My Killifish With A Mouthful...

[Auratus]

I'm so sorry to hear that! He was a beautiful fish.

I lost mine the same way, but I never found the bodies.

 

[SimonA]

I cant find anything on fishprofiles.com about killifish.

 

[Bangin]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. He was a stunning fish. Good luck with TOTM!

My LFS has 10 of these beauties right now. I'd love to get some, but I'm afraid I don't have the room. I have existing tanks with smaller fish, but do you think I'll put a guy with choppers like that in there?

 

[Colin_BC]

Thanks everyone for the concerns. He was a great fish, especially in terms of personality. Since him leaping out, I tried to seal the back of the aquarium so there was only a 1.5 square inch opening. A few days after the sushiside, I went to my LFS where I purchased the killi and told him (owner) the story. 4 days later he had two Playfair Panchax Killi pairs in for me to have a look at. He didn't let anyone buy any until I was able to get in to have a look. I picked up a M/F pair. although they are half still young and half the size of my yellow panchax. Their appearance is quite similar to the Yellow Panchax I previously had, except the Playfair's Male has Red Spots all over it body and fins. The female doesn't have much or any red, but she's marked with cool vertical lines. Below is a picture of the new Playfair's Panchax Killifish pair. Of a dozen pictures this one had some of the best colours, but they still look dulled compared to real life. The male is on the left and the female on the right.

Colin

 

[Colin_BC]

And here is a somewhat closeup of the male. All the dark spots on it's body and fins are actually bright red. It was quite impressive to see when it's fins are all flared.

 

[Bangin]

Glad you were able to find more killifish! They look adorable!

 

[Colin_BC]

Unfortunately, the cover I made for the opening on the back of the aquarium had been knocked loose leaving a bit of an opening. While I was sleeping one afternoon (working nights right now) a few days after getting the new killi pair, my GF came running into the room in tears to wake me. She told me she looked in the aquarium and noticed the new male killi was missing. She looked behind the tank, and sure enough, there he was rigor mortis on the carpet. She remebered me telling her before thtat if you ever find a fish out of water, put it back in the water immediately regardless of if it looks dead or not. He was put in a glass of tank water after being found on the carpet. About a half hour later, my GF noticed it was no longer rigor mortis and had started to spaz and twitch a bit. She then moved him to a breeding trap in one of my tanks. He fluttered about in the net for a couple hours. I figured if he made it through the night, it would be OK. Unfortunately he died that evening before I went to work.

I've since put a lot more thought into blocking the back of my tank as I refuse to lose another fish this way. I took my original setup that lost me the second killi and made a couple cuts and changes so it now sits snug and leaves only a tiny opening that a guppy would have a tough time getting through. My canopy sits on one lip of the new blocker holding it down. It would take a dolphin to know this thing lose.

My GF's mother went in to the LFS and intended to bring the other male killi home. She told him what happened, but he said unfortunaltely he had just sold the last pair a couple hours before. He told me the next time I saw him that he did have another order arriving. Come to think of it, he told me to come in today. He believes it's going to be the Playfair's again, but has also said he may be able to get Black Pearlfish killi's (Cynolebias nigripinnis). The one's I would love to find are the Gardneri (Aphyosemion gardneri) or the Blue Gularis (Aphyosemion sjoestedti), but he said IF he could find them anywhere, expect the price range of $100 (Canadian) per pair, or possibly even per fish.

Colin