Stowaway fish. Any ideas what it is?

[pepedopolous]

This fish just appeared about 3 weeks after filling my tank. At first it was a few mm long, now it's almost as big as the black neons. Any idea what is is?

Many thanks,

P

 

[Ady34]

looks like a panchax sp. killifish.
Thats my best guess.
Killis are annual fish in the wild, laying eggs in the mud as the dry season comes around, when the wet season begins the following year the eggs hatch and the cycle continues. Probably explains the mystery arrival.
Member Killi69 seems up on his killifish, maybe he will see this post and help or you could pm him
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Antipofish]

I thought the same as Ady before seeing what he wrote, so :text-+1:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Definitely a Killi, probably Aplocheilus lineatus because it has grown so quickly, but possibly Epiplatys dageti? These are adhesive spawners on plants, which is where the egg probably came from, but the eggs are really tough and probably survived packaging etc.

Epiplatys is quite a good community fish (very surface orientated and like fruit flies, small crickets etc), but the Aplocheilus is a definite fish eater when bigger.

cheers Darrel

 

[Gill]

I would agree with Aplocheilus lineatus, gets big and will take anything up to and over 1 inch. Have kept them in the past and they happily gobbled down sparkling gouramies and tried to eat female fighters.

 

[pepedopolous]

Thanks very much for the replies. I googled Aplocheilus lineatus, and it does seem to be very similar. However, I think the second image on this page is closer: -http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/epiplatys-dageti-dageti.

Might rehome the fish via an LFS as I don't have a tank lid and don''t want the neons ending up as dinner.

 

[killi69]

Hi pepedopolous,

It is definitely Epiplatys dageti - a female as males have a black band running along the bottom of their anal and tail fins. Quite a hardy species, easy to keep and very suitable for a community tank and will often reproduce in a community tank. They will pose no threat to your neons, but you are right about worrying about them jumping though.

Regards,

Andre

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

It is definitely Epiplatys dageti, a female

Result, if you could get a male as well they would make a great fish for a bigger planted nano.

cheers Darrel

 

[pepedopolous]

Just found out what it was and it's gone! My girlfriend fed the fish about half an hour before I got home on Monday. Didn't notice the 'baby' jump out. I found it dead, being prodded by our cats.

RIP little one.