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Rearing Killifish Fry

ScareCrow

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2019
Messages
628
Location
South west
Hi All,

I'm contemplating keeping killi's again. In the past I've raised them from eggs as I've been around to feed them regularly and do water changes etc. I'd like to raise them from eggs again and while I'll be able to feed them most days and I plan to keep them in my main tank in a floating container with small holes to allow waterflow, so water changes aren't a concern. There will be days (2 maybe 3) that I won't be around to feed. Can you suggest any foods that will sustain them while I'm away? Foods would need to be suitable for week old fry and up. I've looked at repashy gel foods as a potential option and I used banana worms in the past but I can't remember how long they last underwater. Daphnia are another option I've considered but I don't think I'll be able to culture a sufficient number this time of year.
 
I don't have any experience with killifish, but maybe vinegar eels? I believe these can stay alive in the water column quite a while (if they don't get flushed away at least).
 
@Majsa thanks for your suggestion. I'd not thought about the fact that food small enough for fry will be able to be flush out. I think I'll have to put Killifish on hold for now.
 
Hi, microworms will survive for a couple of days on the bottom of the container if the flow isn't too great. Otherwise the fry will survive on what they have in the water, put some moss in there and they should do ok. Depends on what species you have how soon you can empty them into the main tank. As they get bigger you can put grindal in but only small amounts
What are you thinking of getting?
Cheers
John
 
Thanks for your reply John. I'm thinking of getting some Aphyosemion celiae celiae or I'd also like to try A.striatum if I'm able to find some eggs.
 
Instead of putting holes in the container how about cutting out one side and use filter foam to fill the gap
Slow flow into it so live food stays on the base and if any go onto the fine sponge they can pick them off, if they got through the sponge then fine it’s a treat for the other fish

Could you feed them live daphnia obviously have to grade it some how

Or suspend a bottle of newly hatched brine shrimp above and have it drip out into the container at a very slow rate ? Over 2 days the amount of salt added to your aquarium would be tiny

(Glue in a small valve / tap in to the bottle cap and cut the base off so it hangs upside down )

Just some ideas for you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the ideas Dean. The sponge idea is definitely something I could do. At the moment I don't have as many live food cultures as I'd like but definitely a good idea for future attempts.
 
I've been raising nothobranchius and fundulopanchax fry this way. But have been able to change water and feed. If I were to leave fry for a few days I'd make the container large, pack it full of moss and put floating plants with fine roots in that the fry can pick through. Water lettuce (small plants), salvinia natans, probably not frogbit as the roots will be too long for a container. Microworms seem to last a day or so. Not tried vinegar eels.
 
The difference between vinegar eels and microworms (apart from the size) is that vinegar eels swim upwards towards the surface, whereas microworms fall down to the bottom. Something to keep in mind with the container “design”, though in a small container it probably wouldn’t make much difference. Pistia is great with lots of hairy roots, and I like floating riccia and mosses too.
 
Have you joined the BKA?

I'm a new member, looking forward to the egg lists becoming available again, I think they're on hold due to being too cold to send in the post
 
I found a hang on the side fry box worked really well for raising cory fry. You can run then off an air powered filter, but I just used an elastic band to position a bit of airline in the outflow of my main filter and that was enough to give a constant trickle of water through.
 
Thanks all for your replies.
@Aqua360 I've not joined yet, I was intending to and I was looking forward to the auction but with things the way they've been this year I held off joining.
 
It's £10 per year for the digital BKA membership. You get a newsletter every now and then and the fish and egg list, which as you correctly say has been suspended temporarily over winter. I think they're working on the members area of the website as there isn't a huge amount. Theres an excellent collection of nothobranchius species info. I hope they catalogue the old newsletters and articles as I find them really interesting. They must have decades of them.

In my opinion its well worth a tenner, even just for the egg list and not having to use ebay or aquabid.
If you like killis some other things to look at are:
Tim Addis' killi website
Wild nothos website
Friends of BKA group on Facebook which has a lot of members
The official BKA members group on Facebook which was only set up in 2020 and has fewer members.
 
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