a rapidly evolving species. Because of the many years separating these 1975 Black Bar Endlers and the Black Bar Endlers that are commonly found in the hobby today there are many differences between the two Black Bar strains. As one might expect this strain is brightly colored, beautiful and exhibits many of the characteristics described by Dr. John Endler when he first discovered them back in 1975.
Our experience has been that this Black Bar strain does produce several difference variations giving an opportunity to keep and possibly produces several interesting Black Bar variations.
I trust and respect Glen a great deal and have no doubt that he is honest and truthful about the fish he has supplied us with. I also know that Glen has some strong ties with breeders in Europe where I would suspect these unique Endlers came from.
Are These N Class Endlers?
We can’t really call these beautiful Endlers “N Class” as we cannot verify who the owner was that kept these Endlers for over 40 years and of course these Endlers predate the ECS system altogether!
Because Dr. Endler discribed much of the original Endlers as having lost much of their coloration and were likely hybridized they would likely be classified as K or P class today.
This strain has been quite easy to keep and is very hardy. The strain also produces a lot of fry and they do not appear to eat their fry.
A special thanks goes out to Glen Hawkins for supplying us with the stock to produce our colony of 1975 Black Bar Endlers!
