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Gold australe male about two inches. Female top left looking like
most other female killies.Origins: Most of the
plant spawning killies came from small streams (or
“kills” in Dutch) in
Africa. To
get more familiar with the "kill" term, think of the Schuylkill
(which means "hidden creek" in Dutch) River in
Pennsylvania. After you jog up those steps Rocky ran up in the movie,
the hidden creek's just behind that building. Most
killies now come from
individual breeders. They
rarely show up on commercial distributor lists.
We can get a few species from Indonesian fish farms. But not
many killies find their way into fish stores. You may want to look
into the AKA (American Killifish Association), if you want killies.
Or you can go to your local bait house and ask for
“top
minnows.” Some U.S. killies look great. And they get big.
LA
Chocolate australe in a fish show. Tarzan say, "New water not
good for killie."
Housing: Most killifish
fare well in standard community aquariums.
Breeders usually house them in smaller aquaria. Back when I
used to keep lots of killies, I built dozens of three gallon tanks.
You need lots of tanks to keep the females separate. They all look
alike -- like female peacock cichlids.
LA
When you hang out with killie keepers you can get killie fever.
Temperature: Many
serious killie keepers keep their breeders in unheated tanks.
Killifish live much longer (but mature more slowly) when kept cool.
Room temperature works fine.
Temperament: Males like
to spar with each other. They
might nibble at long-finned male guppies.
However, on average they get along fine with other fishes of equal
size.
LA
Pic
Sold to us as blue gularis. Wrong.
Young gardneri
Another color gardneri
LA
Bivittatum (better than average) Scheeli?
LA
Female gardneri. Many female Killies look like this. Keep
varieties separated.
LA
Most common killifish sold in fish stores -- the golden wonder (about 3
inches).
Maximum Size. Most of
these species average under three inches.
The Fallax species
exceed three inches a lot.
Foods: Not real picky.
Many old reference books used to prescribe live foods only.
Most killies eat flake foods but naturally prefer live or frozen
foods. If you plan to breed
them and want large spawns, feed them several types of foods.
If you just want a pretty community fish, feel free to feed them a
good flake or pelleted food. Frozen foods work even better.
Lighting: Most pro
killie keepers keep them in low light tanks -- not so much to prevent
velvet, but just to save on the electric bill.
Water: Dirty water makes
killies susceptible to velvet. Any
uneaten food in their tank pollutes it and weakens their resistance to
velvet. Make regular water
changes and slap a good canister filter on their tank weekly.
The canister filter -- especially one with diatomaceous earth and
carbon -- will usually trigger spawning.
LA
Pix
Male rivulus
Obvious female rivulus
Spawning. Killies use a
variety of spawning surfaces. Even
though we call them plant spawners, most readily lay eggs on the gravel.
Some (Rivulus) will even
lay eggs on tops of corks above the surface of the water.
However, few will lay their eggs on a bare glass bottom.
If you give them an artificial mop (strands of nylon or orlon
yarn), most readily accept this artificial spawning site.
Build Your Own Mop. Artificial
yarns work better than natural (rottable) fibers.
Green strands look more “planty,” but no one knows whether the
fish care one way or the other. Artificial
mops are also easier to “sterilize.”
Actually, even if you did really sterilize them, they become
unsterile when you put them in your aquarium.
Just rinse them out well. Forget
the autoclave. Corks or floats are also optional.
Most killies readily spawn on mops lying on the bottom.
LA
Day-old killifish eggs can be handled easily. Easy pickin's.
Harvest the Eggs. Most
fish eggs squish if you handle them. Killie
eggs are hard (after the first day or so).
You can pull the mop strands thru your fingers and harvest the eggs
easily. Or you can just move
the mops to a hatching tank.
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Incubate the Eggs. You
can incubate the eggs in water or store them in very damp peat moss.
The latter method enables you to hatch nearly all the eggs at the
same time. They won’t hatch
until you put them in water three to four weeks later – at your convenience.
LA
Unlike normal fry, killie fry have very little yolk sac left by the time
they hatch. Have food ready.
Live
Egg Hatchers. Oddly enough, adding microworms to their hatching
tray will often trigger your eggs to all hatch at the same time.
Warning: Encouraging early hatching can cause problems -- often fry that hatch
early have defective air bladders. These
“snakes”
will breed successfully but will never swim correctly. The snake trait is
not inherited.
LA
Flag fish. Jordanella floridae, one of our U.S. killies. They
guard their eggs like cichlids.
LA
Another U.S. killie sometimes used as bait -- six to seven inches long
Last Word: If you can
find them, killifishes
make beautiful additions to most community aquaria.
LA.
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