Killie Newbie

[OldMan47]

I am a person who has kept livebearers for many years and have recently found an interest in killies in general. Since I am not ready to dry out a tank simply to reproduce fish, I am more interested in mop spawners. Is there any particular species that makes a good starter fish for a newbie? I have fairly hard water with a high pH if that makes any difference.

 

[muay]

Fundlopanchax gardneri are a good beginner fish and easy to keep and they live for well over 2 years. I have some eggs avialable. if your intersted or need any more info please feel free to PM me. Cheers

 

[Biulu]

There are also several Aphyosemion species that are not difficult. Just don't get into annuals (nothobranchius e.g.) as these do need long (dry) incubation periods. I got myself A. splendopleure (via the club auction), a beautiful fish but a bit skittish in the beginning. Mine are now getting into the mood (I got them when they were only 3 months). These fish simply spawn in java moss. I am sure Gary can get you eggs of a suitable species.

 

[Tom499]

I can vouch for F. gardneri, very nice active fish, I feed mine frozen foods with flake mixed in, they spawn often, and I raise the few babies that survive in the parent tank.

Just need a nice planted tank with floating cover and they do v. well.

 

[BigC]

Hi OldMan,
Any of ths GAR (gardneri) populations would suffice or even STR (striatum).
If your not bothered about striking colours too much then Epiplatys Dageti Monroviae has got to be the easiest of all for your given stats.
Or maybe try a few of the locals Bluefins or Jordenella.or Fundulus etc.
atb
C

 

[Daves Corydoras]

Hello I would also lower the PH. you can do so by adding some peat moss juice to the tank or if you can you can use rain water. This will not hurt your tank. Rain water is really the best. If you use peat moss only use 100% peat moss with no other stuff in it. Also make sure to boil it first. For about 15 minutes. You can then use a brine shrimp net to ring it out and use a little of the juice it will discolor the water in your tank but will bring down the PH and make it more on the acidic side. Killifish do better in slightly acidic water. 6.4 to 6.8 is good. Hope this helps

 

[BigC]

Be careful with the usage of rainwater OM...it is fine in most rural areas (and I do use it myself in permutation) but if you live in highly populated industrial part of the world, I would suggest not to..opting instead for a Reverse Osmosis system and adjusters.
atb
C

 

[Daves Corydoras]

I would have to say your right BigC. How ever I am not a big fan of reverse Osmosis. Only because I try to keep every thing natural. When was the last time you saw a reverse Osmosis system set up on a river or lake? LOL!!!! I know what you are saying and yes you need to be careful of where you live. But you can filer the rain water with a good house filter. So many ways now a days. You just need to find what works best for you.

 

[Stewartb]

I also live in a hard water area (>22 d), I'm not so interested in breeding Killis as hatching and having them co exist (with community fish) in my hardwater tank (I'd actually prefer quite colourful fish).
Is it the case that I could use the eggs of species mentioned above (rearing as mentioned in the sticky (margarine tubs...)) and starting with soft (collected rain water), then after hatching gradually introduce water from the tank a bit at a time?
Can I just check: these aren't going to munch through my plants?

Thanks

Stewart

PS
What sort of success rate might there be with 10 eggs reaching maturity?

 

[OldMan47]

OK. I just got home from the AKA convention auction with these in hand. Aphyosemion rectogoense PEG 95-16, Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianus Misaje Gold and Fundulopanchax gardneri gardneri Lafia. Did I end up with easy care fish? I am trying to figure out where to home each pair right now.

 

[Stewartb]

Not with me unfortunately I'm in the uk.

 

[OldMan47]

Thanks for your input Stewartb.
Does anyone else see anything wrong with my present stocking. I had a bit of trouble placing the Fundulopanchax into their permanent homes. The Lafia female jumped out of her drip acclimation home, a 1 gallon container, but I found her a half hour later and placed her back into the tank. With that result in mind I put my drip acclimation bucket, about a gallon in volume, into a water change bucket with a half inch of water around the base of the drip bucket. By the time the acclimation bucket was about half full, the fish were both in the water change bucket and had jumped out of the acclimation bucket. Is this typical of Fundulopanchax? I simply put both fish into my tank and0 ignored their tendency to jump. Can I expect this to continue when they have a good home to use?

 

[ricefish]

Fundulopanchax seem to jump from anything you put them in,so a tight fitting cover is essential.Even in tanks with dense planting and everything we think they would like and they still jump

 

[OldMan47]

Thanks ricefish. I have a covered tank for them but I really don't want them trying to escape. I was advised, on another site, to use floating mops as cover to make them less likely to jump. Does that make sense to you?

 

[OldMan47]

Well today I went into my fish room to feed and saw eggs all over the Aphyosemion tank's glass. I got all excited until it dawned on me that the little female in that tank could never lay the hundreds of eggs that I saw stuck to the glass. Then I remembered that the trio of albino cories in that tank had been given to me last week because their former care taker could no longer find a place for all of their fry. This was a long proven breeding trio of cories and it seems they have not lost the habit in the intervening week. When I thought back on it, they look just like all of the pictures I have seen of cory eggs. I had just never seen any in my own tanks before. In general my water is just too hard for breeding cories, but of course I had softened it with RO water for the cories and killies. I think I will just watch that tank and see how things go.