Killifish amongst the Catfish?

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 04 May 2007, 17:11

I'll iniate exposing more "dirt", I also keep and breed killies, not only catfish.
I phase in and out of killies going from Annuals from SA to Annuals from Africa. Now I'm "doing mainly African egg hangers, Aphyosemion and Scriptoaphyosemion and hopefully soon some SA Rivulus xiphidius. No annuals.
I have:
Aphyosemion australe gold
A. congicum
A. labarrei
A. scheeli
A. striatum
A. puerezli
Scriptoaphyosemion geryi Guinea
S. guinardi
Epiplatys lammottei

Post by **Shane** » 04 May 2007, 18:40

Larry,
I have Aplocheilichthys johnstoni (locally collected) and am raising fry.
-Shane

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 04 May 2007, 20:43

Hi Shane,
Your work sure has presented you, the fish keeper, with some fantastic opportunities!
I bet those look good in schools. I have yet to keep and breed any of the lampeyes. I bet their fry are on the small side for a killie, huh? They are quite a bit different than the Aphyosemions, Epiplatys and Nothobranchius which are the Old World Killies I have the most experience with. It is interesting to have openened some topics about some of the other fish we keep other than catfish and to explore the ways in which some of them can be combined successfully with our catfish.
I was a member of the American Killifish Association as far back as 1968 and have long ago lost count of all the killies Old and New World I've had.
I am presently excited about getting Aphyosemion labarrei because I was able to get some wild ones through a New York wholesaler in 1969 that were collected by the late Pierre Brichard and it has taken me this long to finally find someone who has this species. That makes a wait of 38 years. Their beauty will make up for the wait.
I had a retail tropical fish shop back then and I was able to, just once and awhile, manage to aquire some wild caught killies. I once bought a box lot of Aphyolebias peruensis for something like $0.45!! each/100 lot. I managed to get some wild Aplocheilus dayi which is not seen often anymore. These darn civl wars have always caused problems for fish collectors.

mummymonkey · Post by **mummymonkey** » 05 May 2007, 16:32

Currently breeding:
Aphyosemion scheeli
A. striatum
A. hera
Aphanius mento

The scheeli aren't safe with corys but the rest appear to be fine.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 05 May 2007, 17:26

Hi mummumonkey,
A. hera is one species I haven't raised yet. Very pretty species.

Just wondering what the problem was between A. scheeli and Corys?

I don't actually try to breed killies and Corys together. What I do is raise them separately. I have found that it often is possible to add a few small Corydoras fry in a killie fry raising container, much as one would add snails. The Corys are good for eating a fresh dead bbs that perhaps a killie ignores because it stopped moving. Basically as adjunct clean up crews. Another one I use is a single Ancistrus sp.3 no more than 1/2 inch long. They work well as a general purpose scavenger in temporary small containers with killie fry.

The only problem I've ever had with A. scheeli is that they are among the best at finding the impossibly small holes to jump through; even better than many other killies. They were among my very first killies. I bought them as Aphyosemion "Burundi" back in 1968.

mummymonkey · Post by **mummymonkey** » 05 May 2007, 18:48

I know what you mean about the jumping scheeli, I collect one or two most weeks from the floor. I think they are possibly the easiest fish to breed I have ever kept. Scheeli fry just keep turning up in tanks that haven't had an adult in for months.
Scheeli nip the dorsal fins of my corys, too much of a temptation for them!

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 05 May 2007, 19:33

mummymonkey,
Thanks for that tidbit.
I chose A. scheeli out of sentimental reasons and because they give me an Aphyosemion that is a reasonable facsimile of Fp. gardeneri.
They are easy to breed. Their incubation period is easily manipulated by incubating on peat I picked some for that reason so I would be able to have some that would make decent petshop fodder, helps to have a little variety rather than my earlier situation where I had almost a 1000 Cory. sterbai to sell. I did sell them as well as a load of discus so I freed up a lot of tank space for a better variety of projects. That won't last. No sooner than all the discus are gone and I'm getting orders for more.

Anyway, A. scheeli do lay a certain % of slow developing eggs and some fry show up much later when you aren't expecting them. I have the easy ones balanced out with some more challenging species like Rivulus xiphidius. They are a good killie to keep me humble. Just can't assume those are going to roll off the assmbly line.
Killies and catfish aren't the best combo but as I mentioned earlier, a few Cory or Ancistrus fry make useful scavengers in shoe box fry tanks. Unlike snails they don't undergo unwlcome population explosions.