Old is Gold

[stormhawk]

As the thread title states, old is indeed gold. Aphyosemion australe or AUS to killie keepers, is a common species, yet oddly in Singapore, it is somewhat difficult to acquire a pair, because the LFS usually stock mis-matched females. While I prefer the Chocolate form, passing up a chance on a nice Orange pair is something I wouldn't miss. Luckily for me, I came across a nice looking female Aphyosemion australe Orange while at C328 some weeks back, bought a nice orange male to go with her as a pair and they are finally producing some eggs.


The male displaying to the female.

This is probably the nicest AUS Orange male I have ever owned. I thought his colors were enhanced by whatever the farm was feeding it, but so far the color hasn't faded, so I guess he's from a good bloodline.


Attempting to spawn.

The female is not very interested though..

Collected 3 eggs so far, and they seem fertile to me. I hope they'll produce more eggs soon. They feed happily on a diet of live adult brine shrimp, live daphnia and BorneoWild Staple S pellets.

[RonWill]

Collected 3 eggs so far, and they seem fertile to me

We hope of hear of hatchlings in about 2 weeks' time! Will you be incubating them in water? Good luck!!!

[stormhawk]

They are in a small container with water at the moment Ron. I think one of the 3 eggs is infertile but I'm crossing my fingers, if it turns fuzzy out it goes.
The male is constantly courting the female but I'll check the mop again tomorrow or the day after.

[stormhawk]

Still no fertile eggs yet from the pair so I've separated them for now to condition separately. Next week I'll put them back together for spawning. Managed to get a decent shot of the male earlier, pardon the plastic though.



This is probably the best shot I've taken of any australes that I've previously or currently owned.

[Eric Yeo]

JianYang, just pump them with Tubifex will give you a lot eggs. I still keeping them since 2004, got them from Au.
Got about 60 Australes & Clown fry right now in the guppy tank. All the best to your breeding.

Eric Yeo

[stormhawk]

Hi Eric,

I don't use tubifex anymore, so they get exclusively grindalworms and dried pellet foods. Do you still have the chocolate australe?

[RonWill]

JianYang, nothing beats a tubifex and insect suppliment diet.

Eric, post up pics of your adult ANNs... I have an itch I need to scratch...

[Eric Yeo]

Hi JianYang, I only have Orange Australes, ANNs, Fp nigerianus Innidere and Blue Eye, but playing less on them now. Now crazy over Angelfish, but I'll still breed them (Killies).

Hi Ron, so your hands getting itch on ANNs now, I have being keeping them almost 5 years now. All thanks to your Grindal Worms sharing, they are the best food for fry to adult fish. I'm still one of your safety net for Grindal Worms Ha Ha! Let me know if you need ANNs & GW. Attached pic of ANNs.

[RonWill]

All thanks to your Grindal Worms sharing, they are the best food for fry to adult fish. I'm still one of your safety net for Grindal Worms Ha Ha! Let me know if you need ANNs & GW

Thank you for the kind words, Eric. Sharing is one thing but credit should go to those who make the effort to maintain them. Those who're not maintaining live-cultures of any kind simply don't understand the commitment and time taken. I presume you're culturing grindals via scrubber-pad method?

I've been off killies due to trying times and needed to focus elsewhere. No thanks to some fishy kakis, I've been dipping into tanks again and one killie I've always wanted to try were the ANN Monrovia Red but unfortunately, we won't be seeing them hit our shores anytime soon. [JianYang knows pretty much the whole story]

Meanwhile, I've been culturing bugs (forest roach of some kind and commonly known as 'ong lai ku' for feeding sharmas - song birds) and would like to have a go again at grindals. ANNs, on the other hand, doesn't need encouragement... it's my Archilles' Heel and just too tempting an offer to let it pass.

Let me know what it's gonna cost me and how we can arrange collection. We could try and drag Au out for kopi one of these nights.

JianYang, any outcome from those eggs yet? I suggest water incubation, not peat, for about 2 weeks or... maybe you can try feeding tubifex to these buggers again.

[stormhawk]

Both still separated for now. I'm still conditioning the pair on grindals and the BW pellets. They should be ready to spawn soon. OTOH, it seems my constanciae eggs are starting to develop.

[Eric Yeo]

Ronnie, the Grindal Worms, I'm now just maintain & keep them alive, not culturing for fish food. Just can't afford to lose them, they really help me raise so many ANNs & Blue Eye fry because of their Magic water. I used both method for the culturing but now using coco peat. Let me get one new GW culture ready and hunt some adult ANNs in my garden urn for you. Your Grindal Worms sharing already cover the cost.

