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Do Male Killies Get Along?

7159 Views 25 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  jrill
I purchased 2 pairs of Fundulopanchax gardneri Innidere and one pair of Fundulopanchax Mamfense Basua. I was hoping to keep the 2 pairs of Innidere in the same tank together, a 34 gallon. I read somewhere that males fight. Is this true, or can I keep them together?

Also, I was planning to put the Mamfense Basua into a friendly community tank that has been up for over 2 years. I was told not to mix killies, so I have questions regarding that...

1. Can I keep all 3 pairs (2 gardneri, 1 mamfense) in that 34 gallon tank? I am NOT planning to distribute any eggs.
2. If I do keep all 3 pairs in the same tank, would the gardneri breed with the mamfense? Or would they all stay in their pairs?
3. The gardneri are both breeding pairs. When they spawn, will the eggs hatch and will the fry survive if it is a species tank? Or do the parents eat them?
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Those are two really nice pairs, both males are fantastically pretty when colored well. I have a pair of innideres and a pair of scheelis. Also chocolate australe and golden wonders.

Last first:
The eggs should be removed, whether the male and female of either pair can remain together spawning depends on their dispositions. This is if you're seriously trying to breed, both my pairs have spawned and had fry which are juvies now. I did remove them from the parents' tanks to keep them alive. Neither pair has done any m/f fighting.

They're from the same genus and should be able to interbreed. It's rather unlikely that you'll be able to keep more than one pair long term in a 34 gal. I could not keep my two pairs in a 55 gal, the larger innidere almost killed the scheeli, the innidere female paid the same courtesy to Mrs. Scheeli.

Try it and see what happens, but be ready to pull any of them at any time, lots of attacks happen at night, if things are going bad late in the day, don't risk it, take the underdogs out. They may do OK for a day or so, then go at it. If one of them is hovering near another and makes a move the other can't counter, that's a bad sign. Oh, if you want to try them together, be sure you know what the females look like beforehand!

Good luck, once you figure out how to keep these guys, you'll love them, they're so colorful! :)
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Can I keep both innidere pairs together, or do you mean only one pair of anything per tank?

I can put the mamfensis basua (they're a "young pair" so they likely won't kill my guppies) in my community tank while my 4th tank (setting it up for a school project, hyrdroponics) cycles.
Like he said the fact they have the same genus, Fundulopanchax, if you keep them together they should be able to interbreed which you should avoid. Any time I have added 2 males or females to a set up only one male and one female make it for each species. You need a group of each gender so no one individual is picked on too much if you have more than one.

It is better to keep multiple males as opposed to multiple females if you want genetic diversity because females will go behind a breeding female and eat her eggs as she lays them. That is why a lot of breeders keep reverse trios (2 males 1 female)

If your tank is heavily planted some fry may survive if kept with the adults.
Great, thanks. As long as the two male innidere won't try to kill each other, I won't have as many problems.'

I'll keep the subspecies in separate tanks.
I can't speak to the between species question, but I've kept two pair of gardneri together (in a much smaller tank than yours) without any issues. Males each kinda had their own corners and they totally ignored each other.
It is better to keep multiple males as opposed to multiple females if you want genetic diversity because females will go behind a breeding female and eat her eggs as she lays them. That is why a lot of breeders keep reverse trios (2 males 1 female)

If your tank is heavily planted some fry may survive if kept with the adults.
Well that's interesting. Every breeder I have known, myself included has always recommended two females to one male to keep the females from getting beat up too badly. Never heard of the egg eating thing.

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Well that's interesting. Every breeder I have known, myself included has always recommended two females to one male to keep the females from getting beat up too badly. Never heard of the egg eating thing.

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Yeah the males compete against each other and don't focus as much energy on the female.

Then again it isn't that hard to breed killies so there are a lot of different ways that will work.
The killies will be here on Thursday if all goes well. USPS likes to hold my packages and has nearly killed fish and plants because they think it is funny to tell people that their dogs sniffed out the fish, claiming they need to open them an insure the species aren't invasive. They need to ice their breasticles tbh.

One last question... Will the Fp. mamfensis Basua eat my endler guppies? I don't really care about the fry, just as long as the adults are safe. The males have tiny fins and are fast darters. Would they be fine in the community tank for 2 months until I get another cycling (again, setting one up for school project)?

