Keeping Killifish??

[keprydak]

I'm going to try a little challenge on myself to keep some non-ordinary fish. And I don't do cichlids (well they won't fit in my availible tank anyway...). So I though killifish. Anybody got any experience in keeping them?
I'm really interested in 3 species that i found particularily appealing. Nothobranchius fuscotaeniatus, Procatopus nototaenia, and Crom. riggen bachi HAH98/Borepaupa (I have no clue what that is, but it came along with the name of the fish).
I want to keep maybe 3 or 4 of them along with 2 small (2&quot gouramis in a 10 gallon. It's already well established with algae and plastic plants. The water is slightly acidic (6.9- 6.8 ) but the water from the tap is nuetral. The light is pretty dim, only about 15 watts, and there are no live plants. I plan on adding some elodea or something of the sort because its done well in there before.
I can feed them freeze-dried and sometimes frozen brine shrimp, along with flake and pellet. live food is nearly impossible to find here.
is there anything specific that killis need to really thrive? will a few of them do well with gouramis in a 10 gallon? And what about the three species I chose? are they good killis for a beginner? hopefully there is nothing else i need to worry about.
i already read some articles at the AKA, and some other one at the natural aquarium. i just was wondering if you guys had any tips or hints for me on my strange, erm, adventure.

 

[SegaDojo]

hmm... i'm no killi expert, but i'd say try to keep only one species in each tank... i've read that they CAN get aggressive.

also, some killi's are great jumpers, so make sure you've got a tight seal on the tank... some floating plants can help keep them from jumping.. plus, floating plants are great for removing nutrients (nitrates, phosphates, and trace elements) from the water column.  Also, a lot of the killi's prefer subdued lighting anyways.

as for food, IME, they didn't readily take the brine shrimp.  Bloodworms worked somewhat OK... but it quickly grew old on them.  It MAY depend on species or whether they were wild caught or aquarium hatched... but i know that some ppl feed them wingless fruitflies... you'll have to read up on them at www.thekrib.com

OR, another option that i never tried is daphnia... you can either try raising them yourself, or purchase frozen ones...

Good Luck... their a beautiful species..

 

[Matt Nace]

I never see killis anywhere around here but one day I did, and bought 2 steal blue killies.

They are very quick and liked to swim. Your 10 gallon for the spec. I kept would be too small.

Mine ate flakes, kept them in a 29 amazon biotope, which was very dark..

I lost one after a month..have no idea why, but the other one became very aggresive after his buddy was gone. I had to take him back because they were no other killies left.

But tell us how you do.