The fun Associated with Raising Orchid Endlers
One of the fun and exciting things we like about Orchid Endlers is the wonderful color variety that is found in them. No other strain of Endler is quite like Orchid Endlers.
Because Orchid Endlers have more black in them then most Endler strains the wonderful colors really pop. The reds and greens especially stand out.
Color and Shape Variations
From time to time an Endler is produced that deviates from the everyday look of most of the Endlers.
Most of the time these changes are small such as more red, violet, black or other coloration. Sometimes it is a difference in shape as was the case when we were fortunate to produce an Endler that had an extremely long swordtail.
Our Exciting New Find
Recently we were excited to find another Endler that has some wonderful markings that really looks different than the normal Orchid Endler.
This unique Orchid Endler has the main coloration that are common to the normal Orchid Endler but has a unique snakeskin coloration in the tail area.
This is Not a Hybrid
Getting an Orchid Endler to produce markings like these may be somewhat easy if it were to be crossed with a fancy guppy (Poecilia reticulata) however crosses between guppies and Endlers usually result in a loss of the bright metallic colors that Endlers are known for. Such crosses usually result in a thicker bodied fish as well.
This Endler is a pure strain N Class Endler that has had a mutation or what is called a variation. Variations and mutations are natures way of helping a species evolve.
Those variations that help make the fish more successful in nature are usually passed on to other generations while those variations that don’t assist the species in being more successful are usually eliminated by means of death or being eaten by predators.
Is this unique coloration present in the wild? As we researched the markings of this unusually fish we found one strain developed by AdrianHD that had similar markings.
The strain we found to have similar markings was the White Peacock Endler that was first collected from the Laguna de los Patos North Lake in 2004.
There is also another strain of Endler that was line bred by AdrianHD that is called the Original Snake Chest. These Endler’s have a similar snake pattern in the chest area.
Only time will tell if this fish is going to be a one-of-a-kind Endler or if we will be able to use this wonderful looking male to produce more fabulous fish.
Update 2018: Recent photographs taken of Endlers taken in Venezuela show that this pattern is not entirely unique and can be found in nature. We believe that this variation was the result of crossover genetics.
We still keep our original Orchid Endler colony and have never seen another male with similar markings ever produced.
