# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Killifish >  Beginner Killifish

## Jovel

I've been wanting to try keeping this beautiful fishes for the longest time, but the only ones I'm keeping now are Normani Lampeyes, doing pretty good in my 3 ft planted.

Now that I just made a Wabi-kusa tank, am thinking of keeping a pair of annuals in it. 

Its filterless and I'll just be doing frequent water changes.

Any recommendations for a beginner?

This is the link to my tank, afraid that the rocks might cause the PH to be fairly higher. 

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...-My-Wabi-Kusa.

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## Shi Xuan

Nothobranchius guentheri, Nothobranchius foerschi, Opthalmolebias constanciae are good beginner annuals, just to name a few common ones. Note that the last one is a South American annual, though drab but have stunning finnages. Not all annuals are easy to breed, so either you can try the above mentioned or do a research on the respective species.

As for your wabi-kusa tank, I think keeping semi/non-annuals would be a better option. You can buy a pair/trio of Fundulopanchax nigerianus "Innidere" from Green Chapter. Beautiful and hardy fishes.

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## Jovel

> Nothobranchius guentheri, Nothobranchius foerschi, Opthalmolebias constanciae are good beginner annuals, just to name a few common ones. Note that the last one is a South American annual, though drab but have stunning finnages. Not all annuals are easy to breed, so either you can try the above mentioned or do a research on the respective species.
> 
> As for your wabi-kusa tank, I think keeping semi/non-annuals would be a better option. You can buy a pair/trio of Fundulopanchax nigerianus "Innidere" from Green Chapter. Beautiful and hardy fishes.


Thanks! Maybe I make a trip down tomorrow and take a look. But they don't come cheap do they  :Confused:

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## stormhawk

If you are keeping the pH in the alkaline range, with rock work and minimal plants, you can try to keep Aphanius species. Last species seen locally was A. mento, but has been many years since I saw these.

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## Shi Xuan

> Thanks! Maybe I make a trip down tomorrow and take a look. But they don't come cheap do they


Yes, they don't come cheap, in fact, all killies are expensive IMO. Stormhawk made a good suggestion for Aphanius spec. Rare middle eastern killies that's otherwise beautiful in their own right. I have seen a few species listed on Aquabid on some occasions.

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## Jovel

I got this guy today.. can anyone ID this killie?

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## Shi Xuan

May I ask where you got this fish? It's a male Nothobranchius flammicomantis.

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## Jovel

I got it at Y618, there was several different species but all males inside one of the tanks in the corner.

there was one that looks like that, but it seems too territorial and chasing everyone else.



and this

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## Jovel

Hmmm noob question, are they hard to find??

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## Emokidz

The second type you saw were probably some aquarium strain of Aphyosemion australe, a non-annual species. The notho you got is an annual species. It doesn't live for too long though...

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## Shi Xuan

> Hmmm noob question, are they hard to find??


Not hard to find but difficult to get matching females. :Sad: 

For some guys, they prefer fishes that come with type locality/population codes and once they got a taste of "pedigree", they will never go back to aquarium strains. :Cool:  
As for me, anything goes, so long it's a living killie. :Laughing:

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## Jovel

Hmm thanks guys! Yeah i'll just try out this fella first. Next time maybe i'll try a non annual species. Do i need to cover the tank? Heard they're pretty good jumpers.

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## Shi Xuan

Nothobranchius are not avid jumpers but it would be safer to have the tank covered, lest you find crispies the next morning.

Generally, Nothobranchius are hardy killies, most are beautiful and easy to breed. The downside is their relatively short span of beauty.

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## stormhawk

Jovel, commonly seen farm-bred killies here are as follows:

Nothobranchius eggersi - blue/red forms
Nothobranchius guentheri - the first fish in one of your posts
Nothobranchius rachovii - Beira phenotype, occasionally in Albino form
Nothobranchius flammicomantis - uncommon
Nothobranchius fuscotaeniatus - uncommon
Nothobranchius korthausae - uncommon

Fundulopanchax gardneri? - unknown strains
Fundulopanchax nigerianus - unknown strains

Aphyosemion australe - Orange (very common), Chocolate (uncommon), Gold (uncommon)
Aphyosemion striatum - no longer supplied

Austrolebias sp. - used to be present, does not seem to be the case any longer

Ophthalmolebias constanciae - no longer supplied by the farms

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## Jovel

Thanks stormhawk! Hmm, any idea can I find a matching Nothobranchius flammicomantis female? been searching around but all I see are males  :Sad:

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## stormhawk

Not possible since the female is similar to others from the korthausae group. I doubt anyone is keeping the coded populations locally. It is a nice fish but I lack tank space to try it.

