Tanzanite Endler Breeding Guide

Breeding the Tanzanite Endler (Poecilia wingei), a tiny purple-blue livebearer, with sexing, ~23-day broods, fry care and keeping the line free of guppy crosses.

Overview

The Tanzanite Endler is a strain of Poecilia wingei (family Poeciliidae) named for deep purple-blue colour in the tail rays of the male. Endler's livebearer is a small ovoviviparous fish that gives birth to live young roughly every 23 days, closely related to but distinct from the guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

Sexing

Males are small and colourful, developing colour at about 3-4 weeks with full intensity over the first six months, and carry a gonopodium for internal fertilisation. Females are plainer and can reach roughly twice the size of males.

Conditioning

This omnivore conditions on small foods: fine flake, micro live or frozen foods, plus algae and microorganisms grazed from plants. Maintain stable, slightly hard alkaline water for continuous reproduction.

Breeding Setup

Mixed-sex groups breed continuously without intervention. Keeping the strain pure means excluding guppies entirely: P. wingei crosses readily with P. reticulata and the offspring are fertile, diluting the gene pool. A planted tank shelters fry and provides grazing.

Mating & Gestation

Males fertilise females internally through the gonopodium, and females give birth to live young approximately every 23 days.

Birth & Fry Care

Broods range from 1 to about 30 fry depending on the mother's age and size. Newborns spend their first hours absorbing the yolk sac on the bottom and are most at risk of predation then, including from the mother and other females; males are less cannibalistic. Feed powdered fry food, baby brine shrimp, crushed flake, algae and plant microorganisms.

Common Challenges

Large births can stress females, sometimes causing grey colouration, deterioration and death. The greatest risk to a Tanzanite line is hybridisation with guppies, which yields fertile crosses and erodes strain purity.