After a long search, I finally got some eggs myself in Germany during a business trip. At first the only ones that wanted to hatch were the F. gardneri Jos Plateau eggs. I had to 'shake' them for that. Which means to carry the peat with the eggs in my pocket for a while and then plunge them in 'cold' water. In this way I got 8 fry which are still doing well after one month. I am now conditioning them to eat brine shrimp flakes, alternating with live foods of course.

the australe was a bit more complicated. Sam, who gave me the eggs said they were hibernating and that he was having the same problem. So, last week, I tried to wet them again, and they immediately hatched! I am having at least a dozen fry from this batch. However, I noticed that some of them are much lighter of colour than others, even though they are the same size. What is the reason for this? Is it already an indication of the sex of the fry, or am I going to get albinos ?

It looks like I really got going with the killies now. I also found (by accident) a fry of my golden wonder killie in a tank. I had seen the pair mating, but guessed that the eggs would have disappeared in the community tank. So, I was surprised to find a small fry after I had done some rearranging of plants from one tank into another. I really hope it will be a female, because in the moving, my female golden wonder didn't make it. the fry is already more than 2 cm long and is eating the small betta pellets, together with live food.

This post has been edited by Biulu: Jul 5 2008, 07:45 PM

There you go Biulu, its been a while since your original thread regarding how to get killifish into Mexico, now your well on the way and the killifish bug has bitten you. There are some exciting killifish species closer to home as well in neighbouring South America. They take a little bit more experience, time and patience but certainly something for you to look forward to for the future. Quite a few rivulus turning up with colourful finnage.
Great going with your eggs lets know how your sex ratios turn out, document everything. Maybe write and share piece on your whole experiences.
Good luck with the rearing process.
Just a small question on livefood, do you get many small ants running around over there, if so excellent foodsource for adult killis. Whilst in Australia last month there were millions of the little buggers running around and I wish I had that going on in my back garden at home.
All the best
BigC

Yes, we do, but the problem is that I don't know where they have their 'nest'. They turn up and disappear again, so it is a bit difficult to catch them.

Yes, there is a rivulus type with the finding place name 'Papaloapam'. This river runs through my state. I will definitively look into that later on. My current goals are to rear well the fry, and try to reproduce them afterwards. Then the A. striatum is also on my wish list.... I found out that I worked at their finding place 'Cap Esterias' in Gabon! There is a forestry school located there, where I used to give several courses....... Too bad, I didn't know that back then!

Cap Esterias GBL 85/6 strain I have bred back in the early eighties. Nice fish. Your soo lucky to have got the opportunity to visit the Gabon. Is it safe.
Regards
BigC

No, Gabon is not dangerous at all. It is actually a very quiet country. I have not been going for the last 4 years, and I do not see myself going in the near future. So, this means getting the fish from Germany I guess.....

The golden wonder killie is growing fast; I have the impression he is growing by the day! He already behaves like his father; attacking everything that looks like food. I hardly give him the microworms anymore as he eats the small betta pellets and full grown brine shrimp. With what I can get here locally, he can eat 5 days, so only 2 days microworms. I wonder though how he does it as I consider the brine shrimp still pretty big for its mouth, but he gets them all. Sometimes a part of the tail sticks out for a while, until he has been able to accommodate everything. I have just ordered grindal worms from the internet, so I hope to be able to feed these in the future, when they are bigger. It is important to have al alternative as the brineshrimp do not always arrive. If they don’t go to Mexico city to get supplies, then there are no brineshrimp either.

I tried to feed the gardneris small but adult brineshrimp, but no luck yet. They are still too small. Also here, the difference in development becomes more visible. The biggest ones are willing to try some brineshrimp flake which I feed now as the 2nd of 3 meals, but most simply do with the microworm and freshly hatched brineshrimp. They see apparently no need to try something else yet.

Tonight I did a head count of the australe with a magnifying glass, and I was astonished! I counted twice 20 fry, and once 18! I couldn’t believe it! Where are they coming from, as I have already taken the peat out?! Anyway, now I have to make sure they keep alive. Apart from the difference in colouring (anybody knows why this is?) I now also notice a difference in development. Some are clearly lagging behind. By the way, Sam (the one that gave me the eggs) won a first and second price for his australe gold at the Italian convention. This means I am having price babies! All the more reason to take good care of them!