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## Jovel

Dang, I guess I have to luck it out. He seems so lonely.  :Confused:

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## stormhawk

Normal case with LFS killies. I always see only males at C328 (probably supplied by same farm) and some occasional females with no species tag given. I regard those as "USO"s - Unidentified Swimming Object.

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## RonWill

> Dang, I guess I have to luck it out..


 Nope, you didn't "lucked out" but rather, you got what you paid for!  :Grin: 

You might not understand the obsession but it does take lots (now that's an understatement!!) of resources, patience and ill-afford time to get a population going and keeping it just the way it is, without corruption of the code, etc.

When anal killie-keepers do sell part of their stock to recoup funds for new species, the killies are usually sold in pairs or trios and yes, it will come with a price. Yes, they will also hope that you can get them to breed and enjoy the process, so don't fault them for receiving negligible chum change for their dedication.

And until you've walked a mile in their shoes, you'll never know the sacrifices and trade-offs they've made, just so that *YOU* can have pretty killies in your tank!!

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## stormhawk

I might be getting N. flammicomantis eggs but no promises.

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## IanG

Everybody will have their favorite beginners Killifish. Firstly you need to decide if you want top spawners, Switch spawners or Peat spawners. In my view top spawners and switch spawners are easier and have a longer life span. My own personal suggestions are Top spawners aphyosemion Striatum, Aphyosemion Winifedae Chromaphyosemion species such as splendepleure or volcanum and Epiplatys Dageti. Switch spawners Fundulopanchax Gardneri (any Population), Fundulopanchax Scheeli and Fundulopanchax marmoratus. If you fancy annuals austrolebias nigripinnis , nothobranchius of species already mentioned by others.

Your first problem is getting stock I suggest join your local Killifish Assocation or a foreign association which offers electronic membership. Eggs of most aphyosemions hatch after 14 to 28 days and these often hatch in post so I suggest start with fish. Fundulopanchax will water hatch or dry (peat) incubate so are more suitable for posting. Annuals I would suggest start from eggs unless sender is relatively local. Fry size on most species are large enough to take newly hatched brine shrimp some nothos in my experience are too small and need infusoria for a few days. Commercial Breeders exist for gardneri, nothos, Epiplatys dageti and clown killifish. Wild fish are exported regularly from nigeria, congo and Indian Sub continent. Many exporters only send males unless special orders are made

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## stormhawk

We have no official association here in Singapore, unlike the BKA, so our only source is basically Aquabid.

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## IanG

I don't know if it is possible to import fish from Thailand as they do supply females (at a price).

I have seen Killifish on Singapore Fish Farm lists for UK.- currently Australe, Golden Wonder, Striatum, Clown Killifish, Noth Foerschi, Fundulopanchax Filamentosum and gardneri

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## stormhawk

Not possible unless we are prepared to pay the farms to import them for us. We don't have the luxury of easy cross-border shipments like in the EU from one member state to another.

Those are commonly spawned killies in the farms here, but sourced from elsewhere. The problem is, when they supply to the shops here, we get no females. On the rare occasions that they appear, they are not labelled properly, hence we don't know what species they are. Especially for Notho females.

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## Jovel

> Nope, you didn't "lucked out" but rather, you got what you paid for! 
> 
> You might not understand the obsession but it does take lots (now that's an understatement!!) of resources, patience and ill-afford time to get a population going and keeping it just the way it is, without corruption of the code, etc.
> 
> When anal killie-keepers do sell part of their stock to recoup funds for new species, the killies are usually sold in pairs or trios and yes, it will come with a price. Yes, they will also hope that you can get them to breed and enjoy the process, so don't fault them for receiving negligible chum change for their dedication.
> 
> And until you've walked a mile in their shoes, you'll never know the sacrifices and trade-offs they've made, just so that *YOU* can have pretty killies in your tank!!


