Hi, folks,

Khai Wan who lives in the US of A asked me several questions regarding Killifish. I thought it would be better if I answer his questions here.

(1) According to the many articles I have read including the AKA Beginner's Journal I got when I joined the organization, they all say incubating the notho rachovii (eg. I am actually interested in the biera 98 -- for a start) could potentially take about 5-7 months on the 75 degrees temperature. In Singapore, you mentioned it could take about 6-8 weeks on 25 celcius (eg. roughly around 84 degrees). Is it true that higher temperature could lessen the incubation period? Any side effect on the fry like deform etc.?
As far as we know, the higher the temperature the eggs are incubated in, the faster they develop. In Singapore where indoor temperature is about 29 C on most days, it generally takes about 6 to 8 weeks for the eggs of the N. rachovii to be fully developed. As far as I know, there are no ill side effects. I have hatched many bags of N. rachovii eggs and the fry have not shown any signs of deformity. By the way, the correct spelling for the collection code should be "Beira 98" and not "Biera 98".

(2) I am thinking of getting an incubator (eg. meant for the chicken eggs etc.) to incubate this notho eggs to fasten the incubation period. I'm currently residing in Maryland US and temperature here can get cold in the fall and winter months. Even spring season could be around 40 degrees.
I don't know if an incubator will help you hatch the eggs in a shorter time as nobody has ever tried something like that in Singapore. I think the folks who live in cold countries should be in a better position to answer this question.

(3) Also how difficult it is to breed this notho rachovii biera 98 (eg. your advice on this matter is most appreciated)? I'm currently breeding fp misaje -- beautiful fish and prolific. When people or article says about the degree of difficulty, I'm not exactly sure what it really means. My guess would be that they could be implying the degree of difficulty getting fish to breed. Would like to hear on this from you (eg. compare fp misaje with breeding notho rachovii, for example).
Degree of difficulty is subjective, I guess. In Singapore, the Nothos are considered easy as they don't require low temperatures. Some say the N. guentheri's are the easiest of all Killifish but I think they are just as easy as N. rachovii's. I have no experience with Fp misaje but I have bred Fp gardneri's many times. They are hardy fish and multiply readily in a heavily planted tank. When Killifish breeders speak of "degree of difficulty", I think they are referring to "how difficult is it to breed the fish" as most of us won't be contented with just keeping them alive. To us, if you don't try to breed them, you're not a Killifish person.

(4) I'm also curious about the eggs being purchased overseas. Accordingly (eg. I read it somewhere I think in one of your articles in the forum etc..), you mentioned that the success hatch rate of a given batch of eggs would probably be around 10%. It is true in your experience?
I wasn't the one who said 10% but I did mention somewhere on my web site that with every 4 bags of eggs I have received, I only managed to hatch 1 of them. That would be 25% but then again, it depends on several factors. One, how were the eggs shipped. By courier, chances of hatching greatly improve. Two, who's the breeder. Some breeders pack their eggs better than others. Three, the number of eggs in the bag. The more eggs there are, the better the chances of hatching a few fry.

(5) Generally, how long will the notho rachovii live (eg. biera 98 oin my case)? I know this is an annual fish but some people say around 6 months.
The life span of a living organism depends very much on its environment and lifestyle. For instance, a human male is expected to live for about 65 years but some of us live far longer than that. Wright Huntley, our Chief, is a good example of someone who's already way past his allotted time

But seriously, with the annuals, life span depends very much on how the fish are kept. In the wild, they usually don't live longer than a year as their ponds dry up but in our tanks, they can live far longer. I once had a N. guentheri male that lived for almost 2 years in my planted tank.

I appreciate very much if you could give me advice and guidance on the breeding of this species (eg. notho rachovii biera) as this is my first attempt and the chances of failure is I think, higher -- just hope to cut back all the potential common mistakes made by a novice.
Almost everything you need to know about breeding N. rachovii is available on my web site but I would add that with bigger tanks, the fish become happier. Happy fish are more likely to produce more viable eggs.

Thanks for writing such excellent articles. By the way, I'm also a fan of koi swordtail. They breed like rabbits and are beautiful. Just on the side note, have you come across any koi swordtail that is really red on the color on white body (eg. most of the koi swordtail in the market I have seen including my colony is of orange/white but sometimes persimmon-red/white -- and not exactly blood red or very bright red)? I know koi swordtail was originally developed in Singapore a few years back.
The Koi Swordtails or "Poor man's Kois" as I like to call them were developed by a Singaporean called Andrew. He visited me at my home several weeks ago. Andrew told me he no longer breeds fish as he's moving into the food business but he said most of his Koi Swordtails were shipped to Japan.
I have a pair but the female has never dropped any fry. It's obviously pregnant as the dark spot at her abdomen can be clearly seen but for some strange reason, fry has never appeared in the tank. The fish shop owner whom I bought the fish from, is also trying to breed this fish. She managed to get the female to drop the babies but all the fry were dead at birth.

In Singapore, only the females of the Koi Swordtail are sold. Several months ago, I bought 2 females and after about 2 weeks in my tank, one of them turned into a male. This is quite a common occurrence with Swordtails. For reasons not fully understood, female Swordtails often turn into males but never the other way around.

Andrew insisted, when I asked him, that he did not restrict the males from the market. He could be telling the truth as he also said his fish were never supplied to local shops. It could be someone from Japan or elsewhere bred the fish and supply them back to the shops in Singapore.

I'll see if I can show you a picture later but if you want to dicuss more about Koi Swordtails, please let's do it in the "Non-Killie" subforum instead of here.

Loh K L