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading

Sam is a excellent, prolific breeder of killifish I have rekindled my association with Rivulus xiphidius "Crique Boulanger" via eggs from him. His name is misleading though as he is actually middle eastern.
Great guy to deal with.
Good luck with the rearing, I cant see you having any problems with Australe.
All the best
Colin.

Sam is actually Malay, but as most Malay are Muslim, hence the arab name. Yes, he is really a great guy. Just told me that he got another prize in the DKG convention, but for the Simpsonicthys zonatus. He also told me he got 2 strains of striatum during that convention! Time to go to Germany again....

Good choice that Rivulus! NIce fish!

I had a little setback yesterday as no mature brine shrimp arrived. This means that I have to use frozen or flake brineshrimp for my golden wonder this week.

Yes, the australes seem to be doing well.

They wont mind that at all, They're not one of the overly fussy species.
Thanks for putting me right on Sams nationality I knew had an Arabic name and was probably a Muslim but had no idea he was Malay.
He has almost everything you would ever need as far a killifish goes so an extremely good contact to have.
All the Best
BigC

They wont mind that at all, They're not one of the overly fussy species.
Thanks for putting me right on Sams nationality I knew had an Arabic name and was probably a Muslim but had no idea he was Malay.
He has almost everything you would ever need as far a killifish goes so an extremely good contact to have.
All the Best
BigC
[/quote]

Well, the contact is thanks to you! Chapeau! Yes, the golden wonder doesn't mind so much. It eats anything I have given him sofar. As I told you, I am feeding him small betta pellets in the morning, and he goes for it if it were the best live food he could have!

I wonder though how you do it to get the F. gardneri to accept flakes? I want to familiarize them with it, but so far, not much luck. I am giving it as the 2nd of 3 meals a day.

They will eventually, Gradually cut down the livefood in favour of the flake and frozen if you have it. Wean them so to speak over the comming weeks.
They will eventually take flake.
Regards
BigC

I still consider the gardneri to be very small (just like new-born frog spawn), so would the use of flakefood influence their growth?

Finely ground flake (like dust) will suffice alongside newly hatched brineshrimp. Do you have microworm and grindalworm. Remember cleanliness and waterchanges also promote growth. But do this slowly change and add more water every 2 days or so. Using a meat/Turkey baster is a great tool for this. I would keep the Gardneri on the newly hatched brineshrimp for now though.
Regards
BigC

I am keeping the gardneri on the microworm and brine shrimp then for now. Meat basters are not available here, but I use something similar but much smaller. It is a medicine dropper.

Thanks, Eleonore

Thats fine.
Keep in touch
BigC

I am sending a picture of the young golden wonder. I assume he is a male, but maybe somebody can confirm?



HIs father unfortunately died. He jumped out of the tank at night, and I found him more than 3 metres away from it! I know they need to be in a closed tank, but the heat here is unbearable, and my hood is black. For that reason I have turned off the power filter as it was producing too much heat (got temperatures soaring to almost 30 degrees!) So to allow light in for the plants, and as such ensure enough oxygen for the fish, I keep the feeding part open during the day, and I forgot to close it at night......

Sometimes Aplochelius lineatus Gold can be a bit hard to sex, Elongated finnage and colouration sometimes is an indication but not always the case these days. The way I sucessfully sex these if I'm unsure is to bag the fish and shine a torch at the abdomen and in the female there will be eggs. From the pic it is hard to assertain, If I were pressed I would say its a juvenile male, but hard to say.
Do you run a power filter, if so place this in a cooler bag or polystyrene box a while with ice to bring the temps in your aquariums down a bit.
Regards
BigC

Thanks for the tip! Luckily it started raining now, so temperatures are back to normal.

A little update: I have started to feed the F. gardneri adult brine shrimp, although the smaller specimens. This is additional to the microworm. Some of the larger ones also fell into the tank, and it was so funny to watch the fry battling with them. Not wanting to let them go, half in their beak and half outside!

I hope my grindals will be ready for harvesting next week, and then I will start feeding them these instead of the microworm together with the brine shrimp.

The australe are still doing well, they are 18 all in all, and are already fighting amongst themselves over food. Although I feed in 4 different corners of the tupperware.

I had already another tank set up, but then today I got free swimming kribensis fry, and moved these into the tank. The yellow panchax is already big enough to take the place of his dad in the community tank. He seems to be thriving. He has definitively a larger mouth than the gardneri though as for him at that size it was no problem to eat the brine shrimp.

So the australe will stay in their tupper for another while. Eventually I can move them to a larger tupper before moving him to a proper tank.