Fundulopanchax marmoratus

[Crispii]

Has anyone have any experience keeping and breeding Fundulopanchax marmoratus "Mbonge"?

 

[GaryE]

I have sad experience trying to breed that fish. I failed....

 

[Crispii]

I have sad experience trying to breed that fish. I failed....

What happened? Did the pair not lay any eggs or do you have unequal sex ratio?

 

[Back in the fold]

What happened? Did the pair not lay any eggs or do you have unequal sex ratio?

If Gary couldn’t make it happen then us mortals are doomed .

 

[Crispii]

If Gary couldn’t make it happen then us mortals are doomed .

Probably, but that doesn't mean that I won't be successful with breeding this species. Would like to know people's experience a bit more since I never worked with that species and will be planning on getting some.

 

[GaryE]

It's been a long time. I don't think I had the Mbonje location, but I did have marmoratus. They were an aquarium strain.

I treated them as I did all other Fundulopanchax. I bred gardneri, nigerianus, mirabilis, scheeli, walkeri, sjoedesti, arnoldi and moensis around that time. I had failed at breeding amieti and ndianus.

My water was 140ppm GH, and pH 7.4. Softer would have been better. If I had them again (and it's a nice fish) I would treat them like gardneri but would now use live food (I only had frozen back then). I suspect nutrition had a lot to do with their never giving me a single egg. But when you get one pair of a fish, it can be just individual variation. Maybe one of them was infertile. Maybe the person who raised them and sold them to me undernourished them, or raised them poorly. There are so many maybes. They don't add up to the species being difficult.

If you can get live blackworms (I can't here), use them. White worms can be cultured. Mosquito larvae can be caught - that's their natural food. A lot of killies will eat prepared foods, but very few will breed on that diet.

What kind of set up do you have or plan to have for them, and how many fish?

 

[Crispii]

It's been a long time. I don't think I had the Mbonje location, but I did have marmoratus. They were an aquarium strain.

I treated them as I did all other Fundulopanchax. I bred gardneri, nigerianus, mirabilis, scheeli, walkeri, sjoedesti, arnoldi and moensis around that time. I had failed at breeding amieti and ndianus.

My water was 140ppm GH, and pH 7.4. Softer would have been better. If I had them again (and it's a nice fish) I would treat them like gardneri but would now use live food (I only had frozen back then). I suspect nutrition had a lot to do with their never giving me a single egg. But when you get one pair of a fish, it can be just individual variation. Maybe one of them was infertile. Maybe the person who raised them and sold them to me undernourished them, or raised them poorly. There are so many maybes. They don't add up to the species being difficult.

If you can get live blackworms (I can't here), use them. White worms can be cultured. Mosquito larvae can be caught - that's their natural food. A lot of killies will eat prepared foods, but very few will breed on that diet.

What kind of set up do you have or plan to have for them, and how many fish?

They're going to be in a 5 gallon aquarium with two sinking mops as well as a floating one along with floating water sprite. Planning on getting two pairs.

 

[GaryE]

You aren't likely to get fry from the set up, but maybe eggs. Both pairs in the one tank?

 

[Crispii]

You aren't likely to get fry from the set up, but maybe eggs. Both pairs in the one tank?

That's fine. I can collect eggs and pairs for each aquarium.

 

[GaryE]

Okay, good. Sometimes if there are 2 pairs, one eats the eggs after the other spawns. So you think (or I get caught with this) that they aren't breeding, but they're dining instead.

 

[Back in the fold]

Off topic but I have two aquariums with Fundulopanchax gardneri (aquarium strain) . Each aquarium has three males and two females . One is a five gallon bare set up and the other is a ten gallon with gravel and plants . Both have mops . The five gallon produces fry and eggs in great abundance . The ten . . . . nothing .

 

[connorlindeman]

Good to see you @Crispii. Its been a while.

 

[GaryE]

I injured my foot and have to stay off it, so rather than just sitting around, I went digging on this fish. No killifish is common, but marmoratus seems to be popular in Europe right now. It's kept by a lot of people in the killie clubs.

I found no detailed breeding reports, except a suggestion they like to lay a lot of eggs high in mops, and can get along in smaller tanks. They don't seem aggressive. They come from rainwater streams with very low hardness.

From the photo, they're more beautiful than I remembered. Nice fish.

There was a suggestion fry were small enough to need micro-organisms for a day or two, before artemia. The writer didn't seem certain on that, and may have been reporting his own practice.

 

[Crispii]

Off topic but I have two aquariums with Fundulopanchax gardneri (aquarium strain) . Each aquarium has three males and two females . One is a five gallon bare set up and the other is a ten gallon with gravel and plants . Both have mops . The five gallon produces fry and eggs in great abundance . The ten . . . . nothing .

Have you tried anything special to get eggs? So far I've got no eggs from the marmoratus. The male became rambunctious and chase the females whenever he sees her. Maybe I'll try conditioning the fish and separating them.

 

[Back in the fold]

Have you tried anything special to get eggs? So far I've got no eggs from the marmoratus. The male became rambunctious and chase the females whenever he sees her. Maybe I'll try conditioning the fish and separating them.

No , that’s the thing , I haven’t done anything special . They’re just doing it on their own . I do use low TDS R/O water and I feed them heavily and do 75% water changes twice a week since they’re in small aquariums . I do have three mops in the five gallon and they take up a third of the tank space . Maybe that’s a key somehow .