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Clown Killifish!


Wild Nut

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Well I used to have some of these guys in the past, but they eventually dropped off one by one. That said, I had issues with the water quality in that tank so I put it down to that.

I was at Coburg Aquarium the other day buying 'blackworms' and while my mum waited in the car I snuck in a pair of poliaki and six clown killies heh heh. The clowns have just been gutsing down my grindal worms and BBS shrimp and I put a spawning mop in there so who knows.

I now have more species of killies than I do wild bettas! Last time I looked I have (this is just me abbreviating names)

Australe 'Gold'

Australe 'Chocolate'

Poliaki

Epiplatys annulatus

Striatum

Lagos

Nsukka

Scheeli

Udi berge

I also have around a million fry in my grow-out. I can't tell which is which but I think they are mostly lagos and udi berge. Now I have mastered hatching eggs I shall be unstoppable :lol: . Everytime I do a water change on the eggs I end up turkey bastering out 2-3 fry.

If anyone has any killies that I don't have on my list for sale (adults eggs I don't care) feel free to drop me a PM as I am always looking for new species to add to my collection. Between them and my horny pseudomugil mellis I am kept busy.

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Don`t you love sneaking fish. Too bad I`ve never been successful it`s always the same "Haven`t you got enough fish??"... Although I`ve never kept clown killi`s I love the look of them!! I think everyone`ll agree, we need pics :D At the moment I have a trio of Golden Panchax and hoping to get some Gardneri P82 eggs in the mail soon, so if I have any success with either i`d be happy to give you some eggs if you wanted them :)

Dan

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Haha you need a magnifying glass to spot most of them currently :lol: The oldest is a couple of weeks.

I will get pictures up tomorrow once my camera charges. I kind of ran it flat in a desperate attempt to get a good shot of my blue-eyes.

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Okay great!! Looking forward to them. I can`t wait to go to Coburg Aquarium, I have heard the have a great range of killifish but I`m over 1 and 1/2 hours away from it and can`t convince Mum to drive me yet :( I hope you have some success with clown killi`s by the way.

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My mum and me have an exchange program. I get up at 5:30am to walk the dog with her, then walk the other two around the block and give up my Sunday to her dog club in exchange for getting driven to aquariums no matter how far-flung *lol*

Luckily she likes fish and even has a pair of bettas I look after, so it isn't too bad. Sucks not being able to drive. Driving terrifies me so I just bus myself everywhere. Of course I happen to live like a two hour return bus trip from any decent aquariums.

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Hahah!! That sounds like an absolutely great system!!! At the moment I get to go to a "far away" ("Under an hour and a bit and not in right in the city" was her specifications) aquarium shop once a term. Maybe I can trade in two terms in to go to Coburg Aquarium :D Or maybe just do a few jobs and what not, that`ll soon con her into taking me ;)

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Hi

Make sure you keep the species separate.

You should not mix

Australe 'Gold'

Australe 'Chocolate'

THE ABOVE TOGETHER AS THEY WILL INTERBREED AND THE FRY YOU GET OUT OF THEM WILL BE WORTHLESS.

Poliaki

Striatum

THE ABOVE CAN INTERBREED BUT KILLYORCORRY CAN CONFIRM THAT. BUT HYBRIDS SHOULD NEVER BE SOLD.

Nsukka

Scheeli

Udi berge

THE ABOVE YOU SHOULD NEVER NEVER NEVER MIX TOGETHER AS YOU CANNOT TELL THE FEMALES APART AND THERE FRY WILL INTERBREED MAKING THEM A. GARDNERI (AQUARIUM STRAIN)

You can mix the Clown Killies with any of your other species as they don't below to the same genus

But basically if you are mixing all the above most of the fry will be hybrids...

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news but mixing same genus together as such is a nono...

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Oh I know . Mine are pets first and foremost so I'm not fussed as to the resale value of their fry or anything. I am 100% sure I only have lagos, udi berge and pseudomugil mellis in my fry tank as they were living separately when I picked through their mop.

Any fry my australe have had are either in there hiding or have been munched on as I never get any eggs off of them even when I scoured their mop everyday. I see them spawning in my moss occasionally, but then one of the gold girls gets in there and I assume eats all the eggs.

All my udi berge, scheeli and nsukka live together as my scheeli male died *is struck down by killie enthusiasts everywhere *lol* . However, once I get proper system set-up downstairs they will be separated as I know by personality which female is which. However, I won't be selling any fry I might get from them as anything but aquarium strain just in case.

I do love my killies. They always look so cheerful and they are such attention hogs. Mine always want to know what I am doing in the tank over and if it involves food, or the later possibility of food.

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No worries. I knew when I put them in together any fry would be aquarium strain and if I did sell them I wouldn't have stated otherwise. I sit looking through AB at all the beautiful killies available overseas and :(( Same with pseudomugil species. Why is it that all the fish I love are so hard to get hold of here!

Once I get back from walking the dogs in about an hour I will charge up zee camera and get some shots of my set-ups and killies.