Yeah the males compete against each other and don't focus as much energy on the female.

Then again it isn't that hard to breed killies so there are a lot of different ways that will work.
I can say I've seen this too actually, yesterday I looked up some videos on YouTube of these guys. There were tanks with multiple pairs. The males did seem to be competing with each other.
As I expected, not looking good... They departed the USPS sort facility this morning at 2:00 AM. No arrival updates were posted. This means the package was likely rerouted to that damn "Our [censored][censored][censored][censored]ing bomb sniffing magical dogs sniffed out your invasive species and now we're going to send you an official letter of rejection along with a useless [censored][censored][censored][censored] pamphlet called 'Why Invasive Species are Bad for Dummies Who Still Use USPS' and my fish may not or may show up dead after I literally rage myself pissless and my friends for a week until the fish show up" facility that will unpack the fish and make sure they aren't going to invade the bone-dry creeks that don't even exist in the state anymore because we pumped all the water to Los Angeles.

Then they're gonna call in like 2 days from now and ask me like idiots if they can open the package.
Or, think positive. Maybe the USPS updates are off like they are 50% of the time :)

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My guppies survived 5 days in the USPS death chamber, but that was in mild weather. Right now it is about 100 degrees outside. The killies will likely be dead when USPS's magical fish-sniffing dogs decides to send them on their way. Free plant nutrients for my algae tank though right so not a bad $50 spent.
Out of curiosity, since folks ship fish and shrimp all the time by USPS, how come you have so much trouble. Do you live in an odd area? Never heard of folks having your issues before.


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Out of curiosity, since folks ship fish and shrimp all the time by USPS, how come you have so much trouble. Do you live in an odd area? Never heard of folks having your issues before.


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I honestly think I'm on some sort of government watch list... This has happened to like 4 packages in a row this year. It doesn't happen to any of my family members, only if my name is on it. I guess they think sheltered white kids who never get off the couch are like really dangerous or something idk. I feel like they stalk me on Facebook or something so when I talk to my friends about it in FB chat I always tell the NSA to speed up my package because my fish are gonna die. It's probably worth a shot... And not saying it worked for sure but last time I did it with my guppies, the package came the next day and the tracking was never updated. Good Guy NSA is on my side. I gave them the tracking link too so they should be covered with finding the package and ensuring its arrival. ^.^
The killies will be here on Thursday if all goes well. USPS likes to hold my packages and has nearly killed fish and plants because they think it is funny to tell people that their dogs sniffed out the fish, claiming they need to open them an insure the species aren't invasive. They need to ice their breasticles tbh.

One last question... Will the Fp. mamfensis Basua eat my endler guppies? I don't really care about the fry, just as long as the adults are safe. The males have tiny fins and are fast darters. Would they be fine in the community tank for 2 months until I get another cycling (again, setting one up for school project)?



I can say I've seen this too actually, yesterday I looked up some videos on YouTube of these guys. There were tanks with multiple pairs. The males did seem to be competing with each other.
This is from:

http://sheneskillies.com/Articles/beginners guide to killies.htm

In my experience it is usually beneficial to have a single pair of fish in a breeding tank. A third fish will, in many cases, eat eggs or young of the breeding pair. I have found a reverse trio (two males) less prone to such behavior than a trio (two females). An odd male will compete with the other male for the female, but a female will follow a pair and eat eggs as they are layed.
If you look a lot of people that sell Killies sell reverse trios.

Also your endlers will be on the menu if you leave them in there with them.
Okay so now the issue is...

How many days can 6 killies survive in breather bags if inside of a warehouse? Keep in mind it is in the 90F range this week.
They might be ok in breather bags, they probably did not put all 6 of them in one bag. Killies are pretty hardy. I feel your pain I got killies shipped from New Jersey a while back when the really bad hurricane hit and got them about a week late. They were not in breathers and needless to say did not make it. That is the worst feeling.
The plane from Florida landed after a 21 hour flight and the fish are safely on the ground now.

Doesn't say out for delivery, and it hasn't even made it to my local post office. Definitely not coming any time soon.
If you look a lot of people that sell Killies sell reverse trios.

Also your endlers will be on the menu if you leave them in there with them.
Actually, I took you up on that and did look. its about 3 to 1, most sell one male to two female trios. :icon_conf
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