I would start with the species of Fundulopanchax gardneri. try to get hold of true strains. ie. Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianus "
Jos Plateau" or any of the others available. Aplochelius lineatus "Gold" whilst being a nice beginners fish and easy to keep and breed they attain a size of 4" (100mm) given the proper conditions and I personally would not a small tank for these.
Below is a concise account of how to keep and breed Fp. gardneri, it was written in response to another members plight but I think it could also be revelent to you. forget the top line as he was interested in the gold colour morph....but they all have similar requirements. I hope this is of some use to you..
Fundulopanchax (as they are now known) gardneri nigerianus Gold. are a colour morph of Fp.gardneri. There are many different strains from different geographical locations mostly inside Nigeria in West Africa.
I have bred many different strains in the past noteably P82, Jos Plateau, Port Harcourt, Makurdi and Misaje, the latter being my favourite.
The all have similar breeding habits and below follows a concise husbandry for that particular species the way I breed them.
Tank
18"x10"x10" bare bottomed tank with a tight fitting lid (essential, for obvious reasons) This size of tank will suffice for an adult trio. Into this tank I place a small air driven polyfilter with the flow set to a trickle along the water surface. A small heater is also added and set to a temperature of 76'F. The pH of the water should be in or around 6.8. I perform 30% waterchanges weekly. (syphoning debris from the bare bottom).
Adult Feeding
The adult Fp. gardneri are not fussy about what they eat (they will eat your molly fry) I mostly feed livefood ranging from brineshrimp, tubifex worms, grindalworms, whiteworms, daphnia, bloodworm and vestigal winged fruitfly. but they will redily accept flake and frozen foodstuffs as well. Fundulopanchax gardneri will attain a length of around 65-70mm under aquarium conditions following all the above criteria.
Breeding
Everything that has already been mentioned above will ensure good conditioned stock ready for breeding. As Fp. gardneri are predominatly top spawners then the only thing that is left to do is to add around 5-6 synthetic yarn spawning mops.
http
/www.djramsey.com/tropfish/spawning_mops.htm
Over the course of the comming days the male will court the females and lure them one at a time into and alongside the mops, The pair will move along side each other and the male will wrap his dorsal fin over the female, they wiill adopt what is commonly known as an "S" position as they move eratically near the spawning site, a quick "jerk" movement completes the spawning cycle and one egg is laid at a time in the mop. This is a constant cycle, the mops also provide resting places for the females away from over avid males. As regard to egg numbers, you should expect to collect between 6-30 eggs on a daily basis.
Fry Rearing
I collect the eggs daily, removing them from the mop with my fingers, being careful not to squeeze too hard. Remove the mops one at a time from the parent tank and gently squeeze all the access water from them, now inspect them for eggs. Fp gardneri eggs are quite large as killifish species go the egg measuring roughly 1/8", they are easily seen with the naked eye and are opaque to yellowish in colour. Place all collected eggs in a small clean margarine tub floated in the parent tank with roughly 40mm of water and a small airline set to a very slow trickle. Inspect the eggs daily and remove all fungussed and infertile ones. (some breeders like to use chemicals as an anti fungus agent, I don't like using these) I replace the marg tub water every other day using the water from the parent tank.
The eggs will go through many stages of embronic growth eventually hatching after 14-21 days. The fry ar quite large and will take newly hatched brineshrimp (essential) microworms and crushed flake from the outset. Provide the fry with their own growing on tank of similar dimensions and setup as per the adults above. Start with a water depth of around 2" and gradulally increase this as the fry grow, remember cleanliness is a key part in rearing any fry. (You will not rear every single fry nor will it be necessary to do so) I rear around 20 pair at a time. You will notice some skews in sex ratios ie: mostly all males or all females. This can be experamented with as it is linked to the temperature of the egg incubation. Keep fish of comparable size in the same tank as the larger ones will kill of the smaller siblings.Keep the most robust stock for future breeding and sell your surplus, you can expect to get at least £5 per pair. Bring in new stock on a regular basis from the same location or colour morph. (do not cross strains) to keep the strain strong and to eleviate any diformaties caused by in-breeding. Lastly cull weak stock. (they will only be preyed upon anyway).
Summary
Fundulopanchax gardneri nigerianus is a beautiful killifish species, they are quite easy to breed and maintain. Fry rearing present little or no problems, they are an excellent introduction into the world of Killifish for the novice. After 25 years of breeding Killi's I always have room in my fish room for one or two varieties of Fp. gardneri.
I sincerly hope this was of some help to you and to others wishing to breed this beautiful species of Killifish.
Regards
BigC