Au normally he goes home around 9 pm. Maybe call him and meet around his place that KOPITIAM.

JianYang, do you need my Orange Australes, I can pass them to Ronnie too.

Cheer
Eric

[stormhawk]

Perhaps another female might be useful since this male I have is a little aggressive.

[RonWill]

Hi Eric, what 'magic water' are you referring to? Is that a concoction of microscopic foods? I got one started about 2 weeks back so I should be good to go once I see tiny buggers (aka ANN fry )

For the grindals, what was your take on scrubbers and peat? Maintenance and harvesting-wise, personally, I felt that pads was the cleanest and most convenient. Of course, everybody's mileage varies.

WHICH Kopitiam?? Is there a favorite one that you guys visit or what?? If you can get Au out, I'll drag along somebody as well. Au should be pleasantly surprised!!

Let me know when. I'll PM you my cell number and we'll play it by ear.

JianYang, I'll be giving 'ya a buzz soon.... I see Micromoema xiphophora in your sig!!!!

[Eric Yeo]

JianYang, sorry can't pass you any Australes fry, I just found out all my Australes & Clown fry got wipeout. My tank is always on the floor, my wife told me spray ants on the floor early this morning. I stay on the ground floor, always got ants crawling in. All my adult Australes I sold at the AQ Buy & Sell few days ago, 4 May 2011.

Eric

[daguldfisher]

Hi bros, your Orange Australes are very nice. I makes my hands itch to go into it. Are you by chance selling Orange Australes pairs or fertilized eggs? Please please please. Need to get my hands on those Australes.

[Eric Yeo]

Magic water, no I didn't concoct it, is in the GW culture. I collect my GW on the transparent plastic and dip them in the water container and rinse it, this water I called Magic water. Inside this water you can see plenty of microorganism, this is what I feed the tiny fry. Not much you can find this microorganism on the new culture, old culture got more and even older culture you can see tiny white worms wriggling in the water. So I say if you got GW, you don't need Microworms.

Here attached are my dead Orange Australes fry, their parents sold already.

Eric

[CM Media]

Wow guys nice to learn the all are still alive and kicking...hahaha..

Ron, getting your hands wet again? I've just cleared out all my killifish a few months ago.

Let's find a day and will have kopi together. I'm now working on angelfish and it my all time passion for them since young. You want some? I've them by the hundreds but yet to sell any.... Simply can't part with them..

[daguldfisher]

Magic water, no I didn't concoct it, is in the GW culture. I collect my GW on the transparent plastic and dip them in the water container and rinse it, this water I called Magic water. Inside this water you can see plenty of microorganism, this is what I feed the tiny fry. Not much you can find this microorganism on the new culture, old culture got more and even older culture you can see tiny white worms wriggling in the water. So I say if you got GW, you don't need Microworms.

Here attached are my dead Orange Australes fry, their parents sold already.

Eric

Whoa! Very sad image. That is a handful of dead juv australes. You still have some left? I hope you have enough to breed more.

[daguldfisher]

by the way stormhawk, how much did you pay for those AUS from C328?

[RonWill]

...getting your hands wet again? I've just cleared out all my killifish a few months ago

Au, I think I previously swallowed too much when siphoning tank water during water changes and almost 100% certain I still have mulm circulating in my body, so.... ya, fish-keeping is a hard habit to kick.

Where I'm working now (will PM you details), my hands get wet almost everyday. Might as well give it another go (in a very small way) to get back to killies and breeding corys, something I enjoyed very much in the past. Who knows, given the 24/7 air-conditioning now, maybe there will be a chance to dabble with some cool-water/highland killies, after working hours, and perhaps earn some pocket money (fat chance, I know! ).

BTW, life has been hard but gracious, that I still have good friends. Angelfishes??? Gosh!! I remember having those as a kid but I'll take a queue number. My boss gave me a new 45cm cube tank (with a really ingenious built-in overflow system - see to believe but didn't have time and matching sump to set it up yet). Also very undecided who/what to put inside... most likely killies and corys. A parrot customer gave me Teco RA680 chiller too! Can you imagine the possibilities and trouble I can get into??!!

Eric, sorry to hear about those young AUS... crap happens!! ANNs all kaputz as well?? Don't worry, I can wait. We can still yak over kopi