Yes, I do realize the hardship and dedication in breed them killies  :Smile:  But don't get me wrong when I say luck it out! haha, What I meant was that I've been trying to find him a female partner every chance I could at LFS. And I've to let lady luck shine on me to find one! This guy has been eating really well, but seems to only eat freeze dried worms. He just spits out the pellets and other food that I also feed him with  :Confused:

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## stormhawk

With Nothos, you can use FBW or live foods. They seldom take pellets and other foods. I don't think you'll be able to find a female for him. Last few killie bags at C328 did not contain any females, just young males of guentheri and flammicomantis. Last few times they had random females, they weren't fed and languished in the bags for days. There was N. rachovii females at one time I think but they were in bad shape.

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## Jovel

Yea thats what i realised after making trips around our lfs. The only females i saw was clown killies at petmart. Thanks stormhawk! Yea he really loves his FBW!

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## stormhawk

One thing with FBW is this. Make sure they are fully thawed. If they eat cold stuff, they get sick. That's why FBW should not be used as a primary diet. The biggest issue with Nothos is that they have extremely high metabolism. Hence the need for high protein foods. If you can, start a culture of grindal worms, or compost worms. Anything high in protein should be present in their diet.

Another thing to take note of is to keep them in alkaline water. Some people advocate adding salt to their water to stave off velvet, but from what I experienced, keeping them in alkaline water helps as well.

http://users.telenet.be/marc.bellema...comantis_E.htm <-- page with valuable info on this species.

From the article, pH was 7.43 in the ponds they were found at Kwaraza, 7.58 at Kisaki. The ones we have from the farms are probably from the Kisaki population.

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## Jovel

> One thing with FBW is this. Make sure they are fully thawed. If they eat cold stuff, they get sick. That's why FBW should not be used as a primary diet. The biggest issue with Nothos is that they have extremely high metabolism. Hence the need for high protein foods. If you can, start a culture of grindal worms, or compost worms. Anything high in protein should be present in their diet.
> 
> Another thing to take note of is to keep them in alkaline water. Some people advocate adding salt to their water to stave off velvet, but from what I experienced, keeping them in alkaline water helps as well.
> 
> http://users.telenet.be/marc.bellema...comantis_E.htm <-- page with valuable info on this species.
> 
> From the article, pH was 7.43 in the ponds they were found at Kwaraza, 7.58 at Kisaki. The ones we have from the farms are probably from the Kisaki population.


Thanks! I'm also feeding it Freeze Dried Larvae by AZOO, he seems to love it as well  :Smile:  Will check my PH tomorrow, should be in the high 7's with all the rocks, and my tap water is about PH 7.8-8 , treated by BW Cleanse.

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## darylets

> I might be getting N. flammicomantis eggs but no promises.


Are they easy to keep? If so do let me know if i can get some eggs as well. Thanks

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## stormhawk

Will do, but I have to ask the sellers if it's possible to do a group order. N. flammicomantis is like N. korthausae in behavior. I don't think the fry are huge so initially some microworms might be good.

Incubation time for N. flammicomantis at 24-25 deg C is roughly 2-3 months. In our climate and typical room temperature of 28 deg C, the eggs should be ready to hatch within 2 months.

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## chuakboon

can anyone advise me where to get female killi?

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## stormhawk

Sometimes C328 has female killies for sale, but what species they are is unknown since there is no label on the bags. If you purchased a random male from a local LFS, it will be hard to pair it up with the correct female, unless they are recognisable like females of A. australe or Fp. gardneri. There are pairs of Fp. nigerianus Innidere for sale at Green Chapter, if you are interested.

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## SirBest

> can anyone advise me where to get female killi?


What species of males do you have at the moment? Like what stormhawk has mentioned, if you want the good stuff to seriously kickstart on killifish keeping, Green Chapter would be a better bet, for now.

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## chuakboon

any place to get killi eggs???

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## stormhawk

Aquabid is your best bet.

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## SirBest

> any place to get killi eggs???


Have you consider getting live fishes instead of eggs? Cause in my opinion, I find the whole egg saga a little too much for me as on one hand I am seriously anxious in seeing some fries from the package but on the other, I have this fear that I may be punked by the seller in trying to harvest fries from just an empty patch of peat.

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## Shi Xuan

Most of us here would like to obtain live fishes, if possible. Unfortunately, it can only be possible if the order is ample and have them shipped to an approved LFS. I lost a lot of eggs recently and am left with a a couple of packets of clear eggs from Hypsolebias auratus and Nothobranchius spec. Nyando River. 

Due to a lack of time, I am thinking of keeping only a couple/trio of non-annuals instead.

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## zep_betta

i think your best bet on getting a female killi for the annual species, is if you find someone locally, who is hatching them out and has females to spare...

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