# Killifish



## SeaKnight (May 24, 2013)

Does anyone here have first hand experience with them??? Particularly egg hatching?? My "Brother" has taken quite a liking to them, but has been unable to find very much information about them and does not want to go into things blindly..


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

LittleBettaFish has some. I'm sure she'll post.

I just wanted to say that even though I don't have any they are some of my favorite fish... The colours and patterns are awesome.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I have no experience with keeping annual species that require the eggs to be incubated in peat moss for several months, but I do have experience with species from the Fundulopanchax and Aphyosemion genera and can offer some assistance if your brother is interested in any of those.


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## SeaKnight (May 24, 2013)

Thank you, I will ask which species he was speaking of...


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## SeaKnight (May 24, 2013)

I believe it may be Fundulopanchax. As his exact words were " Blue Something?", my guess is he meant Blue Gularis... Or is there another species with Blue in the name??

Edit to add, I just saw the Blue Gularis classified under both the Fundulopanchax and Aphyosemion categories??? Now I'm confused?? Are They different varieties of the same species or different species altogether that happen to share a common name?


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

It may be blue gularis, but sometimes killifish are called by other names so I won't say for certain that is what he meant. 

I do believe they are from the Fundulopanchax genus. The AKA has them listed as such. I find that sometimes fish from these two genera often get mixed up. 

http://www.aka.org/wak/Ref_Library/Fundulopanchax/Fundulopanchax_Index.htm

I have kept a pair of these before. However, they picked up something bacterial and passed away not long after I got them. They are beautiful fish, but quite large and my male was highly aggressive towards the female. I would recommend a 2ft tank minimum if you want to house a pair with plenty of cover as killifish males can be relentless in their courtship attempts.

If you are just starting off with killies I would recommend actually purchasing a pair rather than eggs. It took me a little while to get the knack of hatching eggs and rearing killifish fry and it can be very disappointing to have your entire batch of eggs turn bad. 

Killifish generally do better in softer water, they also require an extremely tight-fitting lid as they will jump and you will find them dead on the floor if you don't.

They are from what I have read substrate spawners, so using a container of something like peat moss or making spawn mops and putting them on the bottom of the tank should be fine. 

I would recommend doing some reading on hatching eggs/rearing killifish fry as everyone has their methods and it can greatly depend on the species as well. 

Finally, killifish usually like it cooler than most bettas. I kept my species around the 25 degree celsius mark, although some like it even colder than that.


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## MakoBetta10 (Aug 21, 2013)

He might of been talking about the steel blue killifish,AKA Gardneri killie.


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