Hi all,

I've been keeping livebearers for a while now but only recently discovered ALA. I just joined today, so here I am!

I'm currently keeping class N Endler's livebearers (black bars and peacocks) that I bought from AdrianHD just after Thanksgiving. I had my first litter of fry on December 22, effectively doubling the population. They are in a 46-gallon planted species tank.

I had been keeping mollies before that, but I had a nasty outbreak of camallanus worms that infested everything. I fought them for almost 6 months, but I couldn't find the proper treatments. I finally made the very painful decision to euthanize nearly all my livestock, including a C. Siamensis that I had for over 6 years.

The only survivors of that were a betta housed in a different tank, and a cool-looking young orange lyretail/dalmatian mix molly that is kept in very strict quarantine. It's in a 10-gallon tank by itself in another room, kept alive by my daughter's pleading. Not sure if it has the camallanus or not, but I'm taking no chances.

I restocked with the endlers after a thorough sterilization of all my hardware and complete substrate replacement.

Aside from the livebearers, we still have the betta and I'm in process of setting up a 20-gallon tall for angelfish.

Welcome to the ALA!

I'm so sorry to hear of your losses. That parasite is a devastating one. I keep a supply of Levamisole on hand, just in case.

Endlers' are a wonderful little fish, I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Unfortunately, it seems that levamisole is no longer made, at least according to the feed store where I tried to buy some. That made the levamisole I did find quite expensive. In Europe, Sera makes something called nematol that was apparently developed specifically to fight camallanus. I couldn't find anybody who could get it imported to the US.

There are issues with using it in cattle, so it's become more difficult to obtain for other purposes.... or that's what I was told anyway. The cost wouldn't even cover the shipping on the cost of the fish I'd lose, so I look at it as money well spent.

There is a guy on aquabid listing it for sale......

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auctio ... gi?medications&1294246811

Unfortunately, it's about 6 weeks late for me.

N class. can you tell me more about these.

I have an article forthcoming in an upcoming issue of "Livebearers" that goes into detail about Endlers and covers the classification system developed by many people including John Endler, Armando Pou, AdrianHD and others. It's either the next issue or the issue right after that.

For class N, it's basically traceability. I can trace the chain of possession of these endlers back to the man who collected them in the wild. In my case: Me--AdrianHD, breeder--Armando Pou, collector.


The classification system is necessary because hybrids are often difficult to distinguish, and hybridization (and thus dilution of the species) is rampant to the point that almost all Endlers you find in stores are hybrids being sold as "Endlers" without disclosing that (and probably often without even knowing that) they are crossed with guppies.

Below is from Endlers U.S.A. website.

(Class N): Any Endler's Livebearer (and progeny) that can be shown to have originated from their native waters in Venezuela will be considered a 'Class N' Endler.

(Class K):The progeny of any Endler's Livebearer crossed with any other livebearer or any Hybrid strain will be considered a 'Class K' Endler.

(Class P)Class P: Any fish of unknown origin but appearing to be an Endler's Livebearer based on the characteristics of size, shape and color will be considered a 'Class P' Endler.

We plan to have the issue with the Endler article delivered before the convention. Coincidentally, there's also an article about internal parasites. Lots of other good stuff in there too!

For those who don't know, Livebearers is the journal of the American Livebearer association and is free with membership - join us today!

Will the issue be color? I still owe you a photo shoot.