PlanetCatfish.com

While this isn't really Catfish related (at least not directly, I don't think), I learned a valuable lesson about paying close attention to the tanks at the LFS. About a week ago, My Better Half and I were at one of the big chain-store pet shops and, as I always do, I spent a little bit of time looking in their tanks. In two of the tanks, filled with different types of tetras, were two oddballs. I though that they looked like killifish, but I've never kept any, so I wasn't sure. For the cost of a couple of tetras, though, I figured that I couldn't go too far wrong, so they came home with us.

Once they were acclimated and safe, I got onto several different sites to see if I could figre out what they were. It turns out that they are male and female Blue Gularis Killifish, which are worth more that I have ever paid for any fish!

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... catid=1173 shows the least expensive listing I found for them!

I'd bet that there are other members here who have better stories than this.

I bought an odd brown talking cat from a tank of agamyxis which i was told was a common amblydoras. However my sneaking suspicion was correct in that it actually was . My favourite is the tail sticking out of a pipe in a sump tank that said Tang syno. Upon enquiring i was told it was a syno multipunctatus & i could have it for a fiver. Now that's a bargain for a 5' fish & i hummed & harred about it, until it was pushed out of the pipe & i bit the guys arm off as it turned out to be a superb

Hi timberwolf,

You did score big time on the misidentified Blue Gularis pair.
They are not typically one's first killiefish but if you can keep them well fed and prevent the male from constant access to the female they can be very prolific for a Killiefish, eggs can be hatched at 6 to 8 weeks in wet peat stored in a bag in the mid-70's*F.
Blue Gularis can get over 5 inches long. There are many strains and the maximum sizes of different strains can run from 4-1/2 inches to over 6 inches.
The adults love pieces of earth worms.
Boil the peat then rinse it well before using it.
Fry may begin hatching within minutes of the first wetting. They are able to tke Artemia nauplii right away. By the 10th day the fry can probably eat a lot of Grindal Worms. If you try a quality floating food while they are still fry you can often teach them to accept a prepared food for those times when providing live foods are inconvenient. They can begin spawning after 4 months after hatching at about half their maximum size although their infertility rates tend to be poor at first.
You can use many of the on line resources of the AKA, American Killiefish Association by visiting http://www.aka.org
Once you succeed in breeding one of the pretty species it is easy to get hooked on Killies. I try to breed one most of the time but this past year I didn't get any. I like buying eggs. It is much less predictable but it is very cheap. It is fun to receive eggs from all over the world. I have obtained new species buying eggs from as near as BC to as far away as Serbia, Czech Republic, Russia, France and Uruguay.
The best thing to do is to keep is to keep the sexes separated and watch the level of male aggression during 8-12 hour spawning sessions. You repeat the combo everyday for about one or two weeks sepending on whether the female's egg production can keep up. Males kill females with little forewarning. They are the banner species for the AKA.

Members of the American killiefish Association sell pairs of blue Gularis from $8.00 to $12 a pair plus postage. Of course not many of us mail Killiefish eggs or pairs at this time of the year.

beautiful find, TW! And nice syno find Rich!

That's the most fun, peering into the tanks for who knows what might be in there! Like a treasure hunt!

Nice info, Larry.

Males kill females with little forewarning.

Thanks, Larry!

Is there a size that they will reach before this becomes an issue, or should I separate them as soon as I get back to the Tri-Cities?

I must confess that I have been enjoying the beauty and novelty of these two new fish and haven't (yet) given much thought to breeding them. Right now they are just under 2" long. How quickly to they grow?