Spring is here, the days are warm and the night are above 10c. Last Tuesday, a killifish breeder in Central Europe mailed me some Aphyosemion ocellatum killie eggs. It's a species and colour form I kept 25 years ago, and its beauty has stuck in my mind. Today, arrival is possible, and I'm watching the mail!
Now that I'm older, wiser and more skilled (I hope) I think I might be able to keep them for more than the 2 generations I did then. I was a killie consumer back then, determined to try all kinds of different species. With time, I I have kind of settled into knowing what I want to see when I go to my tank area.
You have to be resourceful to find killies, as the more interesting species can't be mass produced, and the fish industry doesn't like that. It's hard to turn a profit on a fish that produce 2 or 3 babies every day for a few weeks, then takes a vacation from the kids.
Buying killie eggs by mail is something easy to do if you're outside Australia or the USA. It's a form of online gambling, as the mail is a harsh environment that kills a certain percentage of the eggs you purchase. Sometimes, it kills them all. I've mailed myself perfectly good eggs, and had one in four hatch after their travels. But for me, it works to a point 80% of the time. You then are never guaranteed big numbers - 30 eggs can give 5, 10, 30 or 50 fry (killiekeepers count badly). The fry can turn out to be all one sex, and ruin your breeding plans. But most of the time, it works out well and you have a new species to breed and enjoy.
All the fish below came my way as eggs: Chromaphyosemion biteniatum Lagos Red from Spain, Aphyosemion elberti from the US, A striatum from the Czech Republic and A exigoideum from France.
Where I live is not exactly a rare tropical fish hotspot, but people like me in places like this have been receiving rarities as eggs in the mail for close to 100 years now. It's a weird old little sideroad in this hobby.
Now that I'm older, wiser and more skilled (I hope) I think I might be able to keep them for more than the 2 generations I did then. I was a killie consumer back then, determined to try all kinds of different species. With time, I I have kind of settled into knowing what I want to see when I go to my tank area.
You have to be resourceful to find killies, as the more interesting species can't be mass produced, and the fish industry doesn't like that. It's hard to turn a profit on a fish that produce 2 or 3 babies every day for a few weeks, then takes a vacation from the kids.
Buying killie eggs by mail is something easy to do if you're outside Australia or the USA. It's a form of online gambling, as the mail is a harsh environment that kills a certain percentage of the eggs you purchase. Sometimes, it kills them all. I've mailed myself perfectly good eggs, and had one in four hatch after their travels. But for me, it works to a point 80% of the time. You then are never guaranteed big numbers - 30 eggs can give 5, 10, 30 or 50 fry (killiekeepers count badly). The fry can turn out to be all one sex, and ruin your breeding plans. But most of the time, it works out well and you have a new species to breed and enjoy.
All the fish below came my way as eggs: Chromaphyosemion biteniatum Lagos Red from Spain, Aphyosemion elberti from the US, A striatum from the Czech Republic and A exigoideum from France.
Where I live is not exactly a rare tropical fish hotspot, but people like me in places like this have been receiving rarities as eggs in the mail for close to 100 years now. It's a weird old little sideroad in this hobby.
