Your First Killie

[stormhawk]

Ok people I suddenly felt this subforum is getting just a tad bit quiet so I'll start the ball rolling. Got this idea from another forum so its good to know everyone's first killie. Just state the species that first got you hooked and why you're still hooked till now. :wink:

My first killie/s were a group of 3M/2F Nothobranchius kafuensis "Kayuni State Farm" that I obtained from my first visit to KL's place.

Why I'm still hooked? Blame it on the beautiful SAAs that I saw at the last mass gathering at FEA. But seriously, if it wasn't for the beauty of the magnificus and fulminantis I may have wandered off elsewhere. Then I discovered I had a passion and its still there. From Nothos to SAAs and in between.. some Chrom. bitaeniatum "Lagos" from Ron, which spawned but the kids didn't make it and a pair of australe "Chocolates", also from Ron, which are, at this moment, breeding like rabbits.

[whuntley]

It was about 1958 or 1959, and Nothobranchius guentheri were my first killies. I lived just around the corner from Dr. Stan Weitzman, who was finishing a PhD at Stanford, where I also worked.

Stan later went on to be a co-founder of the AKA, but in those days, communications were lousy and we were doing it all wrong. He wanted a supply of annuals for his research in aging, but we had no idea that "annuals" live as much as three years. [When discovered, I think it wrecked his project.]

I volunteered to try, as I had bred many other species of fish. Since my memory of my success is very vague, I suspect I didn't have a lot. We still believed you had to evaporate the water away to get a spawn, and many other silly myths. A few water changes would certainly have made things work better, IMHO.

I get to brag about two species as my firsts. I gave up aquaria for a couple of decades (starting a company and raising a family), and soon after returning to the hobby I got some ripe eggs of Fundulopanchax filamentosum (as we called them in those days) from Lagos.

I just hatched a new batch (aquarium strain) and have them raised to breeding size. These came to me by way of Africa to Germany, Singapore, South Africa and now CA. I tend to be fond of the miniature Fp (Paludopanchax is the sub-genus). I'm still searching for some good, yellow ARN, as I suspect you guys are aware.

[I also have a jillion and a half Simp. magnificus growing out, right now. A pretty SA Annual.]

Wright

[zmzfam]

I started off with the Fundulopanchax gardneri N'sukka which I got from Au. Later expanded it to include the Aphyosemion australe 'Orange' from Kwek Leong.
Since I have some success with the AUS and the GAR - managed to breed them - I began looking for some other species to add to my collection. This inevitably leads to a collection of tanks and racks, and also my wife shaking her head every now so often.

My second boy who is in Primary 1 this year (7 years old) had to do a 'Show and Tell'. Guess what he brought over to school? A nicely coloured up AUS 'Orange' male.

[CM Media]

I started off with the Fundulopanchax gardneri N'sukka which I got from Au.

Correction, it's the Fundulopanchax gardneri Gold (aquarium strain).

I started with a few Nothobranchius like rachovii, foerschi and rubipinnis and also the Fundulopanchax gardneri Gold.

Before I embark on the journey on killifish, I'm breeding Apistogramma and other fishes like Microgeophagus Ramirezi. Less than 2 weeks of addition on killifish, I gave all my other fishes away and concentrate fully on this little gem.

[zmzfam]

I started off with the Fundulopanchax gardneri N'sukka which I got from Au.

Correction, it's the Fundulopanchax gardneri Gold (aquarium strain).

Oops...shows you gotta be careful with the names, and labelling your fishes when you get them.

[PohSan]

I starts mine with a pair of Simp. Magnificus which I got it during the gathering. Ronnie gave me some pair of AUS "Orange" and "Chocolate" which I keep in my low maintanance tank and stop collecting their egg. I also left with two male Fundolopanchax gardneri " Baissa" from my friend in Greece when my female dead yesterday. Also I have some young Para. mirabile moense 'Bakebe' and Para. mirabilis traudae 'Tinto' from the last egg ordering.

Regards,
Ong Poh San

[A.Rashid]

My 1st killi was actually the lampeye, then I bought some frys of N.rachoviis from Au.

[moss_fanatic]

Ah, this post has made me walked down the memory lane when I first bought my Nothobranchius Rubripinnis.(Hence my nickname ). However, they did not successfully made it through their breeding stage. Still, I managed to harvest 3 batches of Aphyosemions Australe orange fries which was passed down from Pohsan to me!

[stormhawk]

Good job there Garrett, how's the orange fries coming along? I just had a new batch of AUS Choc fry. Cute little buggers.

[moss_fanatic]

Hi Jianyang,
the fries are doing well and they seem to enjoy the big space given to them! The first batch of fries are inside my moss tank. They are about 3 cm long each( about 5 of them). The other 2 batches of fries are still inside a container waiting for their turn to join in the moss tank as well (as they are still too small, I am afraid they might get bitten by my SAEs). Just about 1 hr ago, I harvested another 10 egg from the spawning mop!

[RonWill]

Hi all,

I'm actually a tad embarassed to talk about my first killies. Fortunately, there's a little page I've been working on for ages.

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/fi...ie_journey.htm

The newbies who start off on killies now are in good hands and hopefully, there'll be more serious hobbyists who can share and recruit enthusiasts into the hobby. What species we conserve today are what our children will be able to enjoy tomorrow.

So go ahead and have a good laugh on me but remember this... never presume the fish's sexes by their phenotype!

[timebomb]

I never got to see my first Killie as the eggs never hatched. Kenneth Simolo who lives in the USA sent me the eggs of the Aphyosemion splendopleure. He said they were something special but I never got to see them as nothing came out when I wet the bag of peat. In fact, I never saw the eggs either as I couldn't find them although I went through the peat several times. Kenneth said the eggs were small and it could be due to my inexperience but I just couldn't find the eggs. By the way, Jianyang, your first Killie, the Nothobranchius kafuensis came as eggs from Kenneth. There were many eggs in the bag that Kenneth sent and I hatched out about 180 fry but due to my inexperience, I only managed to raise about 20 of them.

I later got some eggs from another good friend, Susan Aufieri. The eggs were actually from Tony Teiceira though. They hatched so the first Killies I saw were the Simp. constainciae.

Shireen Gonzaga sent me my 3rd bag of Killifish eggs which she got from BG Granier. They were Nothobranchius guentheri. I managed to hatch many of the eggs and they were the first Killie I got to spawn and raise another generation. Shireen who's a dear friend later helped me get many species of Killies. Although she knows little about the fish, she was resourceful and managed to buy for me many species of eggs from different breeders living in Canada and the US of A.

Through Shireen, I got the Aphyosemion australes, Austrolebias nigripinis and Aphyosemion poliaki. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the last one to breed. She sent many more but the eggs didn't hatch. Shireen also helped me do the editing when I was building Killies.com.

I've never met Shireen but she's been a real friend. I often forget what fish I've kept but I never forget my friends .

Loh K L

[Slaigar]

My first killifish was the blue Panchax. It still isn't blue yet... A lively and great fish nonetheless. They were quite mean to each other and sometimes it seems that a 65g is not enough swimming space for two of them!

[Deedoo]

Hello all !

My first breeding killie was Fundulosoma thierryi GH 1/94 I still have this fish because it's a tiny and prolific beautiful killie that I love ^__^
I have also Cynolebias nigripinnis and Nothobranchius eggersi "kilimani"
Soon, I'll have S. reticulatus xingu, Plesiolebias lacerdai, Leptolebias minimus seropedica and S. alternatus

Deedoo