so my questions about killi's ;

my tank is a planted 12''x8''x8''

i'm thinking kill's as i was told you can keep them in a 12''x8''x8'', so could i?

what sort do you reccomend? i'm after colourful one's .....

also should i get a trio (1m 2f)? or a pair?

should i get them from eggs and grow them on or get them as adults?

i would like easy to breed one's aswel if possible as i'd like to try breeding another sort of fish.

also my temp. of my water goes from about 28c to 24/25c this is not good. but killi's don't need heaters i heard? also i know some don't like high temps. so am looking for fish that do like high a temp.

am also after the less 'jumpy' ones if possible but it does have a tight fitting lid.

cheers for any help.



This post has been edited by jayjay: May 26 2006, 05:16 PM

Hi,
Firstly your tank of 12x8x8, I would only use for the smaller varieties of around 55-65mm.
The tank should be bare sept for a few artificial spawning mops made from 100% man made fibre tied with a cork and left to float in the breeding tank (boil these first before using) also provide a small air driven sponge filter set to a trickle. A good tight fitting lid is a necessity.
Obtain a pair of Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianum. There are many colour forms from different geographical locations. I prefer Misaje, Murkurdi and Jos Plateau. (do not cross different strains)
For sucess the water should be soft, slightly acidic with a pH of around 6.5. Temperature shold be in or around 74'F. Perform water changes every 4-5 days replacing roughly half the aquarium with the same water as stated above. I would tend to feed by breeders more livefood then dry. with the odd frozen thrown in. Livefoods would consist of Brineshrimp, whiteworm, grindalworm and fruitfly. Frozen Bloodworm and Discus mix are also offered and the usual flake once every other day.
I like to harvest the eggs daily with this species as the eggs can withstand human contact..Pick them from the mops and place them in a small margarine tub with around 1 inch of water from the parent tank and a small airline set to a very very low output. Remove any fungussed /infertile eggs from the tub on a daily basis. The eggs will take 14-21 days roughly to hatch and can be fed newly hatched brineshrimp and microworm from the outset. They present little or no problems when rearing sept for the males will squabble. This may seem a little harsh but I would cull the weaker ones/runt etc to maintain a strong strain and also I would bring in new blood from the same strain to replenish the gene pool.
I hope this was of some help to you.
Regards
BigC

lot's of good stuff there.

so a pair of Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianum ( need to find these as i've only seen a few kinds in my LFS's), feed them lot's of livefoods (will have to get a culture then, but i can't get them off the internet, so that's a bit of a problem) but everything else i can do easily.also i'll have to sort out the tank then as ATM it is just a planted tank, so do i really have to change it? i'll go research Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianum now aswel.

EDIT: i've read up on them they seem nice and simple for me so i wouldn't mind some of them but never seen them in my LFS but sometimes have Aphyosemion australe (orange strain one's) in so would they be ok? if not i'll go with your suggestion.



This post has been edited by jayjay: May 27 2006, 06:30 PM

went around 7 LFS today and found lot's of different kill's none that i really liked/ could keep.

anyone got any they wish to sell local to gloucester? ( for adults)

or maybe i could try rearing some of my own, from eggs.....

also about the tank temp. i was looking at 25w heaters today to stop temp. drops but i don't really have enough to buy a £23 heater ATm anyone know anyone selling 1?



This post has been edited by jayjay: May 27 2006, 04:40 PM

Aphyosemion australe, although sometimes classed as a beginners fish, but when it comes to breeding especially for the novice, they can be problematic. A much lower pH is required to achieve sucess with these. Fp. gardneri would be your best bet.
Regards
BigC

Amerce offered me Gardneri Makurdi what about them?

I Pmed Amerce beforehand, Excellent.
Go with them.
Regards
BigC

cheers for everything BigC you've been a great help, even though i will probably now end up asking you again in the future about these.

well i sort of thought about temp. changes in my tank and i thought that in nature they live in small pools so surely the change in temp. int hem is going to change alot from hot days to cool nights?

and after reading up abit i've found reasources backing this. but does everyone else go along with this?

On eBay etc. you see a lot of different people selling just the eggs of killies. I have always not even bothered looking at them. But why do they sell just the eggs? Why wouldn't they just wait until they hatch and then sell them. Also (I don't know anything about killies) in general what requirement do they have compaired to other fish?

P.S. If I got some I wouldn't be interested in breeding particularly.

This post has been edited by ringham: May 28 2006, 03:59 PM

well, it's easy to ship them when their eggs number 1 lol, also some species can stand being dried for months for they can be sent in peat etc.

well they don't need a big tank 12"x8"x8" about 3g (for the smaller species). heaters aren't need but they still need to be fairly warm. they don't need super filters, sponge filters do the job. change half the water every 4/5days. and keep 1m to 1/2f.

anything else do you want to know?

to look at different killi's try here

and these are what i'm getting



sorry i've just learnt how to post pic's lol.



This post has been edited by jayjay: May 28 2006, 06:19 PM

If I bought killi fish eggs off of eBay I would be very concerned as to wether or not they would die. As eggs, after they have hatched what is the success rate of them living?

well i'm getting some eggs from someone and on there fish there's an 80% hatch rate, it varies though from species to species. also you would probably need to feed them livefood like microworms or BBS. before you buy from the person you might want to ask for step by step instructions and what the hatch rate is etc.

this may help you it has some info check out all of the things about killi's on that site for a good idea on how to care for them.



This post has been edited by jayjay: May 28 2006, 08:46 PM

Thanks for all of the tips and info.

are you planning on getting any then? you may find getting them as adults easier but my LFS stock lot's of killi's just none i like lol.

Bookmarked this thread myself. I'm wanting to keep Killis in the future but until then, this is a lot of good info to read up on. I've just got to work out where to put them.

I would like to get killies but to be honest I don't really want them if they are going to be a challenge to keep. Some of the fish that I already have are quite enough. Maybe when I get a bit more time I will get some. At the moment I have school exams

i would say their a challenge, but all depends on what species you get i'm getting 1 of the easy species lol as these are only my 1st actual proper keeping of killi's i use to keep 2 other kinds but i didn't know alot about them and they still lived in my community tank.

these are supposidly for begginers

I purchased some Killi eggs from Ebay, and it was a while ago and they got posted to me on a day when it was snowing and there was ice on the ground! Even then I managed to hatch half of them and I have almost half males which is handy. I got Gardneri as I read they were a good species to start with, some species are really easy and some harder to breed.

As long as you have small live food for the babies, I used BBS mainly, you'll be fine. I think hatching them from eggs was far more interesting than just buying the fish from the LFS too.

Ebay is a good source, as long as you look at the sellers feedback and ask plenty of questions you should be fine.

This post has been edited by kev_kb: May 31 2006, 12:07 PM