Nothos...which one?

[nonamethefish]

I've recently gotten interested in these guys through another hobbyists who sent me some nice fish and plants. We have been giving each other updates on our collections, and he regularly updated me on his killifish(30 years exp. with annuals).

Anyhow, I was wondering what would be a good species to start with? There are tons out there.

He himself keeps N. kafuensis among some others and I noticed that with this, and many other nothos, the location codes differ remarkably. It seems hard to tell what the fish look like through photographs.

Some species I've tossed around include.

Kafuensis(Kayuni, Chunga, and Mambova) The others don't seem to common, though he also keeps Nanzhila. Any who has seen these in life mind offering a good description and maybe some comments on care?

N. rachovii: This one is usually mentioned as difficult, but he claimed they were no more difficult than the others besides smaller fry which require greenwater and paramecium for the first few days.

N. eggersi: Looks nice-but since he hasn't kept em not much info.

Thanks!

[whuntley]

Your suggestions are all thought difficult or at least not easy species.

If you can handle tiny babies (infusoria, microworms, etc.) then N. korthausae can be pretty reliable. Otherwise, N. guentheri or palmquisti might be a good starting place.

Wright

[nonamethefish]

Sounds good, but what exactly makes one notho more difficult than the other? Cincikillies.com has an article mentioning Nanzhila as an undemanding fish. The hobbyist I was talking to mentioned kirki as delicate or weak species...is that it?

Thanks! My water is around ph 7.5 with enough hardness to leave deposits.

[TyroneGenade]

Nothobranchius rachovii, korthausae, eggersi etc... can all take baby brine shrimp on hatching. What makes kafuensis difficult sometimes is that the females tend not to fill up with eggs unless fed very heavily and they tend to get internal flagellate infections that cause wasting (which is easily remedies with metranozadole),

The only difficult Nothos are geminus, janpapi, luekei and occellatus.

Your best bet to start is N. guentheri of which there are some good deals on http://www.aquabid.com currently. The fry are big, not difficult to rear, grow fast and sex ratios can be near equal as long as you keep sorting the fry to size. They are very productive, mature fast and live a long time (18 months).

Good luck.

[timebomb]

I've experience with only 4 Nothos, namely, rachovii, guentheri, kafuensis and korthausae. I don't find the N. guentheri particularly easy. But if it's so, then I would say the N. rachovii is just as easy too. N. korthausae is really easy though; I had hundreds of them at one time. They are prolific egg layers. The N. kafuensis I never succeeded in breeding them. They scare easily and tend to hide all the time. I had many males and females but couldn't collect a single egg from the breeding bowl.

Loh K L

[nonamethefish]

Interesting, what are your conditons? The hobbyist who I mentioned :Robert (Bobby) Ellermann: has hatched I think 30 of these so far. I'll ask him as far as shyness is concerned.


If kafuensis really is as shy/difficult as it is made out to be, then rachovii would be second pic. How does palmqvisti look? Hard to find good notho pictures as they often look either fake(too good to be true? LOL) or otherwise poorly lit.

[timebomb]

Interesting, what are your conditons?

Joseph, I kept them the same way I keep all my Killies, in small glass tanks which are about 20 litres in sizes. I don't do anything to condition the water so it's about Ph 7 and Kh 0. I do add some salt to the Notho tanks though; I used to believe that helps to keep Velvet at bay until Wright said otherwise. Ken Simolo was the person who gave me the eggs of the Notho kafuensis. Ken doesn't keep this fish but he got the eggs from a friend. I couldn't breed the fish but the bag of eggs Ken sent produced hundreds of fry.

If kafuensis really is as shy/difficult as it is made out to be, then rachovii would be second pic. How does palmqvisti look? Hard to find good notho pictures as they often look either fake(too good to be true? LOL) or otherwise poorly lit.

I'm not sure what you mean but there are some good pictures of Nothos on Au SL's site at www.killiesconnection. Au used to be active here but we haven't heard from him for a while. I have some pictures of Nothos too here and I can assure you they were not touched up. I do agree that most pics of Killies on the net look like fakes. The colours are simply too brilliant to be true.

Loh K L

[TyroneGenade]

Hi

You say the palmqvisti look too good to be true from the pictures. Got a picture link? I have had palmqvisti and should be a good judge on "reality" of colour. I'm willing to bet the colours are real though. :-)

tt4n

[nonamethefish]

Here's one: Looks typical http://www.aquanet.de/homepages/disc...Palmqvisti.jpg

Another
http://www.vda-online.de/zucht/image...01_1_klein.jpg

I also have a picture in Exotic Tropical fishes Expanded edition. Kinda hard to tell exactly what color it is in that photo. Based on these pics, I say it is red background, blue scales, and reddish(green) fins with fine stripes and a bluish or white edge and a scarlet tail?