Red Tiger Endler Care Guide
Red Tiger Endlers are a stunning color form of Poecilia wingei, a livebearer closely related to the common guppy. The “red tiger” name comes from the bold black tiger-stripe bars overlaid on a fiery red-orange body in mature males. Females look like small olive-grey guppies, which makes them easy to overlook – but they are essential if you want to maintain a breeding colony. Endlers are hardy, peaceful, easy to feed, and an excellent choice for nano tanks, low-tech planted tanks, and beginners stepping beyond the basic community fish.
Quick Stats
- Scientific name: Poecilia wingei (Red Tiger color form)
- Adult size: Males about 1 inch, females up to 1.5 inches
- Minimum tank: 10 gallons; 20+ for a colony
- Temperature: 72-82°F
- pH: 7.0-8.5 (likes hard, alkaline water)
- Hardness: 10-25 dGH
- Diet: Omnivore
- Temperament: Peaceful, very active
- Lifespan: 2-3 years
Tank and water
Endlers are hard, alkaline water fish – the opposite of rams and tetras. Florida tap water suits them straight out of the dechlorinator. If you have soft water, supplement with crushed coral or aragonite to keep KH and GH up. Stable water matters more than perfect numbers; an endler-friendly tank should sit between pH 7.2 and 8.0 consistently.
Set up a planted nano tank with some open swimming space. Endlers cruise constantly and use the whole tank. Floating plants give females a place to drop fry away from hungry tankmates. A 10-gallon is the realistic minimum; in a 20-gallon you can keep a thriving colony of 12-20 fish without crowding.
Tankmates and stocking ratio
Endlers are completely peaceful. Good tankmates include other livebearers (guppies of the same water type, mollies, platies), small rasboras, white cloud mountain minnows, peaceful Corydoras, and shrimp (adults will mostly leave shrimp alone, though juveniles may snack on shrimplets). Avoid fin-nippers, large or boisterous fish, and any cichlid.
The single most important stocking rule: keep two or three females per male, or run a male-only tank. Male endlers chase females constantly to breed, and a single female with multiple males will be stressed to exhaustion. Hybridization with common guppies is also a concern – if you want pure Red Tigers, do not keep them with fancy guppies.
Diet and breeding
Endlers eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths. A high-quality micro pellet or crushed flake daily, with frozen daphnia, baby brine shrimp, or cyclops two or three times a week, brings out the best coloration. They are not picky and rarely refuse food.
Breeding is automatic. Females hold sperm and can produce drops of 10 to 30 fry every 23-28 days from a single mating. If you do not want a population explosion, keep all-male or all-female tanks. If you do want fry, leave the parents in a planted tank – some fry will survive without intervention. For best survival, move pregnant females to a breeder net or species-only fry tank.
Ordering from us
Endlers ship well in moderate weather. We follow our standard Shipping & Acclimation procedure and drip acclimate over 45-60 minutes. They tolerate water parameter shifts better than most species because of their wide natural range. For setup help, see our Water Chemistry guide. Questions? Email help@jojoaquatics.com.
— The JoJo Aquatics team, Key West, Florida
