Killifish!

[LittleBettaFish]

After wild bettas, killifish are my favourite species of fish. However, I hadn't had the chance to own any up until last weekend. I now own two pairs, have a third I'm picking up Sunday and am more than likely going to be ordering two separate lots of eggs from online.

Just wondering if anyone else here keeps/breeds killies?

I am hoping to make up some spawning mops this Saturday and will have to see how that goes. Unfortunately, in Australia we are limited on available species due to quarantine regulations.

Anyway, here's some photos of my Aphyosemion australe. I just moved my other pair into a new tank so they are still a little camera shy. He's only around 2 inches so not very big at all.








One of the females. The male likes hogging my attention as you can see from his nose coming down into view.

[Fabian]

I've never kept them before but i had done some research before in the past.
If you wanted to breed them you might need to add some peat soil into the tank.

[Olympia]

Omg so cute! :3
Are these the kind whos eggs dry out?
I've seen photos of them, and just my opinion but some of the incredibly bright, colors that don't match look horrible D: it's like neon fish.
Can you post a photo of their whole tank? I love the way your tanks look :D

[Pitluvs]

I too have researched them, but decided against because of our water prams here. But I just adore them :) The one you have is amazingly beautiful, I wish I could have killies like that!

[LittleBettaFish]

These ones are mop spawners and non-annuals, so they live for around 3 years. I do have peat over the sandy substrate, but this is to add tannins and make them feel more comfortable.

The bright colours really pop in tannin-stained or murky water, which is important when you need to find a mate and only have nine months to live. Unfortunately, most of those guys are off limits here as quarantine doesn't let the peat/soil they come in through apparently.

I will get a shot of the whole tank once everyone wakes up here. Pretty uninmpressive ATM though. Just some IAL, floating ambulia and a chunk of root-looking driftwood.

I am intending on building a riparium or paludarium using peace lillies, ferns and anubias afzelii emersed to mimic an African river bank.

[MollyJean]

Have you ever seen the My Best Fish Friend kits? They have dried eggs of a really pretty breed of Killifish that I've heard is hard to find.

[Olympia]

Originally Posted by MollyJean

Have you ever seen the My Best Fish Friend kits? They have dried eggs of a really pretty breed of Killifish that I've heard is hard to find.

Wow, fish too? I hate when animals become little "toys" for kids -__-

[MollyJean]

Yeah, it's kind of sad, from what I've read most of them never really hatch because killifish are naturally hard to handle, they need water peramaters perfect and large tanks, let alone newbies raising them from eggs to fry and up. The kits come with brine shrimp food for the fry and that's about it. But for someone who knew what they where doing I think it would be a good project and very rewarding.


<--- Guilty as charged on the animals as toys thing.. I have seamonkeys. *shame*

[Olympia]

Haha, I had these things called triops once.. bug things that came in a kit.. they're supposed to grow huge but I never had more than teeny tiny ones, then they died Dx

I think the killifish is a bad idea for kids.. besides being cruel to the fish themselves, those poor kids must feel like failures when they die Dx

[MollyJean]

Yeah, the reviews were bad, almost no one got them to grow, so I'm sure there where a lot of disappointed kids. Thankfully kids don't get as attached to eggs as they do live fish. When I was hatching my seamonkeys my daughter was kind of indifferent when there where no babies after a week. Now, after we've had seamonkeys for a year, she would probably be really upset if they died.

There where a few experienced breeders that where successful, though, and I think that's the only reason I would get the kit. I've bred Angelfish before, but they're nothing at all like Killifish or betta. I would like trying my hand at the My BFF eggs, but only after doing the research and getting the right setup. The adults I saw where just amazing!