killifish?

[Sgooosh]

my killi would eat houseflies during the summer. 1 killi I'd say OK, 2 killies I'd begin to worry about my guppies. but granted, it's been a few years since I've kept them. now I really want to get back into the killifish game.

Ohh i understand

 

[GaryE]

Golden wonders are wide mouthed predators that will even eat young guppies. Very few killies hunt like they do. Always look a gift (to yourself) fish in the mouth. The mouth speaks volumes. (sorry for the Dad joke.)
The raising them from a small size won't work with predation. Eventually, a predator figures it out. You just buy a little time.
That said, gardneri are opportunistic predators. It's not their usual thing, but they don't pass up a chance, much like me with some junk food.

I am going to put up drywall today, and by next week, will have a bank of tanks and 20 killie species set up. Each has its distinctive traits, ways and evolutionary history. They make the word "killie" kind of useless. It's a bit like the word "music" - it describes a lot of admittedly related but very different things.

 

[Sgooosh]

Golden wonders are wide mouthed predators that will even eat young guppies. Very few killies hunt like they do. Always look a gift (to yourself) fish in the mouth. The mouth speaks volumes. (sorry for the Dad joke.)
The raising them from a small size won't work with predation. Eventually, a predator figures it out. You just buy a little time.
That said, gardneri are opportunistic predators. It's not their usual thing, but they don't pass up a chance, much like me with some junk food.

I am going to put up drywall today, and by next week, will have a bank of tanks and 20 killie species set up. Each has its distinctive traits, ways and evolutionary history. They make the word "killie" kind of useless. It's a bit like the word "music" - it describes a lot of admittedly related but very different things.

I found clown killifish panchax online they seem small and are able to be kept with neocaridinias… would it be possible？

 

[Colin_T]

clown killifish are tiny and do best on their own. They only live for 12-18months and should be bred. If you want to breed them you can't have snails or shrimp in the tank with them because these will eat the fish eggs.

 

[Sgooosh]

clown killifish are tiny and do best on their own. They only live for 12-18months and should be bred. If you want to breed them you can't have snails or shrimp in the tank with them because these will eat the fish eggs.

Ok thanks. Will pest snails eat their eggs? I want to keep them seperatelg but pest snails are almost unavoidable and help a lot in the tanks lol

 

[GaryE]

Pest snails will pick off eggs, but annulatus are pretty productive. You don't want guppy numbers anyway.

I don't have much shrimp experience (why play with fish food) but I know from speaking to breeders that not all shrimp eat killie eggs. Some actually keep them clean, in much the same way as ramshorn snails don't attack eggs, but pond snails destroy them.

I consulted professor google on this, and the operative word was "may". I know Epiplatys annulatus will eat many of the shrimplets in the tank. Food's food. I know some eggs will be eaten by the evil shrimp. Food's food. How the balance would work out is the question. I had pest snails in my tangled up plant tanks where annulatus bred like rumours, so I know you can have a balance there. One thing I learned as like most fish, the smaller the tank, the more they hunt their own fry. If the tank is smaller, it needs a lot of java moss low, and floating plants high. Once you get past 10 gallons, fry predation pretty well disappears, in my experience (and in my not exactly aquascaped set ups).

I agree with @Colin_T on the need to breed them if you like them and want them around - they have a way of dropping out of the hobby periodically. But I disagree on lifespan. They'll breed up to 2 years of age, and google says they can live 5 years. Mine tended to get really old at 4. It could be that Australian temperatures shorten their lives - keeping fish at 28 and keeping fish at 22 will give you a different experience. In Canada, we fight to keep fish warm enough, and in Australia, things get too hot...

 

[Sgooosh]

Pest snails will pick off eggs, but annulatus are pretty productive. You don't want guppy numbers anyway.

I don't have much shrimp experience (why play with fish food) but I know from speaking to breeders that not all shrimp eat killie eggs. Some actually keep them clean, in much the same way as ramshorn snails don't attack eggs, but pond snails destroy them.

