Killifish Fry

[Duncan13]

Okay so on Thursday I bought a bag of Nothobranchius Guentheri killifish eggs, and hatched them, as something to do over the summer. There were about 15 fry that hatched, and they are all growing fine of BBS. The problem is though, I'm not quite sure what the mortality rate of killifish is, and on the first day, about 3 really tiny fry died. So far, about one has died everyday, and I'm not sure what could be wrong. Thankfully, none have died today, and they all have big orange bellies filled with BBS. Is this normal? Any other tips would be really helpful. Thankss!

[LittleBettaFish]

Do you know your water parameters? Fry of any fish species are especially suspectible to ammonia/nitrite spikes, as well as extreme temperature fluctuations. It's also natural for there to be some fatalities when raising fry, even if everything else is perfect. Without human intervention, the survival rate of any animal isn't particularly spectacular, and there are bound to be a few weaker than the rest.

I have a male/female pair of Clown Killifish. I had many more, but the rest succumbed to a condition similar to dropsy in spite of receiving meticulous care. I never had any readings for ammonia or nitrite, pH was around the 6-6.5 range, and they were provided with a good diet of live and frozen food.

I'm not sure how sensitive your certain species is, but aside from providing them with lots of nutritious food and ensuring their water parameters are ideal, there's nothing much you can do. Hopefully you get a few that make it. Killifish are real little characters, almost similar to bettas in personality.

[Here Fishy Fishy Fishy]

PM slipstich... she is raising killies, I think...

[Duncan13]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm not exactly sure of the water parameters, but the temperature is kept constant at 24-26 degrees. I noticed that the ones that are dying or that have already died are very small compared to the other ones, which have nearly doubled in size. I'm expecting the smaller ones to not do so well, but there are still around 10 very large fry that are growing super fast. (: