Killifish Fry Log

As many of you know, I have purchased 50 Nothobranchius eggersI red eggs. Two of the eggs have hatched as of yesterday and one is starting to hover in the water. The other will take a few days to get used to the idea of it being a living thing that can fend for itself.
Tom

 

HI Tom
I remember you posting photos of the fish (eggs) that you bid on and won. They were great looking fish. Id love to find some of them like that around here, unfortunately.. don't think that I would be able to raise the eggs to fry. Would a 10 gallon tank work for that? How are the fry doing these days? Any photos to share?

 

A 10 gallon would work for raising the fry after about 3 weeks of being out of the egg. My 2 fry are doing fine. As for the pics, they are way too small. A thing that is about their size is a half a grain of rice(really small).
Tom

 

A 10 gallon would work for raising the fry after about 3 weeks of being out of the egg. My 2 fry are doing fine. As for the pics, they are way too small. A thing that is about their size is a half a grain of rice(really small).
Tom

too funny.. your right, they have to be pretty small! Maybe I will save the 10 g for the rainbow platy who is pregnant.
;D

 

Then if you get some eggs, you could use the tank also for some fry that are about 1/4" long. But anyways, I checked the size of the fish to the tape measure(compared visually, not pulling the fry out to measure it) and the largest one is about 1/8" long and about 2 weeks old.
Tom

 

I looked at the peat about an hour ago and the one and only fry was dead. I plan on drying the peat out again tomorrow so the next set of eggs can hatch and I can will have better luck with the next 'wetting'. It is really tradgic.
Tom

 

I looked at the peat about an hour ago and the one and only fry was dead. I plan on drying the peat out again tomorrow so the next set of eggs can hatch and I can will have better luck with the next 'wetting'. It is really tradgic.
Tom

Sorry to hear that. I know you had your heart set on raising some of these eggs. Good luck with the rest.

 

Thanks, on the bright side, only 2 had hatched so there should be 48 more that need to hatch still.
Tom

 

I found 3 fry already but one is about 1/8"already and water was added to the container just yesterday. 2 of the fry are attached at the yolk sac and one of them is dead. The 1/8" fry is already a free swimmer and was probably hatched in the package on the way here, but at least it is eating well.
Tom

 

I found another fry. I also setup the 5 gallon tank I bought for the purpose of raising the large fry in. It now contains 3 big bunchess of java moss. The tank is about 3/4 full.
Tom

 

The 2 fry that I found, are now free swimmers.
Tom

 

I checked my fry again today, and there is another fry that hatched a few hours ago. I also rewet the peat from the first batch of eggs. I am getting to be a very happy father.
Tom

 

To date I have a grand total of about 5 fry. From what the seeler told me, that is very normal for killifish.
Tom

 

To date, their are no fry alive because I went out of town a few weeks ago and wasn't able to feed the little guys.
I am going to see if I can order another 50 eggs when I start to go back to school since I will be able to watch over them almost every day.
Tom

 

I have finally successfully hatched some killI eggs! The last batch I ordered failed to hatch (probably due to shipping from Thailand) but I found a more local source through aquabid (they only had to come from Houston) and now after waiting a month for the hatch date to pass I have 10 fry so far.

There are a LOT more viable eggs still to hatch (I can see their eyes in the eggs) so I'm expecting many more. The eggs have only been in the water for 3 hours so we're still early in the process. Catching them with a coral feeder to transfer to their first grow out "tank" is proving challenging but if you get them when they first emerge from the eggs it's a lot easier lol.

Gonna be a fun weekend! Glad I'm off work til Thursday!

And 4 more hatched (and have been moved) in the time it took me to type out the first post.

Current total:14!

By the way does anyone know how long they'll feed off their yolk sacs before they begin actively feeding? They should have plenty of infusoria available in the grow out but I don't want to foul the water with other foods before they're ready to eat it.

Up to 19 fry now by the way lol

 

I wait 2 or 3 days from hatch date then feed microworms and live BBS. Did you get nothobranchius killifish?

 

F. Gardneri

My first attempt was with nothos but I went with these for this second attempt.

Well I'm up to 24 little killifish now. Seems like every time I go look at the hatching container there is a new one swimming around for me to catch. Still more eggs to go too. Not only can I see their eyes within the eggs but a few are even moving around inside the eggs.

I'd be shocked if I don't have at least 10 more hatch today

Edit: 32 and counting!

Finally snapped a pic of one.

It's in the upper left next to the duckweed.

Haven't caught any new hatchlings lately but I'm expecting more today.

 

Nice. Non-annual killifish are much easier to take care of. I find the nothobranchius requires more live foods when young as they tend to grow fast and be able to breed at one month compared to the non-annuals who take a couple months to get breeding age.

