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Thread: Can you help me ID my killi?

  1. #1
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    Can you help me ID my killi?

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    Thanks to these boards, I have taken an interest in killies. This is my first pair, and I forgot to ask the store owner what the type they are. Hopefully someone here can help me ID them so I can look up more info online and treat them well.

    I don't know if the image will work, so here's a link too:



    http://tinyurl.com/p0hh


    I have more pictures at http://home.earthlink.net/~terra33/index.html. Thanks in advance for your help.

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    That looks like an Aphyosemion australe, a non-annual.
    Zulkifli

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    Thanks for the quick response. Is it a fairly common Killi? Is there anything special I need to do in order for them to spawn, other than eliminate the MTS from the tank?

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    Yup, it is a fairly common killi. Read this and this for more information on how to breed them.

    The spawning mop is for you to collect the eggs so that you have a bigger hatch as compared to leaving the eggs in the main tank.

    For my case, I will water incubate them in the small container. So far, I got a good hatch without any eggs I've collected becoming fungus. One thing though, if you water incubate them the hatching will be irregular for the same batch of eggs.
    Zulkifli

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    Just to play the what if game for a minute:

    If I do nothing except float some riccia in the tank, will I get fry? Are they capable of eating anything other than BBS? I suppose there is a chance that the molly's will eat the fry. But otherwise, could this all happen without my help? I'm not looking to sell them for profit, but it would be fun to see some babies.

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    Scott, if you have plenty of plants and a wellgoing aquarium ypu may have the lucky moment to see some lyretail fry.

    They spawn in a mop or in thick plants, like javamoss. The eggs take som weeks to hatch so they are in danger for other fish to eat. Even small fry will be eaten by other fish.

    You may put up som little spawningtank, candybox or other small container. Fill it with "used" aquariumwater. Put in some plant and/or a mop. Feed your fish well and then put them in the container for some day and watch them spawn. Put them back to your aquarium and waith for your egg to hatch. Feed them with small food.

    Good luck.

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    Hi Scott,
    It's an AUS. Probably a brown morph, since the colors aren't showing well in the photo. Peaceful community fish but somewhat gegarious amongst males of it's own kind.

    Quote Originally Posted by zmzfam
    Yup, it is a fairly common killi.
    eh Zulkifli, the term "common"is pretty subjective. While quite readily available in the hobby, not alot of LFS would have them.

    We're in a small locale, with a decent coverage of various genus and species of killies. But that's because we pool our individual resources.

    In Scott's case, the nearest fellow killie keeper may be 4-hour drive away and the neighbourhood LFS may not have killies... so it ain't that "common" :wink:

    For my case, I will water incubate them in the small container. So far, I got a good hatch without any eggs I've collected becoming fungus. One thing though, if you water incubate them the hatching will be irregular for the same batch of eggs.
    I'm reading this as; harvest the mop, pick the eggs and peat incubate. Yes?
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

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    Quote Originally Posted by RonWill
    Hi Scott,

    eh Zulkifli, the term "common"is pretty subjective. While quite readily available in the hobby, not alot of LFS would have them.

    We're in a small locale, with a decent coverage of various genus and species of killies. But that's because we pool our individual resources.

    In Scott's case, the nearest fellow killie keeper may be 4-hour drive away and the neighbourhood LFS may not have killies... so it ain't that "common" :wink:
    Haha...forgot Singapore is a small country, yeah common here but maybe not so common in Scott's area.

    For my case, I will water incubate them in the small container. So far, I got a good hatch without any eggs I've collected becoming fungus. One thing though, if you water incubate them the hatching will be irregular for the same batch of eggs.
    I'm reading this as; harvest the mop, pick the eggs and peat incubate. Yes?
    I should have been more clear. Ron, you are partially right.
    Scott, if you want all your eggs to hatch within the same time, you should pick the eggs and peat incubate the eggs i.e. put on top of moist peat.
    I'm too lazy to do that. I just dump the eggs I picked from the mop into a container of water and let the eggs hatch. I get irregular hatchings in this case.

    Unless you have a lot of densely floating plants, I recommend that you use a floating mop and hatch the eggs in a separate container until you get a fairly decent number of AUS after which you can let them be.
    Zulkifli

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    Scott,

    Just to add on to what the others have said, I discover that australe fry, unlike the fry of other killifish or most other tropical fish for that matter, do not swim to the surface when they hatch. Australe fry swim at the bottom of the tank all the time. I think this is generally true for other Aphyosemion fry too. So it would be a good idea if you have some form of carpeting or some objects like driftwoods and rocks as hiding places.

    Loh K L

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    This is what the tank currently looks like. I hope to have a friend with a better digital camera take some good pictures for me soon.



    As you can see, the Micranthemum micranthemoides is starting to fill in, and the Badis badis like to swim around under its cover. My hope is that the australe will lay some eggs in some floating riccia (which I will introduce soon) and the fry will swim and eat in foreground. It may be asking too much, but I am looking for low maintanence reproduction. If it doesn't work out I might get technical. I will keep everyone else well fed so they don't want to chow on baby killies.


