Naming convention: Unless you have 2 populations of the same species originating from the same geographic location - i.e. Bagamoyo with Bagamoyo, do not cross them. There have been attempted crossings in the past for scientific purposes but often the subsequent generation is infertile or die while in embryonic development due to "lethal" genes. Should there be any successful crossings of populations within the same species, in this case intra-specific between 2 different populations of the same species, they are considered hybrid forms even though they are essentially the same species. This applies to crossings between fancy aquarium strains such as crosses between australe Chocolate and Orange. In situations like this, they are just called by the species name, so if you had a cross between a chocolate and orange australe, the resulting fry are labelled as Aphyosemion australe, or Aphyosemion australe A/S with A/S denoting the fact that these are "aquarium strain".
It is crucial to ensure that your codes, if applicable, are always recorded properly, especially with egg collections and such. Any spelling errors can cause problems that we'd normally put down to being "lost in translation".
Breeding: Typically, most killie breeders are considered line breeders in that they keep their lines pure to the best of their ability. It is always good to spawn using a group of fishes, rather than single pairs or trios. In the wild, some of these fish come from very small geographic localities. For example, populations of nothos that do not leave their temporary pools at all. There is a species called Hypsolebias marginatus, which is an SAA and is considered extinct in the wild since the only known locality was destroyed for a plantation. All specimens from this species is descended from a single pair spawned by Brazilian aquarists. There will be genetic problems from time to time, which are weeded out by selectively culling those specimens. Killie breeders as a whole, get fresh genetic material from purchasing eggs from overseas sources with respect to the particular species + population they are keeping. For example, if you have a population of rachovii Beira 98, to keep the line strong you can opt to search for the population called Beira MT 03-1, since it being a newer collection, might produce better looking specimens. It is imperative for a breeder to refresh his lines after 2-3 generations since some strains can start producing quite ugly progeny after successive rounds of inbreeding. Of course, for this to happen, you'd need to get viable pairs since killies are known to produce highly skewed sex ratios. Good example would be my Hypsolebias flagellatus. Right now I have 2 fat adult females and no males to pair them with.
Substrate: Soft water vs hard water is dependent on the species you wish to spawn. Some will happily spawn in a wide range of waters, and others will be more picky with regards to water conditions. To answer this question, you must first know what species you are dealing with, where they originate from and what conditions are suitable for them. There is no side effect as long as you use pH neutral gravel/soil/sand etc as long as you are prepared to tweak the conditions to suit the species you are keeping. If you use shrimp soil that pushes pH down to around 5 to 5.5, you are restricted to black water killies like certain Simpsonichthys species, in particular, Simp. costai, and the ever popular Clown Killie, Pseudepiplatys annulatus.
Vitamins and Trace Elements: I personally do not add these but the suspected lack of Vitamin C, coupled with excessive inbreeding, can result in young fry having bent spines. I find it best that young fry are raised in a tank with some green water and a host of microscopic animals as a first food. Seems to give good results since the algae in the water can be rich in vitamins too. As for the adults, feeding them a varied diet of live foods would be best. Because the majority of killies are highly active fish, such as nothos, they require a rich diet based on live foods, especially bloodworms and tubifex. When keeping killies, having live foods is a must because the majority of species will not easily adapt to dry foods.
Steffen's book is a good first guide for most people.
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