 

I don't mind feeding live foods. I keep microworms and bbs around almost constantly anyway

Final fry count for the day has me up to 34. Should be some more there by morning (2 more decided to hatch while I was watching game of thrones as it is)

Another night in the water and now I'm up to 44 little killifish

Make that 55....and to think I bought 50 eggs expecting to have some duds lol

 

Are you just keeping it in the water? When I was looking into getting killies, I read something that said you need to remove the stuff from the water and let it dry out for a few weeks, then try hatching again. It makes sense actually, if for example there was a freak rain during the dry season and all the eggs hatched, it would essentially kill off the population. So maybe try drying it out for a while then re-wetting it and see how many more you get

 

I only ordered 50 eggs and I have 57 fry at this point so I'd be satisfied as is. However these are f. GardnerI which aren't annuals. The eggs can actually stay submerged from the time they are laid.

Regardless there don't appear to be any more eggs in the peat so I should be just about done hatching unless I missed a few. No need to dry again as I would go through the effort of trying to hatch like 3 more fry lol

The original nothos I had for my first attempt were of the annual variety and failed so I went with something easier this time around.

This is a link to e picture of the male parent if anyone wanted to see exactly what I'm growing here lol

 

There are usually more eggs in the peat but the eggs get stuck to the peat so it is hard to see. It is good to re-dry the peat but if you have enough, I do not see anything wrong. Sometimes when eggs do not hatch, they need more time (storage time) or need to be in the water longer. I have had some nothobranchius species take 3 days to start hatching. Peat can also be stored up to 6 months (annuals that is). Good luck on the fry and hope to see some photos when they start coloring up!

 

Up to 60 now lol. They just keep showing up . Found some more eggs down in the peat so it's probably not over yet.

And of course there will be lots of pics once they're worth taking a picture of. Right now they just look like your standard fry

So boring when they're so tiny (and yet oddly fascinating lol)




They just keep coming!!! 64 now lol. I was honestly expecting only 30ish...I was amazed when it got into the upper 40s. This is just crazy now

 

They are gonna look awesome!

 

I certainly hope so. I can't wait to see em cruising my tank

Well no new fry showed up overnight so it looks like 64 is what I'm working with. They're readily taking microworms so it looks like I'm off to a good start

Haha there was a late addition to the party...65 now

 

I just spotted my first little killifish fry! (Fundulopanchax gardneri) He is so cute, so big! Must have been in there a while because he really is good sized. I think he may be the only one, but this is their first time spawning. They are still fairly young. I'm so excited!!! Had to share!

 

Congrats on the baby killi!!!!

 

Yayy! Congrats!

 

Thanks!!!

 

Wow, that's awesome!!! I love killis!

 

Wooo! theyre lovely fish!

 

Congrats!

 

Thanks everyone! I'll update if I do find more, but looking like there isn't any. I just hope my LFS will take any fry after this (may keep this one depending). This baby looks to be about a half inch already, any idea from anyone on how old he/she could be?

 

Thanks everyone! I'll update if I do find more, but looking like there isn't any. I just hope my LFS will take any fry after this (may keep this one depending). This baby looks to be about a half inch already, any idea from anyone on how old he/she could be?

Does it look like a tiny convict yet?

 

Does it look like a tiny convict yet?

Not sure lol. He looks like a fish and not some bug eyed little thing, has defined fins. Very yellow. Maybe I can get a better pic today.

 

I apologize. For some reason, I was thinking a convict fry. I'm getting senile in my old age.

I haven't bred killifish before, but hopefully another member can chime in.

 

I just found another killifish fry! A tiny one so probably recently hatched!! So excited! the other one is growing well

 

I've had my tank running almost a year an none of my live bearers ever had baby's nor any killis

 

stargazerwolf how are the fry doing? I have two pairs of siblings from the same group as your adults in their own breeding setups and they're spawning pretty regularly at this point

 

The first fry is a female who is growing very well! I have her in different 10 gallon now with my momma guppy, a couple female guppy fry and a betta (all with the red cherries, because at this point they dont' seem to be breeding and I think are starting to die of old age) The other fry I don't think made it...:/ the pair seems to act like they are spawning with almost every water change so I'm sure I will see more soon. This time around I will take the fry out and put in a separate tank so I am sure they get plenty of food.

The killis seem to be loving the duckweed that covers the whole top of the tank, it mutes the light a bit. I am sad the second fry didn't make it, but I do expect there to be more so I am excited about that. I see the female go to the back of the tank, under the java moss and it looked like she was laying eggs maybe a week or two ago. The male was courting on her like crazy after each water change I sure love these guys.