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My annual killie attempt (Nothobranchius palmqvisti)

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
Admin
Well, I had mentioned in my other fresh planted tank thread that I was going to give these guys a shot... Finally the date on the bag of peat in my closet came so I started some fresh brine shrimp early today, and this evening I dumped the peat into a small fist sized gold fish bowl and flooded it with cool tap water... I kept checking honestly not expecting to see anything (since I was told to check them in the AM) and to my surprise only about 2 hours later I found this:

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Andrew
 
what kind of bird do you have? :3

So wait...those fish hatched out of a bag of peat? For srs? :0o: Cool!
 
We had 2 cockatiels... got another baby (3 weeks old) today. First time hand feeding :X the one you hear is not the new one though lol

Yah, a bag of peat! Annual killies live in ponds, so the fish spawn and the eggs wait to be dried out (well, damp but not flooded) and then hatch about 3 months later in a fresh rain. Eat like crazy, spawn and do it all over again... super neat so far =)

Andrew
 
Ohhh :p Cute! Good luck with the new baby :)

That's definitely cool!! I can't wait for updates!
 
Awesome Andy! I tried killies from peat once but I never got any hatching. It'll be great if you can get these into culture here, it's so hard to get the really pretty mini killies in the US.
 
Awesome!
I knew you could get dews and ferns as hitchhiker but fish is a first for me :D
 
Swords- I'll try! I'm definitely aiming for eggs =)

Tal- that's funny man :-D

Here is a pic of the fry tank I set up weeks ago...

IMG_1635.JPG


And here it is this AM

IMG_1771.JPG



Jimscott- you mentioned liking water sprite in my other topic... were you in need of some? Mine is growing great (can't see it but babies of it are popping up all over the plants) and it seems I should be able to ship ya one or two in the near future if you need some.

And update on my killie fry, I can't say there are any more than there were last night, but they're definitely more active than they were last night- zooming all over the bowl!

Andrew
 
I never tried any that you dry the eggs out.
Are you going to add the cup with peat at the bottom for them to breed in?

I have kept Aphyosemion Australe.
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97895

I've been kicking around the idea of getting some killies again.
 
Nice, Andrew. Fish from dirt is always a great experience. You are going to be amazed by how fast they grow. Looking forward to updates.
 
  • #10
Steve the A. australes are great! Very relaxed and easy to breed. They were my first killies and live a very long time compared to the annuals.

What will you be feeding the fry Andy? I used BBS in the 1990s but I'll bet there's easier things nowadays for fry feeding.
 
  • #11
Good looking fish there too elgecko. I did pour the peat in the breeding tank, but that will probably be siphoned out once the killies are big enough that I won't suck them out. right now, the RCS are enjoying fingering through the new found goodies. heh

Thanks Duane, it was amazing and I'm sure it will never get old!

Swords, BBS is still the thing to use! Imagine that, some stuff never changes :p I have a BS hatchery thing from back in the day when I had some angels lay eggs.... So I have that going but I picked up this constant BBS feeder thingie too... I have not started it yet, but it sits in the tank where the BS hatch in the salt water side, and they end up swimming into the tank (supposedly) so I'm going to try that out once the killies have a larger appetite. For now, just sticking with the hatching/collecting/feeding from the hatchery. I tossed some BBS in shortly after dumping the killies in but honestly I did not see any eating going on. That said, the killies seem to be hiding pretty well but I don't see too many BBS up at the light either so I guess they ate. :p

Andrew
 
  • #12
Well, my tank sides are fairly dirty... so maybe I'll try to clean the front up a bit more, but here is the best I could do photo wise (well, only putting like 3 mins into it :0) )

IMG_1772.JPG


IMG_1775.JPG


IMG_1777.JPG
 
  • #13
Great fry shots! Looks like someone has been eating BBS. And to think that 24 hrs ago all you had was a bag of dirt :-D .
 
  • #14
Hey Andy and Spdskr I am considering ordering a couple trios of Killies for my planted tank and I have been reading that using R/O water is bad for them. What is the reason for this? Isn't R/O perfectly clean like rainwater? I didn't have an R/O machine in the old days but now that I do I thought it was the best thing to use for everything?

I have my tank full of R/O water but there are a few seashells in it to dissolve some calcium & minerals in the water for the pink and purple apple snails. The snails & plants seem to be doing fine in this water. Today I noticed the snails have put on some new growth since they arrived and get to eat everyday.
 
  • #15
Most killies aren't all that particular when it comes to water conditions. If you were thinking gardneri or australe your water should be fine for breeding also. Some species of lampeyes, cyprinodons, fundulus....etc require hard or even brackish water to thrive whereas some rivulus and diapteron species need very soft water to prosper. Annual species in my experience only care if the water is wet....lol.

As far as keeping killies in planted tanks, it's the only way I raise mine. The only problems I have are getting non-annual species' eggs to hatch in my CO2 injected high tech planted tank.

What species are you planning to get?

Duane
 
  • #16
Probably Aphyoseimons or Fundulopanchax, I haven't decided which species from these families yet probably something mainly blue or purple. I enjoyed keeping & breeding several of these kinds years ago in my planted tanks. They are "large", colorful and non-annual. I think my initial pair of A. australes lived almost 3 years although they looked pretty haggard near the end there.

I used DIY CO2 (yeast & water) on my tanks and still had enough babies to sell here and there once in a while but perhaps I could have had more babies if I hadn't used the CO2? I've read that bright light also inhibits hatching and my tanks were always well lit for the plants. I also didn't seperate them most of the time until they got to an inch or so, so the parents probably gobbled a lot of the fry up too! LOL
 
  • #17
We had 2 cockatiels... got another baby (3 weeks old) today. First time hand feeding :X the one you hear is not the new one though lol

Yah, a bag of peat! Annual killies live in ponds, so the fish spawn and the eggs wait to be dried out (well, damp but not flooded) and then hatch about 3 months later in a fresh rain. Eat like crazy, spawn and do it all over again... super neat so far =)

Andrew

*engage n00b switch*

OK, hang on a second... just to be extra clear. Will any old bag of peat be likely to have killi eggs in it??
 
  • #18
only if your peat came from africa.....:oops:
 
  • #19
more likely elephant poop collected from a temporary pool in south east Africa
 
  • #20
*engage n00b switch*

OK, hang on a second... just to be extra clear. Will any old bag of peat be likely to have killi eggs in it??

Fair question. Killie breeders incubate annual species' eggs in damp peat moss. In nature these fish live in temporary pools. The eggs are deposited in the substrate and survive for months during the dry season in a suspended developmental state. When the rains return, hatching occurs. The fry are already fully formed and ready to feed (as in Andrew's pics). They mature within 1-2 months and the process begins again.

Andrew's experimentation with annual killies is not related to his CP business. He just happens to know a killie breeder :grin:
 
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