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    Quote Originally Posted by molahs4
    My hope is that the australe will lay some eggs in some floating riccia
    It's worth a try but I would say it's highly unlikely the australes will lay eggs on floating riccia. Australes, when they mate, press their bodies against something that is firm or hard. Even if the riccia is firm enough, australes won't lay their eggs on something that floats on the surface. They would have to be in an upside-down position before they can do that.

    More likely, the australes will lay their eggs on your substrate.

    Loh K L

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    This morning I discovered what appear to be eggs on the top leaf of a crypt. But I don't think they belong to the killi- they are black. Could these belong to the Badis badis 'scarlet?' The only other fish in there are black mollies and a pair of c. japonica shrimp. Any idea?

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    You're sure they are not snails?

    I'm not sure about shrimp but the Mollies are live-bearers so it couldn't possibly be from them. Ronnie has been seeing Badis Badis eggs in his tanks lately so he should know. Australe eggs are white, by the way.

    Loh K L

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    They could belong to the snails, but I'm hoping for something exciting.

    Ronnie, do you have any good news for me?

    Could it be that they are unfertilized, and therefore black? I doubt it, but I'm hoping.

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    The eggs of snails are all clump together in a jelly like membrane. As what you describe, it looks like chances are the eggs belongs to the snails.

    Australe eggs at the latter stage of development will also look black because of the fry inside. Take a closer look and you'll ba able to tell. Unfertilized australe eggs are white in colour.
    Au SL

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    Here is a picture of the eggs. From your description, they are probably not snails.



    I noticed that one of my female Badis has a darker, fuller looking stomach. I realize that this forum is focused on Killies so I will put my questions elsewhere if you are pretty sure that it's not the australe.

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    Quote Originally Posted by molahs4
    Ronnie, do you have any good news for me?
    Ok Scott,

    As a moderator, I'm out on a limb here and risk going off on non-killie related stuffs but there is something important to be learnt here **.

    Those Badis badis burmanicus (Scarlet Badis) eggs I told Kwek Leong about... that I was 'quite sure' but couldn't be 'absolutely 100% certain', owing to the fact that I'm inexperienced (read 1st attempt) on this species and IMHO, beautiful as they are at only 15mm, the fishes are just too small and aren't ready to breed.

    But I love to be proven wrong... it's confirmed! Those ARE badis eggs, collected Sept 29th and I just checked. They've hatched, lying on the bottom, egg-sac not fully absorbed. 3-day incubation period at 28º Celcius.

    Scott, these eggs are very very tiny, transparent light-honey in color and definitely not black. What you have in your tank must be something else.


    A single frond of java moss was used to help me focus. Clickable image.

    Parent badis is here, taken on the day I bought them on Sept 27th. I'll take some pics of the egg-sac fry if my eyes aren't too tired.

    ** The incident of how I almost overlooked the badis eggs reinforce what I had always believed in while maintaining killies; which is to actually allocate specific group of plants to specific tanks and to observe a 3-week 'plant quarantine' for hidden eggs.

    If the plants or moss is to be reallocated to other species or tank, I stick a 'masking-tape label' onto the moss-tray and do a weekly check for frys. Any stowaway frys are regrouped with their siblings, in their respective grow-out tanks.

    Any fry I cannot relate to is fed to my cardinal tetras.... no 'IFs' or 'BUTs', period.

    Java moss or other fine leafed plants that are moved from tank to tank may harbour eggs that we cannot see. So folks, please exercise precautions!

    [Image links edited 041213]
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

  18. #18
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    Scott,

    For your benefit and those contemplating breeding the Scarlet Badis, follow the link HERE to the pic of the 'egg-sac' frys.

    I really shouldn't discuss this further but if you want to breed them, get those badis out of your main tank and into a moss-stuffed 'shoekeeper'. Feed them well and return the pair to main tank after a week. I'm quite sure you'll have more frys than you can handle :wink:

    Ought to quit wasting bandwidth here and get some shuteye... afterall, it's almost 5 in the morning

    [Image links edited 041213]
    I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
    Ronnie Lee

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    Quote Originally Posted by RonWill
    As a moderator, I'm out on a limb here and risk going off on non-killie related stuffs but there is something important to be learnt here **.
    Ronnie, Scott,

    This forum is not so intolerant that we will raise a hue and cry when the topic goes off Killifish slightly. Right from day one, I know this is a highly specialised forum so discussions can easily veer "off topic". But don't stop the thread just because of this. As long as the discussion is on "fish", I would consider it "on topic".

    Loh K L

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    After hours of observation, I think that my c. japonica shrimp is expelling the eggs that she has been carrying around for a while. Ronnie, I believe that you are correct that they do not belong to the Badis. I currently only have 2 tanks (10g and 90g) but I'm on the lookout for a small 2-5 gallon tank for handling fry or using as a Q tank. Unfortunately, our little condo just doesn't have room for more sizeable tanks (time to move!). If I find a small tank soon I will put the pregnant famale Badis into it and let her go to work. These fish are so small it's hard to believe that they could be mature enough to spawn. But that's just me imposing my own values on the ripeness of their reproductive glands. :wink:

    I will start hunting down large clumps of java moss from my 90 and cultivating it for egg laying/fry hiding spots.

    Thanks for providing such a valuable resource. This is one of the friendliest and most useful sites I have encountered.

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