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As I sort out what fish are going where in my current tanks I keep thinking I want a really colorful, top swimming fish, that is also fairly easy to breed for one of my 5g tanks. Somewhere I came across a site that listed all sorts of killie fish and information about each species or species group but then my computer crashed and I lost it all. On there I found a blueish killie I'd love to have but couldn't find them anywhere and didn't have space at the moment so I stopped persuing the idea. Now I'm looking again but I can't come up with the species. I think it was a Fundulopanchax species? The site said it was fairly common. I haven't been able to find much info on local clubs in the midwest so no help there so far. Can anyone at least give me some good killie sites or suggest a species. Blue colored is definitely a plus. I don't want to ship fish here over winter since below freezing weather isn't the safest to ship in but I'd like to decide on a species and find a source by spring.

Loads of killies are mostly blue, some indispersed with green and red. Gardneri is probably the commonly seen . Some of the congo killies come up really blue.

Do some searches on Aphysemion,as well as fundolopanchax and you might get a bit more joy.

Top swimming Killie for a 5g?

I have just the fish for you.

Epiplatys annulatus, the Rocket Panchax. Absolutely gorgeous little fish, and at not much bigger than a Neon Tetra, will make correspondingly small demands on your aquarium space. With the added advantage that while male and female can be differentiated with reasonable ease, this doesn't mean that the female is a drab shadow of the male. Female finnage may be shorter and more rounded than the male finnage, but she's not lacking in the colour department. The species can, with patience, be weaned onto dead foods, but if you want to breed these little jewels (and soooner or later you know you'll want to when you see them!) then live food in plentiful supply (and fed often!) will be required.

Provided water chemistry extremes are avoided, and sudden drastic changes are avoided (i.e., if it came from pH 6.5 in your dealer's aquarium, don't plunge it into pH 7.5!) the fish will prove surprising adaptable by usual Killie standards. Certainly a lot more so than the delicate Fundulopanchax Killies!

Here is a picture of the species. As you can see, this male well and truly shows why the fish is called a Rocket Panchax - with that rocket-flame effect tail!

Maintenance requirements are well within the remit of anyone who has kept the likes of Rivulus Killies beforehand, although it helps if the prospective keeper DOES have some prior experience with easier killies before taking on the Rocket Panchax. If you've already ben successfui with Fundulopanchax species, then this fish will present no challenges at all!

Breeding, however, is a different matter. Persuading well-conditioned parents to spawn won't be difficult. Raising the fry will be a headache of epic proportions though!

The problem here is size. The fry are tiny. And they need live infusoria round the clock for at least two to three weeks before you can migrate them to newly hatched Brine Shrimp. Plus, they tend to be particularly sensitive to water chemistry changes as fry, and even with diligence and care, you should expect to lose some fry. If you raise more than 25% of the fry in your first attempt, you're probably doing well. But, if you DO succeed in raising fry, the resuits are likely to be spectacular, because well-raised Rocket Panchaxes become scintillating aquarium jewels once they're past the critical stage and you're able to feed them baby brine shrimp and sifted Daphnia. Oh, they'll need their live food in quantity while growing, and they have prodigious appetites in relation to their body size when growing!

Be advised that while operating theatre standards of cleanliness aren't a requirement for the adults, the fry will probably need you to set them up in an intensive care style nursery for the first three weeks of life at least. But, even though the effort required to do so is considerable, the rewards of raising a batch of these beauties are immense.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Top swimming killifish are Epiplatys. As stated, Pseudepiplatys annulatus are very colorful and small top swimmers. I have them and I don't have a problem breeding them. You would need infusoria, but I don't have that. I keep the fry in planted tanks where some infusoria may be found and I feed them a very fine powder since they are always swimming near the top, some will eat it, some won't.

The killifish that you were talking about with the blue is Fundulopanchax gardneri type. I have the F. Gardneri Nigerianus "Makurdi" which is blue with red spots and yellow tips on the finnage. There are tons of killifish that look stunning. They'd have blue, red, green, yellow and all sorts of colors in unusual patterns.

Tim Addis' site.
http://www.killifish.f9.co.uk/Killifish/Killifish%20Website/Index.htm

This is a nice site with good information and plenty of pictures.

Henry

Infusoria and water quality have never caused me problems when raising fry. My tanks are packed with plants and to get to the sparkling gourami trio in the 5g rectangle tank I have to remove enough floating plants to fill a 1g bucket. The tap water also makes it incredibly easy to get infusoria. Even on low light tanks I kept getting such thick greenwater I couldn't see an inch into the tank. One of the reasons I switched to using ro water but it would be much easier to sell fry if they could be acclimated to local hard water conditions. No store here uses softened water for their freshwater tanks. It's all straight out of the tap ph 8.0.

In that case, if yu're capable of cultivating 'green water' with little or no effort (and infusoria for that matter) you should have a blast with the Rocket Panchax ... these fellows really are gorgeous! If you can find some, and have suitably pleasing quarters for them to live in, then I'd go for it and try and get some ...


Last edited by Calilasseia at 07-Dec-2005 21:27

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

The lfs said they might be able to get in Simpsonichthys magnificus. Anyone have any useful info? I didn't find a whole lot in a search except for one persons report on breeding them and they rated them as easy. Would a pair or trio fit in a 5g?

Here you go - basic details on the species.

At 1½ inches long, which is again about the same length as Epiplatys annulatus, it might be tempting to say they could go in a 5G. They are more robust bodied, however, and that page says they should go in a 20. You could of course try, on the understanding that you'd better be prepared to find them a bigger home if they look like they need it.

They're described as relatively undemanding on that page from a maintenance standpoint (and of course, the breeding reports you've already alighted upon, which I also found) said they were not a problem fish. However, being South American, it might be wise to err on the side of fairly soft and slightly acidic water to give them a home they're really comfortable with.

1 male and 2 females may well be OK in a 5G, but even though the species is small and described as 'peaceful', I'd be tempted to give them a bigger home if you can. Even though soft, slightly acidic water is supposed to be somewhat easier to maintain quality wise than hard, alkaline water (ammonia shifts in equilibrium to the slightly less toxic ammonium ion in acidic conditions, which is also easier for nitrifying bacteria to process than free ammonia), there's not that much room for manouevre in a 5G.

EDIT - that site also says they're expensive - $49.95 a pair!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 14-Dec-2005 11:33

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002