Tired of killi myths

I am getting tired of all the myths floating around regarding killi fish!!!

There are 2 major ones:
1. 1. Killis cannot be kept in a community aquarium

2. 2. Killi fish live only for a year.


The second one is easy – My lineatus lived for 5 years average in a general community aquarium. This was not only one fish I always had 10 to 20 babys in line to take up the space if needed. Rest was sold and given away to Pretoria freshwater aquarium club members.


So lets start a thread here identifying the following:

1. 1. Those species that could be kept in a general community aquarium.

2. 2. Those species that could be kept together in a general killi community.

AND lets leave those difficult species out of this equation. The purpose would be to let other hobbyists know what they could look at regarding killi’s in their aquariums
OR setting up a killi community aquarium.

This thread is not for breeding but only for the enjoyment of Killi fish :cheesy:

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thanx Moolis

How about an intro to killi fish for a newbie like me?

What do they look like?
bottom feeders or top feeders?

I'm gonna google a picture now...

sorry for the stupid post but I might learn something here...

 

Stupid’s are those guys that think they know it all and do not ask.

Tell me tomorrow what you think of killi's - I am sure you will discover a whole new world![FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KillifishKillifish are awesome and beautiful... I need another tank!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hi Moolis,

What you need to do is to realize that there are very different types of killifishes and that you cannot just simply generalize. I have kept killifishes for over 15 years now, and some completely different ones. You can make some generalizations, but you need to say which genus and which species but there are quite a lot of exceptions and it is from the exceptions that you have all these rumors floating around and most of them are wrong, I agree.

I will give some general guidelines:

Aphyosemion, many of which now belong the genus Fundulopanchax, most come from West African streams in the rainforest. Some of these can be kept in community tanks such as Fundulopanchax gardneri. Most of them do survive for way paste one year and I have kept Aphyosemion australe for three years. They can be kept with other small fishes that are not aggressive. Biggest problem with these fishes is that they should NOT BE KEPT TOO WARM. Most burn out if kept above 23 C and 25 C for a few days will kill them. So you can see if you chuck them into a standard tropical aquarium they will die in less than a year. They will also die in most tanks in SA because even without heating they get TOO HOT IN SUMMER. I keep mine in tanks on the floor of my garage where they stay cool and there they are just fine. I do keep them in species tanks with no other fishes, with lots of mosses and Anubias, but they just multiply in a tank that is 60-90 cm long with reasonable filtration and aeration.

Nothobranchius come from seasonal pools in central southern Africa and eastern Africa. These pools occur in full sunlight, get hot in summer even as high as 30C but often cool off at night. Some are longer lived up to 2 years old others such as some strains of Nothobranchius furzeri from Mozambique and Zimbabwe will live for 6-8 weeks maximum. They literally burn out in no time. Tyrone Genade from Cape Town is doing research on these fishes as a model for aging for his Ph D. Some of these fishes are quite aggressive and most of these are not suitable for a community tank and need a specific tank just for one pair or one trio because some of the males are worse than siamese fighters and will kill each other.

Aplocheilus lineatus are good community fishes and last long as you indicate, they come from the jungles in the east.

There are killies from South America of a number genera, Simphonichthys and many others, and most of these live for longer than one year and require cool water, but they will certainly survive for longer.

There are killies from North America, co-called pupfish, which are highly specific in their requirements, we never see them here, most are extremely threatened in nature and require very hard water and high temps to survive.

So the bottom line is you cannot generalize when it comes to killies and I would advise that you look for specialist information for each species you want to keep. Excellent information can be obtained from the websites of the British Killifish Association (BKA) and the American Killifish Association (AKA).

I have as a rule kept them in species tanks, but they can be combined with other fishes as well. My opinion is that they are fishes for the specialist and not for the general aquarist, but as I say, the easier ones such as the Fundulopanchax gardneri can be kept in a cool community tank, but you must also keep it well covered and many of them jump out of the tank from the tiniest of gaps in the tops of the tank.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Great information right there From experience I can say some species of Nothobranchius can be kept safely in a community aquarium. Some are fin nippers as they would grab onto the tips of my veiltail angel's fins and get dragged along, not letting go.

 

Thanks Dirk

This is the info I need here :nuts:

So now guys give us more details on what you kept together and your other experiences, I can not believe only Dirk and myself have some knowledge.

 

@Dirk Bellstedt did I understand correctly...

These fish could be kept without a heater in summer, but how about in winter? I had some interest in these fishes and I have spoken to Tyrone a few times. Also what are the feeding habits of these fish, are they prone to only eating bloodworm or are there species that eat normal flake/granular tropical foods as well.

Thanks @Moolis for starting this thread.. Also would these fishes be okay to keep two or three pairs in a 40lt Nano or not?

 

Additional info: Killifishes are also classified as 1) annuals - lives in water (ponds) that dry up EVERY year. So they die every year. 2) Semi-annuals - lives in water that may not dry up. They last up to 3 years. 3) Non-annuals - Lives in permanent bodies of water and may survive for several years.

 

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Aplocheilus = panchax is regularly available in SA and a good community fish. Breeding them is also extremely easy. Best beginner fish for any one that want to start with killi's

Epiplatys annulatus = Rocket killi was the biggest suprize species for me. The breeding was as easy as Australe and they were more docile than expected. Definitely a species I enjoyed breeding, pity I do not see them anymore.[/FONT]

 

I kept and bred N.Eggersi for just less than 2 years. I found that they lived for about 7-10 months. Eggs were scattered over peat moss(not palm peat - I think it was called sphaggum or something like that). I placed this in bank bags and let the eggs develop for 6 to 8 weeks. The just add water and killi fry emerged. Quite difficult to keep the fry alive as they are so small and so difficult to feed. Most of my losses occurred during the early fry stage. By 6 weeks they are fully grown and ready to breed again.