I got some killifish!

[pkremer]

I was at a LFS on Monday, and saw for the first time killifish! I was fascinated by how beautiful they were, so I went home and did some research. It seems most species are easy to take care of and stay small, so I figured they'd make great permanent residents of my 10 gallon! I picked up 4 of them for $2.97 each. I guess a local here in the area breeds them and then sells them to the LFS.

Can anyone ID this killifish? I am curious to know more about him. They are all 4 this species. As they grow, would they work in the 38 with the blue gourami or should I leave them in the 10? Like Menagerie, these were a semi-impulse purchase. Maybe I shouldn't go the LFS so much...

Paul

PS - Those are not worms or anything bad in the picture with him. Because of the low lighting, the digi-cam uses a slow shutter speed, so the bubbles coming from the filter pouring back in move during the exposure, causing that wormy look.

 

[pkremer]

OK, maybe there are just too many types of killifish to ID this one (or maybe the pic is just bad ).

Here is an easier question. What do I feed them? I gave them some TetraMin tonight (crushed up as they are very tiny), and they all cruised around the tank, taking in pieces and spitting them out. I don't think any of them actually took in any food. Now I'm going to have to vaccuum it all out. I will try some tubifex tomorrow and maybe a shrimp pellet to see if they will eat those. They seemed unimpressed with the algae wafers in there for the otocinclus.

Does anyone have any experience in what these little guys like?

Paul

 

[nick_schembri]

I would focus more on breeding them because they aren't really permanent aquarium residents. They are very short-lived, I'm not sure but I think its sometimes less than a year. This is because in their natural habitat their water dries up completely and they survive the dry season as eggs in the mud. They grow very quickly too . They are easy to breed and like that you can keep a constant display of killies.
HTH
Nicky.

 

[greenfish]

Check out the website of the american killifish association:
http://www.aka.org/
They have a section for beginners that has some great info.

 

[Menagerie]

www.killifish.com is a great site to get more info.