What to get ?

Back in the fold · Nov 4, 2024

I am in a position to get some new fish . My current stock is dwindling and I have space . I still hope to find my own personal Holy Grail which is the original wild type Aplocheilus lineatus Killifish but barring that maybe I could find some species of Fundulus . I could dig that . There needs to be a Killifish in my aquariums . Guppies are sounding good to me . Next fall I celebrate sixty years as an aquarist and I wouldn’t mind an aquarium full of Guppies to commemorate the occasion . Kribensis sound good too . There’s been a lot of talk on The Great TFF Forum about them lately and that has awakened the cichlid bug in me . So many fish , so many fish . What to get ? An old favorite or a new one ? A guy just has to love a hobby that brings about such concerns .

Magnum Man · Nov 4, 2024

what are friends for if they don't help you spend your money

https://www.dansfish.com/product.detail/7090/Wild-Type-Wonder-Killifish-Pair-(1M1F)-(Aplocheilus-lineatus)

a whole lot of goodies here...

https://www.dansfish.com/catalog.dive/19

Dan's seems to be really into Killies... I've never had one... may have to rectify that one of these days

Back in the fold · Nov 4, 2024

Magnum Man said:
what are friends for if they don't help you spend your money

https://www.dansfish.com/product.detail/7090/Wild-Type-Wonder-Killifish-Pair-(1M1F)-(Aplocheilus-lineatus)
a whole lot of goodies here...

https://www.dansfish.com/catalog.dive/19

Dan's seems to be really into Killies... I've never had one... may have to rectify that one of these days

Wow ! There’s The Holy Grail . $100 bucks a pair ? Ain’t happening ! What Dan writes in the description is true - “ The rarest form of the most common killifish in the hobby “ . I guess I’ll have to rattle the cage of the AKA - again - and see if any of those guys have any . I kinda have it in my head to start saving eggs from the lineatus I have now and building up my stock again . Didn’t really want more Golden Wonders but a Killie is a Killie .

Back in the fold · Nov 5, 2024

Well , I made up my mind . I’m going to build up my Golden Wonders again just because I’ve had them since 2019 . Not the same fish as from 2019 but their descendants . @GaryE has said several times that you really get to know a fish once you’ve kept them long term through many generations . I think I’m onto these Aplocheilus lineatus Golden Wonder Killifish pretty good after five years and a large male in his best gold color is a pretty fish . A guy in The American Killifish Association once offered me a pair of Aphyosemion jorgenscheeli and I think I’ll see if that offer still stands . Maybe one of these days I’ll have success with one of the more challenging plant spawners .

GaryE · Nov 5, 2024

We used to get wild form lineatus in pet stores. The first of the mutant green ones got people excited. And now, the more beautiful wilds are pretty well out of the North American hobby, replaced by huge numbers of green mutants descended from maybe one male that first showed the colour mutation.

There is some inbreeding there.

I caught Aphyosemion joergenscheeli in Gabon, and gave the 3 males to a Danish friend, who had caught females. He knows a guy who specializes in the species, and I really wasn't sure I have the skills to breed that one. I'd have to set up tanks in a cool room indoors, as my fishroom is too warm for them. If you ever get them - they came from shallow (2 inches to one foot deep in the middle), soft and cool water at the base of a maybe 5-6 foot waterfall. So oxygen galore. They would get behind pieces of wood and rocks that the water would flow around, created a slightly sheltered super oxygenated pocket. It was a beautiful, very lively little stream.

Above the waterfall we got one male, but there was too much quicksand/mud to explore much.

They're dinosaur killies - very ancient and considered to be one of the basal species - close to whatever the rest of the family branched out of. They're a relic of another era - a beautiful living fossil of sorts.