Killifish

[WendyinWichita]

I went looking at the LFS today and saw a tank full of the Killifish Rachow's Nothobranch. They were very pretty and I had never seen any Killifish except for one that seems to be common here in Kansas, Golden Wonder?.

Anyway, the males were really "working over" the females (horndogs!!) I may have been too smart for my own good, and bought 2 females only. I figured the females had to be full of fertile eggs because there were way more males than females.

Should I go back and pick up a male or, did I figure correctlythat the two I have may have viable eggs in them. The female pair are going into a fully planted 10 gal that currently has guppy fry and a few balloon molly fry.

If they go ahead and lay their eggs are the chances good or bad for any to hatch and survive?

Glancing through the Killi threads, it appears I may have paid too much also, ($15 for the pair) but I have never seen this variety so I figure if I like it what the heck.

I would also like any information regarding this particular Killi. These were raised locally and the hatch date was October.

Any

 

[dwarfgourami]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but killifish, like other egglayers, do not practise internal fertilisation: the eggs won't be fertilised until she lays them. So you can't get babies by just taking the females home. You need a male.

Rachov's Notobranch is indeed a beautiful fish. If I remember rightly, it is a so-called "annual": in the wild, they lay their eggs in muddy pools, then the parents die as the pools dry out during the dry season, but when the annual rains come the eggs are hatched. So the individual fish have a lifespand of less than a year. In captivity, I believe some annuals can live longer because their water supply does not dry up, but not sure how this works, as have never kept them. Aquarists get them to spawn in a peat substrate which they then drain but keep damp for a few months until they are ready to hatch, then add soft acid water to hatch the eggs, which are fed with live brine shrimp.

In order to breed killifish, you need to read up on the requirement for the individual species, e.g. how long for the eggs to hatch.

 

[corydorasj]

I don't think $15 is too much.
That's about £10 real money. for a pair that's about average.

Get a look on the web for the american killifish association and the british killifish association, also google search for Tim Addis' south african killi's site.

Have a good read, then go and get the male.

Once you have plenty of eggs, you'll be hooked on raising the fry.

best of luck.

Wait until BigC gets onto this thread. He'll point you in the right direction too !! (Cheers Big C )

OH, and I'd probably leave the "Golden Wonder"s where they are too.

 

[WendyinWichita]

Thanks for the replys and thanks for the tips of websites. Googling was pretty disappointing, just a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo.

If they spawn, do I have to remove the eggs and store them or can I just leave them alone to hatch? The males were going crazy spawning with the females at the LFS, wrapping the little females in a hug with their fins. I made the decision that I was sure the females had to be fertilized. It looked like their behavior was very live bearer like. Since the LFS had few females, and many males I probably did well to buy the nicest fattest females, they had lots of males.

 

[MAM]

Wendy, check this site out:
http/www.killi.co.uk/
http/www.killi.co.uk/SpeciesDetails.php?ID=476
They have pretty good information and species profiles. N. rachovii is nice little fish (but then, I love all nothobrachius so I may be biased), and becoming fairly common in the trade. $12-$15/pair is what I've been seeing them go for lately, so I'd say you got a fair deal. Definitely do some reading and some research. Killis are great fish, something a little different. I think you'll really enjoy them so definitely go back and get yourself a male after you've had a chance to read up on them.

 

[BigC]

Hi Wendy,
Yes you did pay extortionate odds for the Nothos. I would expect to pay around £6 per pair nowdays especially as they are now so common.
I breed these (Nothobranchius rachovi Beira98) in small tanks 12"x8"x8" for a trio. The tank is bare except for a jam-jar 1/2 filled with presoaked peat moss ( natural, no additives). Temperature is around 25'C and a little bit of cooking salt is added. I have a small air driven sponge filter set to a trickle and a few spawning mops to afford the females some respite. They do not take to flake foods too well therefore you must offer live stuff if you can.
Pretty soon you will see the male drive the females down into the jam-jar and form an "S" shape with their bodies and then "jerk" at that moment a single egg is deposited into the peat fibre.
After around a week or so I remove the peat and replace with new. With the egg laiden peat I place on a newspaper to soak up most of the moisture ( to about the consistancy/moisture of pipe tobaco). Then I bag it and label it and store at around 22'C. THe incubation period of this west african annual species is around 6-9 months. You have to keep checking the peat periodically. Although the eggs are pretty hard to see, a magnifying glass comes in pretty handy here. When I see the Iris of the fry (golden in colour) then I know it is time to wet the peat. I use a plastic margarine tub and I add the peat and cover with about 1 1/2 inches of coolish aquarium water. (float the tub in an existing aquarium to keep it warm).
Now comes the hard bit, breeding these little beauties is easy, fry rearing is the hardest part.
The fry will be too small upon hatching to take newly hatched brineshrimp or microworm there fore they must be provided with micro foods such as infusorians in order that they do not starve to death (I have lost batches of fry due to this in the early days) Being an annual species they grow at an alarming rate and in a couple of days you can begin feeding newly hatched brineshrimp et all. They will be sexually mature in about 8 weeks and will start to breed. It's a good idea to seperate the females at this point and raise them seperately as the males will squabble amongst themselves. They will live for around 12 -14 months under aquarium conditions but will noticably deteriorate after around 10mths. So get them breeding.
Well thats about it really.

I hope this personal account was of some help to you.
Regards
BigC

 

[WendyinWichita]

Thank you for all of the information! Now I can see why the males were working over the females at the LFS since they have a short lifespan! These guys are trickier than angelfish to raise! The two females seem very happy in their planted tank with guppy fry and even though they are not as colorful as the males, they have a nice pink cast to their bellies that is pleasing.

I will visit the web sites, thank you again!