I consulted professor google on this, and the operative word was "may". I know Epiplatys annulatus will eat many of the shrimplets in the tank. Food's food. I know some eggs will be eaten by the evil shrimp. Food's food. How the balance would work out is the question. I had pest snails in my tangled up plant tanks where annulatus bred like rumours, so I know you can have a balance there. One thing I learned as like most fish, the smaller the tank, the more they hunt their own fry. If the tank is smaller, it needs a lot of java moss low, and floating plants high. Once you get past 10 gallons, fry predation pretty well disappears, in my experience (and in my not exactly aquascaped set ups).

I agree with @Colin_T on the need to breed them if you like them and want them around - they have a way of dropping out of the hobby periodically. But I disagree on lifespan. They'll breed up to 2 years of age, and google says they can live 5 years. Mine tended to get really old at 4. It could be that Australian temperatures shorten their lives - keeping fish at 28 and keeping fish at 22 will give you a different experience. In Canada, we fight to keep fish warm enough, and in Australia, things get too hot...

i have 27gallon ponds indoor
i can do a species only tank
good thing most of my snails are rams. will trumpet snails eat the eggs?

 

[Colin_T]

all snails and shrimp will eat fish eggs.

 

[GaryE]

I've experimented by putting snails in petrie dishes with fertilized killie eggs. This was after a friend did a more structured experiment and said ramshorns didn't attack eggs. I was very skeptical. I am a snail hater, but you can't base anything on that!
Pond snails in 2 dishes ate all the eggs. Malaysian trumpets ate them all.
Ramshorns ate one. 80% did just fine, and maybe the egg I thought was good wasn't.

So I now hate all common uninvited snails except ramshorns.

 

[Sgooosh]

I've experimented by putting snails in petrie dishes with fertilized killie eggs. This was after a friend did a more structured experiment and said ramshorns didn't attack eggs. I was very skeptical. I am a snail hater, but you can't base anything on that!
Pond snails in 2 dishes ate all the eggs. Malaysian trumpets ate them all.
Ramshorns ate one. 80% did just fine, and maybe the egg I thought was good wasn't.

So I now hate all common uninvited snails except ramshorns.

did you test bladders?

 

[GaryE]

did you test bladders?

Well, with beer, yes....

Bladders are what I call pond snails. Regional names, I guess. I have never been interested enough to look up snail Latin names...

 

[Sgooosh]

Well, with beer, yes....

Bladders are what I call pond snails. Regional names, I guess. I have never been interested enough to look up snail Latin names...

LOL
oh
for me bladders have translucent shells with gold spots
pond snails have more solid shells

 

[GaryE]

I go by shell shape with the creatures that get into our tanks. I expect that as usual, bladder and pond snails are a few different things that we throw together. The ramshorn thing was a real surprise, and it has been supported since by lots of fry appearing in tanks with ramshorns but no pond snails. Even with pond snails though - unless you have a huge outbreak, eggs will survive. They won't get them all.
I also suspect eggs may have some chemical defenses against snails - they aren't inert, but living things. How you treat killie eggs has a big effect on the fish you get from them.

I manually remove pond snails and throw them into the Steatocranus tank. They are simply pests.

 

[Sgooosh]

I go by shell shape with the creatures that get into our tanks. I expect that as usual, bladder and pond snails are a few different things that we throw together. The ramshorn thing was a real surprise, and it has been supported since by lots of fry appearing in tanks with ramshorns but no pond snails. Even with pond snails though - unless you have a huge outbreak, eggs will survive. They won't get them all.
I also suspect eggs may have some chemical defenses against snails - they aren't inert, but living things. How you treat killie eggs has a big effect on the fish you get from them.

I manually remove pond snails and throw them into the Steatocranus tank. They are simply pests.

That’s goos, the ram population is doing better than the other two