killis and yamatos

[Aeon]

I had 3 killis, but dunno what name, yellow colored. When I first bought them with 3 Yamatos, they seem pretty peaceful. My Yamatos disappeared one by one, no skeletons, no red prawn... After 2 of the killis 'suicide jumped', I'm left with one killi and notice it likes to occasionally swim to the mid to bottom and disturb / peck at my cherry barbs, otos, it left my cardinals alone.

So I suspected maybe killis killed my yamatos. yesterday I got 20+ more yamatos to help in my algae battle and this morning I saw 2 dead shrimps and a few shells (molted or killed??), don't know how many yamatos left cos hard to count.

So I removed the killi and will observe whether my yamatos will still be harmed. If my yamatos still die then it's my water...

Are killis aggressive?? suitable for community?

[budak]

you probably have Aplochelus lineatus, which is one of the more predatory killies..... most of the other 300-400 species of killies are peaceful and harmless.

[Aeon]

Thanks! It is aplocheilus lineatus.

Looks exactly like mine.

And it grows big too...

[RonWill]

[quote:4da52c8c4f="Aeon"]I had 3 killis, but dunno what name, yellow colored. When I first bought them with 3 Yamatos, they seem pretty peaceful. My Yamatos disappeared one by one, no skeletons, no red prawn... After 2 of the killis 'suicide jumped', I'm left with one killi and notice it likes to occasionally swim to the mid to bottom and disturb / peck at my cherry barbs, otos, it left my cardinals alone.[/quote:4da52c8c4f]
Aeon, Aplochelus lineatus can easily reach a mature size of 8cm and are aggressive competitors for food and amongst the easiest to train to take non-live foods, including flakes and small pellets.

Juvenile 'Golden Panchax' are quite peaceful and generally won't harass companions of comparable size. As for shrimps, that depends on how large they are... even yamatoes can grow up to 5cm, are good escape artistes and can jump clear off the water if they feel threatened.

The Din-Din rule also applies... If it fits into the mouth, it's din din (or dinner if you don't get it)

It's wise to do some research about the fishes before you buy them... instead of just introducing some "dunno what name" fish into your tanks, take pride in that you know what you're maintaining. At least now you've learnt that panchax are great jumpers too!

So I suspected maybe killis killed my yamatos. yesterday I got 20+ more yamatos to help in my algae battle and this morning I saw 2 dead shrimps and a few shells (molted or killed??), don't know how many yamatos left cos hard to count.

Why the suspicion? Did you see the 8cm panchax chasing a 2cm shrimp? If so, that's not killing... it hunting! and to a more predatory killie, that's food!

Shrimps do molt as they grow and no, an empty shell doesn't mean one less shrimp in the tank. They are most vunerable at this time since they'll look like soft-shelled crabs (delicious!) and will hide until their shell offers some protection from curious mouths.

So I removed the killi and will observe whether my yamatos will still be harmed. If my yamatos still die then it's my water...

If yours is a newly set-up tank, could it be a annomium/nitrate spike that killed them? Adding sudden load to your bio won't help either (I noticed that additional 20+ shrimps at one go!)

Are killis aggressive?? suitable for community?

There are at least 700 species of killies and some makes excellent community fishes... you just need to find out which one!

I have shrimps with my killies, but not yamatoes because I find them to be quite aggressive and prefer Cherry shrimps instead. YMMV

Keep 'em fingers wet,
Ronnie Lee

[Aeon]

Mine's a 3 months old tank. Actually I was trying to make a cardinal only tank but my girlfriend insisted, lol! should have do research.

Most of my yamatos deaths occur in the night. so I guess it's a result of nocturnal hunting of the fish inside and not water problems.

Actually I had read up on Vectrapoint that for a 60cm tank, one can add up to 30 yamatos at one go to fix algae problems.

[RonWill]

[quote:1c9e6135e2="Aeon"]Mine's a 3 months old tank. Actually I was trying to make a cardinal only tank but my girlfriend insisted, lol! should have do research.[/quote:1c9e6135e2]
Aeon, 3 months is still pretty 'green' and you didn't mention how many cardinals, cherry barbs and otos!

Most of my yamatos deaths occur in the night. so I guess it's a result of nocturnal hunting of the fish inside and not water problems.

Killies, unlike corys and other catfishes, are not nocturnal creatures but it'll be interesting to know who's the culprit.

Actually I had read up on Vectrapoint that for a 60cm tank, one can add up to 30 yamatos at one go to fix algae problems.

It's best to treat each set-up as an individual living organism or mini eco but what others do, may not be applicable.

Sure you can add as many as you like, so long as your bio take it, especially if you're running a overflow/trickle filter/sump filtration.

Keep 'em fingers wet,
Ronnie Lee

[Aeon]

20 axelrodis
3 cherrys
7 otos
20+ yamatos

the killi is now in another tank.

Bioload should be quite ok, have been following strict regime on water change, etc... btw I'm on canister.