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I realised I think I've been calling my scheeli/udi berge the wrong names. I think it is actually my scheeli male I still have and my udi berge who jumped out. Can someone verify that for me. He is the big clod shown below. Means my fry are scheeli, not udi berge then.

Anyway, here is a photo of my lagos tank. They are quite shy so I have planted it very heavily. All of my killies have nice planted tanks to live in.

KillieHome.jpg

Killiemale.jpg

Here is my scheeli (?) male lurking suspiciously

Here are two shots of my new clown killies. Hard to get the camera to focus without macro on something so small.

Clown.jpg

Clown2.jpg

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Hi Ashlea :cheer:

The male you have there is scheeli.

If you keep australe gold and chocolate in different tanks you can raise their fry together no problems. If you keep them in the same tank, all the ofspring you get will look like chocolates but would be carrying the GOLD gene. If you could help it keeping the breeders apart is good, otherwise just enjoy them.

When you breed poliaki if you have the space do not put the fry together with Lagos as you'll struggle telling females apart.

Bummer about the Udi-Berge male, I can help you with that after winter (I've stopped sending fish due to weather).

striatum should not hybridize with any of the others you have, and if it happened it will turn out to be sterile (probably)

Sorry to all as I've been buys redoing my fishroom and stopped breeding killies for a while. Fishroom is looking good though :dance:

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Snapped some more shots of my clown killies. They have settled in really well and I even caught a pair of them trying to spawn in the moss. I have three or so males and they have been sparring which makes for a cool display.

Clow.jpg

Clow3.jpg

Clow2.jpg

Here is a shot of the neighbouring lagos female as well. Her male is a wuss. I have only ever once seen him fully coloured up and displaying.

lagos.jpg

Tank-Copy.jpg

FTS of lagos tank (left) and clown killie tank (right)

I'm jealous of your fish room Serkan. It looks amazing. I do hate to think of the electricity bill though. I only run 20 odd tanks and five lights, and it was a fortune last quarter. I would love to get a replacement male, and if you ever have any adults out of your cinnamomeus pair for sale let me know as they are beautiful.

Also, lately I've been having some trouble with my killie fry and I seem to be losing a couple every day. I feed MWs and freshly hatched BBS and I do 50% water changes every second day with slow drip back in and they just do not seem to be thriving. I did the exact same thing with my strohi and the only one I lost was due to jumping. Anyone know what might be going wrong? I thought I might try setting up some greenwater/infusoria cultures just in case the deaths are cause by a lack of food. Otherwise I am stumped. Bit depressing as I am losing them now faster than they are hatching.

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They are stunning!! I love them tanks, where`d you get em'?? Good luck with trying to spawn them, I just got my A. Gardneri eggs and they were smaller than expected so I wonder how small the clown killis eggs would be :dontknow:

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I'm hoping to get some more and move the poliaki out. They are so fun to watch and they are very friendly, crowding the front when they see me and gobbling down whatever food I chuck in.

The tank on the left was made by Subscape Aquarium and the one on the right is a low iron YiDing brand purchased from Coburg Aquarium.

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Hi Ashlea

I am by no means an expert but i start feeding MW on the therd day after hatching then I stop feeding it to them after about a week then it is BBS all the way till they can take fine flaked food I keep the fry in the take away container for about three weeks and water change every day then into a two foot tank that is only filled to six inches and each day I add a bit more and they just power away I have just done a complete water change on the tank today and I sware( to often) that they have grown since then LOL. I do feed morning and night but whats not eaten is sucked out. I hope that helps.

I wish you could shop at coberg for me :(( shame they dont ship to the west.

Cheers

Les

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I fed MWs while my fry were small and then they got freshly hatched BBS and some smaller grindals for the bigger fry. I have been doing a 50% water change daily and it takes an hour-hour and a half to slowly drip back in to avoid pH and temperature shock. They have some moss to hide in and some duckweed to help uptake any ammonia.

I siphon all the crud off the bottom when I do a water change, and the tank itself is about 10L 3/4s full.

I noticed that they will suddenly start twirling when swimming but some have just been dead with no apparent symptoms. I do have one larger fry in there who is starting to develop correctly but I am losing all the others.

I can see from their tummies they have been eating and since I've raised wild betta fry in the past, it's confusing me as to what is going wrong.

Also wanted to add that the last few times I went the bettas at C aquarium looked absolutely shocking. Several were dead or on their way out and everyone else had clamped fins and looked very unhappy. It's a shame as they have good prices on their rarer livestock such as killies and blue-eyes.

Edited by Wild Nut
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Hey Ashlea

I am a bit stumped I would sujest you go to the Australian Killie site and ask Orthomea as he is so ammazing with his knowledge. Orthomea is who I have gotten all my Killies from he has kept fish for longer than most of us have been alive and is a welth of knowledge. I am sorry that I am out of ideas.

Cheers

Les

PS I do have a heater on low in my fry tank as I want to speed up there matabalism for faster growth but if I didnt want them to grow fast then I wouldnt have it on.

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