Preparing to Move:
If you are looking for a fish that are easy to keep alive, the accident that happened to some of our Endler’s proves how remarkably easy these fish are to take care of.
In the spring of 2014 we moved from St. George, Utah to Richfield, Utah. In order to move all of our Endlers we put them in 5 gallon buckets to help make the move easier. This was a short distance move so the fish would only be in the buckets a few hours.
The move went well and we didn’t lose any of our Endlers.
We moved all of our plants into a single bucket except for some Java Moss. We picked up the Java Moss by hand and placed it in a bucket of fresh tap water all by itself.
Setting Aside the Java Moss
When the move was complete we decided not to use the Java Moss in the new setups because it was kind of messy and interfered with some of our filters. We set it aside on the porch with the lid loosely covering it and decided to take care of it after we decided what to do with it.
Our Remarkable Find
Over the next few months we had forgotten about the bucket containing the Java Moss until it became fall and we decided to get the yard prepared for winter. We eventually came across the bucket that contained the Java Moss.
When we opened the bucket up not only was the Java Moss healthy we also found that there were several adult Orchid Endlers as well as over 50 fry!
Apparently when we had moved the Java Moss from the tanks a few small fry hitched a ride into the bucket with the moss, grew up, bred and had more fry.
Our temperatures outdoors were in the 90’s several times during the summer and at night dipped into the 70’s. These remarkable fish not only survived but thrived eating only the plant matter and algae that was growing in the bucket! When we removed the fish from the bucket we found them to be fat and healthy with very nice coloration.
We felt bad for neglecting the fish that we didn’t know we had but were amazed how well they did in this extreme environment.
While there are rumors that these wonderful fish are extinct in the wild, we have to believe that some survived somewhere in the wilds of Venezuela however because they evolve so quickly we feel it’s likely that some color variations may be gone from the wild forever.
We could never condone intentionally treating Endlers with anything but the best care possible however this accident shows that if you’re looking for a fish that are easy to keep alive, you may wish to take a good look at Endlers!
Update: Even after we thought we got them all we found two more fry about 1/2″ long after the photo of the empty bucket was taken. They’re in a nice home now.