I am after something colourful and different for my tank, and thought of killifish. I dont know too much about them, and with there being so many, i dont really know where to start looking as to which species would be suitable.

As said, i'd prefer them to be colouful if possible,

Slightly acidic water, pH 6.5 - 7
Tank mates: Dwarf gourami, glowlight tetra, corys, ottos
Size wise, i couldnt find a site that would tell me what size killifish generally grow to. I'm not really wanting anything over 2" if possible. 3" max.

It's a planted tank with sand substrate. I'm not interested in breeding them.

Also, what foods would they eat? Will they accept flake food? Bloodworm? I've heard they accept various other live foods but didnt see these mentioned.

Any help will be gratefully received. Thanks!

This post has been edited by voo: Nov 17 2006, 10:56 AM

A few that might be ok for your tank are: A. Australe and Fp. Gardneri lafia(many species almost the same with little difference) just naming two very popular breeds that are easy to care for and should do fine with your current setup and inhabitants. One person on here you may want to ask about other possible species is BigC, very well educated in killies and he has helped myself and many others. Hope this helped.

Edit: my avatar(picture under my name) is one of my Fp. Gardneri lafia males.

This post has been edited by Loko17: Nov 17 2006, 05:11 PM

1 species, different location variants and in some cases line bred variants. So 'Fp. gardeneri' is the species, with 'lafia' being the variant.

What size tank is it Voo? I'd recommend Gardeneri.

This post has been edited by jayjay: Nov 17 2006, 05:14 PM

yea thats what I meant, same species different color morphs. Thanks for alerting me jayjay.

Edit: yea what size is your tank, forgot to ask. OH and to answer your food question, they will except flake food but I'd give them variety of freeze dried/live foods and flake.

This post has been edited by Loko17: Nov 17 2006, 05:16 PM

Thanks for the replies

The tank is a 20G tank.

What size do they get to? In photos they seem to be guppy size, or is that just photos?

Will they eat freeze-dried tubiflex, bloodworm etc? I already have frozen bloodworms

EDIT: For some reason when using the laptop, 1 space = 3 lines

This post has been edited by voo: Nov 17 2006, 06:36 PM

Be on the lookout for
Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianum species (Misaje, Jos Plateau or Makurdi) to name but a few as has been said earlier there are many colour variants from different geographical locations within Nigeria and across the border into Cameroon.
Aphyosemion australe (chocolate, gold or spotless)
Aphyosemion striatum (again different locations
Epiplatys dageti Monrovia
All of the above are considered good beginners fish and will fit nicely into the community aquarium.(neutral pH and good water stats) They are not demanding and will accept flake, frozen and livefoods with equal zest.
I hope this was of some help to you
Regards
BigC

Thanks a lot for that BigC. Most helpful and i will take a look at all species mentioned here.

Seems everyone sells killifish eggs, never really seen any live fry anywhere. Is there any special place where i might find fry? I shall have a look into the eggs, there's several sites on the internet detailing what to do. Any tips?
Btw What size will the species mentioned get to?

This post has been edited by voo: Nov 17 2006, 07:13 PM

All get to around 65mm or slightly bigger.
Adult fish would be yu best bet. I have only fry myself at the moment, much to young to ship and it is winter.
Try http://www.trimar.co.uk/
Monty has Australe and Striatum at the moment. A bit pricey but if you want them you gotta pay the man plus postage.

or Ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=160051445965

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=160051445420

Regards
BigC

Only comment i would add is that if you are looking at fish other than those mentioned and are wanting something very colourful then beware that many of the really bright East African species such as Nothobranchius are seasonal so if as you said you have no intention of breeding them then you would have to restock each year although sometimes fish that dont spawn last a little longer although i wouldnt recomend these any way as males can be aggressive towards each other and they are a bit more picky with water requirements. I agree that A. australe is a good choice nice fins nice colours and not too bad for feeding plus if the killibug bites theyre not a bad place to start breeding.

If i'm right, then what you are saying is the annual killi's die after breeding each year??

Basically in a round about way yes, their lifecycle is based on their habbitat where seasonal rain means that there home pools are only temporary,thats why they have to mature to sexual maturity so fast and why their eggs need storing in moist peat for around 3 months before adding water for hatching, you are approximating the dry seasons where the eggs survive burried but the parents have long perished.

I thought the only thing different about annual species was the peat spawning and waiting to hatch, I thought that the parents would live longer than a year since they dont have to die because their habitat won't dry up. Thats just what I thought but personally I would look for the species I and BigC recommended since they are 1)not annual and 2)easy for beginners.

Oh yeah i deffinately agree they will last longer in an aquarium than in the wild, but not much in my experience the presence of continuous water levels has not been enough to undo thousands of years of evolution but to be fair im not a hardened killi keeper so i might not be the best example.

Yea I'm not a killi expert either, I thought I just read somewhere that the annual species can live longer than they do in the wild in aquaria. Maybe one day I'll know what needs to be known about annuals, for now I'm gonna stick to what I know...non-annuals. Haha.

who wants to wait 3 months to hatch eggs anyway lol.
No i agree i prefer non annuals.

Some of us wait a lot longer than that!!

What is the longest you've ever had to wait to hatch some eggs BigC? Just out of curiosity.

Youve got to give it to the killi guys theyre patient, i start getting disgruntled when it takes me two weeks to see the fry from a dwarf cichlid's spawning lol!

This varies with species and is temperature dependant, some would raise temperatures to bring hatching times down but in truth this has a detremental effect on the fish as a lot of the time you would get abnormalities. The longeat time I had to wait for a first wetting of the peat would have to be almost 6 months (Nothobranchius rachovi) then the peat is redried for to be rewetted at fortnightly intervals thereafter. (there are others both African and South American which have a lot longer incubation period)
When first laid the eggs will start developing then they will stop (the diapause) only to resume sometime later.
Consider a freak rainstorm that filled the temp. watercources where these fish live. The eggs would hatch and the pool would dry up killing all the fish. this is why eggs hatch at different times. This ensures species survival. You will sometimes get more fry from the second or third wetting than from the first. This type of species grow and mature very quickly due to the shorter lifespan. But you will get 12-18mths from tank held specimens.