Aplocheilus lineatus

Today I want to tell you something about the very first killi-fish-species, which I kept and bred at my place. As luck would have it I got my first pair from a young man, who is a big cichlid-fan - he was happy to get a good place for his pair and I was happy to get them. I did not count exactly, it has to be the fourth or fifth generation till then, which is swimming actually in my tanks - I got the fish back in 2005.
This guys need quite big tanks - best experiences where made at my place in quite large tanks, 160 - 200 litres and: best is to kepp a group. I never had troubles with this fish if there are up to 5-7 fish together. If kept as a pair or with less than 5-6 fish, one of the fish will be the last in pecking-order. I had troubles with a very self-confident female, which killed several males in a big and well planted tank.

This days I spawned them again, it is still fun to collect the really large eggs from the mopp and watching them spawn is interesting too. If you want to watch, just divede the male and the famale for a couple of days, when you bring them together, you will see them spawning for sure.


They like to spawn on the ground - they also lay their eggs willingly in a mopp, they don't mind if its a swimming mopp or one which is fixed on the ground.
To harvest the big eggs has always been a thrill to me - almost 2mm in diameter, and if the female was fed well, you will find at least 15 eggs a day.
You can store the eggs in water - the young fish will appear on the eighth day at a temperature of 24-25°C. You also can store the eggs in wet peat, I did not notice any diffenece in the development-time - I just observed, that at my place more eegs go fungus in peat - so my prefered method is water-storage.
Raising them is easy - they eat BSS without problems and soon you can go to larger food, even to dry food. Favorits are flys of any size and sticks for cichlids. Pay attention on the temperature: espacially the young fish like it warm - 24°C is a minimum, they grow better on a warmer place.


...and when they mature, they will spawn their own eggs...

Nothobranchius eggersi "TAN 05-43 Kigongo"

I was very lucky to get eggs of this species, it was not a big problem to hatch and to raise them.
They eat a lot and the water was sometimes not in the best conditions - no problem anyway - they grew up quick. I have to use salt and I also raise the GH of my water with "sera mineral salt" to avoid Oodinum problems.
They like water-changes - it no mistake to do their tank twice a week - and they need much oxigen in the water - the airation is strong at my place. Be careful with cold water - especially the young fish are sensitive.

The variation in color and in bodyshape of this fish is amazing - some fish are more stretched out and some others are more compressed in their shape. And the colors! Every single fish has it's own pattern - beautiful sight - and at the end I've to say they are active as hell - dashing up and down the tank, always moving - and they move fast - it was a real challenge to get a few good pictures of them.


Two of my males are different from all others: there is no red in their coloration, only blue, a green shine on the head and white - this is beautiful - it would be interesting to seperate them and try to breed a completly blue strain, but in my case it's a matter of space, here is the picture of the bigger male:

It was difficult to grow up for him, because in his early days he looked much like a female for the other males - he had always to struggle and there where days when he lost a little bit of his fins.
Is this the fish which was called "Geysenbergi" in former times? Anyway. I'm looking forward to the next generation, wondering if there will appear some more completly blue fish.
The next generation should be no problem - they are laying a lot of eggs. I counted out some eggs for aquabid - I was really surprised about the amount of eggs. If you harvest only once in a month, you belive there are more eggs than peat in the box. The eggs hatch after 8-10 weeks of storage. Raising is easy, you need small artemia-nauplias and adding some winegar-eels in the first two days. Don't use fresh tap-water for the water-changes in the first week, I have best experience with water out of a running tank.

S.punctulatus - The End

News from the punctulatus-tank: The male has grown just beautiful. That's the only good news for today. He was very rough with his three females - I lost one female soon after I put the male into the tank. After this foto-shooting, this wonderful male killed the other two females - so all I got now is the poor harvest of about 70 eggs, divided in two bags of eggs.

Anyway: maybe you can learn from my experience. In the next generation I will keep the male and the females in two seperated tanks and bring them only together for spawning.

Fundulopanchax filamentosus *Ijebu Ode*

African Juwelery, which came to me at a meeting in Augsburg in the year 2004. It was my first semiannual killi and at this species I had the pleasure to learn a few things about maintaining and hatching. The only difficult thing is to get them used to your place/your water - and the raising of the young can be a thrill too, sometimes.
They are quite agressive to each other - males and females are both no pacifists to others of their kind ;-) - but if there are enough places to hide away, it works.
In my filamentosus tank you find a pice of wood with lots of Anubias on it. This is the perfect environment to maintain a group of them.
I use a plastic-box filled with coconut-fibre to spawn them. They are quite profilic - the eggs are easy to detect in the substrat, if it's dried up a bit - the colour of the eggs is like honey and no substrate is adhering to the eggs.
This fish get their colour early - the males will develop the red line in their anal fin at the age of 6 to 8 weeks. I never had problems with bad sexratio, but problems with young fish passing away after a change of water. It's wise to use water out of a running tank, and it's wise too not to overcrowd a tank with young fish.
A tank with a group of filamentosus is a beautiful spot in every fishroom - this fish get almost exactly two years old.
The long filaments at the caudal fin will grow, if you keep a male for his own. I'll do this maybe, when I'm a retired person.

My way of hatching SAA's

At first I prepare my jug with water: I always take the water out of a running tank, and put it on the floor - to get it cooler. I don't use very cold water - at my place temperatures around 20° C are working very good. I add always about one gramm of sea-salt per litre water, so the artemia nauplias will survive much longer in this water. I never monitored any bad influence to the fry by using sea-salt.



Then I put the TA into a box - I put about half a pill of oxygen-tabs on the substrate - I make crumbs of this pill by using a scissors.
One important thing I had to learn during my killi-years: I never use a fresh box - my hatching box is filled with water, some leaves and sometimes a small plant and a few snails all over the year. Before hatching I put all the old water and all the snails out.

750 ml of water is just the rigth amount for my box - so the level will be at about 2,5-3 cm. Now I add one or two snails - and a little BBS (baby-brine-shrimp) - so the fish have something to eat from the very beginning.

I put the box always on a warm place - 24-26°C are a good idea, the raising temperature in the box and the falling oxygen-level in the water will help to hatch the fry - the oxygen-level is quite high, so one don't have to fear to get too much belly-sliders out.

I did not develope this method at my place - many thanks go out to quite a few Killi-Maniacs, who helped me to solve problems in hatching.

Simpsonichthys punctulatus - she's doing well

Finally I got a shot of one of the females of my S. punctulatus. It's very funny - the camouflage of this fish is very effective - the camera has problems to focus on this fish - they blend perfect into the background with this stripe-pattern.
At the moment I have three females together with one male in the spawning tank. At the second punctulatus-arena - the males-tank - there I have a quite sad story to tell: After I put the biggest male out, to the females, the left three boys began to kill each other - so there is only one male left. I did not think, that they are that agressive - when they where younger, nothing happend - it seemed to be peace all over the place.
That's it for today - the punctulatus story will go on, I'm looking forward to see their eggs.

Austrolebias affinis egg - ready to hatch

I made this picture to show, how an egg of an annual killifish looks like, if they are ready to hatch.
I have a small microscope, best magnification is x 20 to see this in a proper way.
The eggs are ready, if you see the embryo move inside the egg - this is a very amazing sight, don't miss it - it's stunning! The eye is fully developed.
Ah - I almost forgot to say, which species laid this egg: is it from Austrolebias affinis "Durazno" - the species is a fairly easy one, compared to other SAA.