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Killifish Inquiry

2K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  acejohn 
#1 ·
Good day to all!

A LFS told me that killies are seasonal fish and would only last for a year aside from the lampeyes. Is this true?
 
#5 ·
Killies are fun fish to have but their lifespan is somewhat short.

Talk to the owner of the fish store in your neighborhood and see what species of killies they can get for you.

Then learn how to breed them if you want a never ending supply.

If you get bored of them, then you can trade your remaining killi stock for other types of fish.

I enjoyed having killies for their insect eating abilities until I figured out they have a tendency to jump out of the factory cutouts in the back of most tanks.

Good luck.
 
#7 ·
Talk to the owner of the fish store in your neighborhood and see what species of killies they can get for you.

Then learn how to breed them if you want a never ending supply.

If you get bored of them, then you can trade your remaining killi stock for other types of fish.

I enjoyed having killies for their insect eating abilities until I figured out they have a tendency to jump out of the factory cutouts in the back of most tanks.

Good luck.
Do they get along well with shrimps?
 
#8 ·
They would love to eat shrimplets. Some of the larger killis could probably tear into adults. I'm thinking a lot of them actually are not annuals. I've heard they are fond of cooler temperatures which has prevented them from becoming more popular for the home aquarium. The clown killi might be a good one to mix with shrimp, it is very small.
 
#9 ·
As for the shrimp, the golden wonder killi that I owned for about a year devoured at least 200 house flies/insects before it jumped out of tank & mummified itself.

I remember a couple months after introducing the yellow killie in my tank I adopted a mismatched group of fish from a owner who was moving out of state.... One of those fish was a smaller neon tetra at least 1". I acclimated everyone for about 30-40 minutes, then released into the main tank and went to the kitchen to grab a drink. 3 minutes later with drink in hand I take a look inside the tank & to my dismay the smallest neon was already halfway down the throat of the killifish gasping for air.

I grabbed a transfer pipette & chased the killi. Finally it freaked out enough to release the neon & went to hide in the plants. The victim was still alive, but probably had a minor heart attack. At this point it's not swimming or doing much besides floating sideways. I didn't know anything about treating fish for injuries back then and within 5 minutes it stopped breathing.

I wasn't aware of ornamental shrimp back then but based on the behavior of this particular killi, he would gladly choke himself to death trying to eat all of them.. Based on having him in my tank..... I wouldn't recommend housing shrimp with them.

The golden wonder killi gets to about 3-4" & possibly 5" Not sure about the other types. You'll have to research them.

I've had the clown killifish too, but couldn't find any mates for it so it always stayed hidden, over 2-3 months I never saw it eat anything. One day I found it floating belly up, so that was the end of that.
 
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