Killifish!

[LittleBettaFish]

I thought I'd share a couple more pics of my killies.

Lagos female


Striatum male




Australe male

[Bombalurina]

Your striatum looks like my gardneri. I really love the australes, I am going to have to get some one day! I feel this may become my new addiction...

I love the way their mouths are the same width as their heads. It gives them such a cute and comical look. :D

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah I like that they look like they're always smiling at you.

I am now in the midst of setting up my new pairs' tanks. Just soaking the peat moss and rinsing the gravel. I ran out of ambulia (my new favourite plant) so they just get some leftover java moss.

I'm hoping to set-up an African riverbank riparium to have on display in my bedroom.

Jodi-Lea's chocolate australe pair should arrive Friday, and I sneakily tacked on a betta tussyae pair as well heh heh. Luckily mum has not noticed the subtle expansion.

[Sakura8]

I would love love love to keep some killis but unfortunately, my water is much too hard and alkaline. *sobs* I'd love to keep the Argentine and Rio Pearlfish someday. Oh, but I can keep Tanganikya Killis, my water params are good for them.

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah our tapwater here has literally no carbonate hardness. It goes from around 6.8-7.0 out of the tap to around 6.0 (very yellow) in 24 hours. Great for softwater species, but hard if you intend on maintaining stable, cycled tanks.

[Sakura8]

I think mine is stable but stable at very high params. The pH in the tanks is 8.0 and I haven't measured it out of hte tap for a while. The hardness is about 6 dgh, I think?

By the way, your killis really are beautiful.

[LittleBettaFish]

Thanks. I will have to take some photos of my new arrivals once they are settled. Just finished setting up their tank and according to my online tracker they are onboard with the courier.

Until I get my 'serious' fish room set up downstairs supposedly next month, I'm just going to leave any eggs in with the parents and see if I can't get 1-2 fry out of them.

I think I need a separate grow-out room. I have four lots of wild fry, intend to start conditioning a pair of splendens on Monday, and am going to attempt to successfully hatch around 30-35 killifish eggs being delivered today.

I think the lines are blurring between hobby and obsession.

[Sakura8]

Haha, I think that line is pretty blurred for a lot of us. So you don't keep any annuals? If I ever get the right water params, I'd love to try the peat hatching method just once, to see how it works.

Even if I use water from the kitchen faucet, which is soft because of the water softener, I can't get the pH down lower than 7.8 using peat.

[Bombalurina]

I would love to set up a biotype for the killis. I do feel a bit guilty - I'm currently mixing west African, SE Asian and South American species in one tank...

[Sakura8]

Haha, they should be fine. None of your fish are as sensitive to water params as killis or cichlids are. :)