# Mysterious dealth of my endlers



## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Hi everyone,
First of all, I am a newbie to keep fish. I have my 5g tank and had been cycled and run since the beginning of March. I had 5 endler fries previously. They had been gone through the cloudy water period after I added the water to substrate. They were doing fine back then. However, 2 of the smallest one started to die a month ago. They were the babies and I thought they died because the lack of food since I had been told that do not overfeed the fish and I fed very less. Also the bigger one always got to eat more and faster. So I think it may be the cause. 

Then I lost another one, the only male endler yesterday. I mean lost like it disappeared. It doesn't show up in feeding time and I couldn't find it these two days. So I assume it's gone. I do 30% water change every week. I have quite a few low maintenance plants like java fern, java moss and anubias. I feed them once per day. I have 2 bags of bioring in my media filter with beneficial bacteria from my friend's seed in my fluval spec V. I also did water test on April 25 and May 5. The test results looked good with ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-average 5, pH-6.6(revised) and GH-average 5. I also asked the pet store to test my water sometime. All test result was good. I have around 20 cherry shrimps. And I heard of shrimps produce very minimal or closed to zero bioload. So I take that as not overstocked. Please correct me if I am wrong. 

Now I'm very frustrated and don't know why the endlers are keep dying. Endler supposed to be a bullet-proof little guy. Please help me figure out why.

Thanks,
~ bbqwing ~


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## Shrimpette (Feb 17, 2015)

I'm definitely no expert, but PH of 6 seems pretty low to me. I'd prefer to see it closer to at least 7.0 - 7.5. 5 gallon tanks can be tricky if the water you use during your water changes doesn't match your current conditions (although that should also affect the shrimp as they are more sensitive, so if they're doing well your water changes are probably fine). 

Also... if you're keeping males and females together you'll need a bigger tank very soon anyway. Five fry isn't a huge load, but when they turn into breeding adults 5 gallons will become too small very quickly! A bigger tank will be more forgiving with water fluctuations as well.


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for your opinion. I made a mistake on ph. It should be 6.6 instead of 6. I will revise it in my first post. 

Yes, I agree with it's quite a bit swing for the water change in a 5g tank. One of my friends told me to just do 10% water change once a week or do 30% water change once every 2 week.


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

I come from dying guppies like you to finally mastering it. I have a few hundred baby fry, and yes, there have been tons of mysterious deaths. I've lost two of my half black yellow tails which I'm pretty certain I won't be able to find to quite some time.
Anyhow, 5 gallon is a small tank, but I don't see how it can affect endlers.
If you're wondering why they die, it's hard to say, to be honest with you, I have tons of guppies that die and live on as well~ I have UV sterillizers and over filtration and do 3-4 water changes per week, and they would still die on me. So don't blame yourself for anything.
What I realized that did work was lots and lots of plants~ The more plants, the better. I run a similar set up with RCS, amanos and guppies in there. They easily get stress, so I find having plants is the best idea. Your PH is also on the little low side, I run mine at 7.2ph. I also throw in a small bag of crushed coral in the filter so the PH won't crash. I split my servings into 3-4 times a day, I crush all the food with my fingers before I feed, because the fry needs to eat and even the adults can find the tiniest bit of food.

I'm not saying that doing all this will work for you, I'm only sharing with you my experience and how I've ended up with 100's of fry. Anyhow, I hope this info may help shine some light.
Oh right, I dont dose salt at all.

Here's some fry from awhile back, now there's 100's, but to be honest, not many make it to juvenile~ Only small handful ever make it to juvenile. I just treat it as part of the life cycle, even in the wild, the strong survives and the weak will die.


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for your tips, eternity302. Now I'm worrying about the ammonia swings up since I can't find the body of my missing endler. I hope the shrimps could do their job to clean it up.

So I also talked to another friend. He told me that he never do water change for his 2.5 g tank. He is having 5 beautiful guppies and they are still swimming happily since he got them 2 months ago. He explained to me the more water change he did, the more fish dies. So he doesn't bother do water change anymore. Ironically, his fish never die on him. I am little uncertain about it. 

~ bbqwing ~


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

I uploaded this just for you.
Look at how it went boom!
4 water changes a week right now! And i've been transfering fish around just because it went insane in population!
Purigen and water changes is their best friends right now.
Don't flame if you think i'm over stocked. Thanks
But hey, they're all living LOL! Trust me, they adjust to your tank condition, I do 80% water changes all the time.


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