They're a wide group of fish. Some are annuals, some not. Some are shy, some are pugnacious. Some are best in a species tank, some are ok in a community tank. They're all colorful.
I'm looking at Blue Gularis Killifish (Fundulopanchax sjoestedti) for my 75 community.
Have them and love them! Most stunning killifish. Pretty big too. Just be careful, I lost all females - you really need AT LEAST 3 for every male. Other way males will go after them too much and even kill them.
Look at my beautiful young male (I've bred them and raised him from egg):
That's what they live in the wild, they actually can live up to 18 months in the aquaria, if cared for properly.
OP, there's an issue of amazonas dedicated to annual killifish if you're really interested in them. It includes all kinds of info like their breeding environment, how to care for them, tank requirements, even overviews of the different types and how to care for the eggs. It jumpstarted my interest in them for sure. If you don't already have the issue, see if you can't order the back issue of it, it's volume 5, number 3.
To the poster who said above that they make good community fish, that is not at all true for the annuals. They require much cooler temps than most community tropical fish can tolerate.
Killifish can be kept in peaceful community tanks but do best in species only. The habitat you house them depends on what you want to do with them. Some can live in 2 gallon tanks and the larger ones like the sjoestedti need a 10 gallon tank. They do fine in planted if you carefully breed them, a clean setup with some spawning mops works the best. They'll breed the same in planted tanks but rearing them will be a bit harder. Eggs will take longer and may not yield the best results. There is a lady near me that sells killies. Might want to ask her if she has that strain. Just search up "killies by ruth".
They also jump! like out of the tank...Most killifish do for hunting or escape from aggression...
Make sure you have a cover or none of the other warnings are likely to matter for long?
I've also kept Blue Gularis...mine were pretty aggressive feeders, so I'd be careful nothing gets in their way when they're hungry and avoid housing them with any small/delicate/slow species.
Males are very hard on females. Many are sold in pairs at fish auctions or shows, but I don't think they do well kept in pairs at all. Some are also very nippy and aggressive with other fish.
Top must be really tight, that's true, one of my females stressed out got out from my tank through a small hole for pipes. Now I have some sponge in there. They can feed really aggressively that's true too. Older one of mines is jumping to get the food before it reaches the surface, sometimes he grabs my finger :-D With congo tetra they're more or less on the same level of aggressive eating, but ropefish can't catch up with them. What's worse - even being not so big fish, blue gularis (and any killifish) have so big mouths, they can eat really big things... and fish. I didn't see any aggression towards other species. They just eat quicker, but never saw them harming any other fish.
Many small killifish can be kept in 2-5 gallon tank, but recommending 10 gallon for blue gularis sounds crazy. They need much more. I wouldn’t put them in anything smaller than 20g and only one male of course.
In general I would say that killifish are good community fish, but only if they can't fit other fish in their mouth. They are not nipping on other species, just eating them in one bite, really big bite.
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