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for those who fish for S.W fish, i went to bait store, and i asked for sokmething for my large mouth bass, and they said they had killies. now when we fish for s.w fish we used these killies and caught them in the bay.

now i have a 1/2 pint of them and idk what kind of water to put them in. I live on the water so i was going to get some salt water from my backyard but it is low tide right now, so i usaed some old salt mix.


now are these like the fresh water killies? and i will try and get a pic in thje next couple of hours.H


edit: i believe they are called banded killies.

Would these be Adinia xenica by any chance?

Here is a pic:

Adinia xenica, the Diamond Killifish

My 1970s TFH back numbers has a piece on these fishes also. Want me to dig the article out?


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

no, i was confused as i thought killies were fresh water but these fishes are salt water.

i live on the water and in my backyard canal i can catch my own. so these are fully salt water. But i heard they can handle full freshwater, brackish, and salt.


also i got about 20-30 killies for 4.34 usd, but i figured that i would get a trap tomorrow and catch my own.

Adinia xenica is a brackish water fish.

Here's what the Exotic Tropical Fishes looselead supplement (F-14.17) has to say on this fish:

Range : Southeastern Florida to central Texas along the Gulf Coast; mostly in estuarine, brackish slat marshes.

Habits : Relatively peaceful. Males may become rough during courtship. Does well with other small brackish-water fishes that are not too aggressive.

Water conditions : Prefers brakcish water. Can be adapted to pure fresh water, but for full colour and vitality they should have salt added to their water.

Sixe : About 50mm.

Food requirements : Accepts almost any high wuality flake food as well as frozen and freeze-dried foods. Should be offered algae or other vegetable matter such as cooked spinach. The Diamond killifish is especially fond of mosquito larvae.

Colour Variations : Males dark green above, lighter grayish-green below. Sides with a series of dark vertical bars alternating with 10-14 pearl-coloured bars. Belly yellow, jaw orange. Dorsal and anal fins greenish covered with light (pale blue) spots. Female rather plain.

This small Gulf Coast Killifish has not attained the popularity it deserves. It is handsome and hardy and not difficult to breed in typical Killifish fashion. Males and females mature at about the same size (20mm) though mjales grow to a slightly larger size. With the approach of spawning season males become much more strikingly coloured, and there is an elongation of the dorsal and anal fins. "Contact orgns" appear on and in the vicinity of the anal fin of the male.

During spawning the pair swim about together, with the male above and slightly behind the female. At an appropriate spawning site (the female may clean the stalks of some aquatic plants or an inside filter) the female flexes her body and deposits a single egg. The male at the same time clasps her, wrapping his dorsal, anal and caudal fins around her. The pair separate and swim rapidly around the area for a few seconds. The spawning act is repeated many times although an egg is not produced every time.

In nature males generally outnumber the females in some cases as much as two to one. Often there are battles when two rather evenly matched males try and court the same female. They will chase each other with fins spread and, if neither withdraws from the fray, actual contact will be made. When a larger male approaches a courting male, the smaller one may be driven away and replaced by the larger one.

The 2mm-diameter eggs hatch in about two weeks at 25.5 degress C. The young mature and are ready to spawn in about ten months.

For best results give them plenty of room and use about 25% to 50% salt water. This can be ontained by mixing 1/4 to 1/2 as much marine aquarium salt as recommended. Any type of fish food is readily accepted, even by newly collected individuals. Algae or cooked spinach should be added occasionally, or try one of the commercial foods which have vegetable matter included. The fry can usually handle newly hatched Brine Shrimp, but if possible supplement this with "green water".

Tankmates include other brackish-water fishes such as Sailfin Mollies, Cyprinodon variegatus, Scats, Monos, Archer Fishes etc. And for those who like to keep live plants in the aquarium, Vallisneria is suggested.

That insert was included with the January 1978 edition of TFH. Unfortunately the May 1977 issue I had has temporarily disappeared in my huge compost heap of papers, but I'll find it sometime.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

thanks for the info. i am still working on getting a pic.

Vals for brackish water? I can't get Vallisneria to survive in any water with a specific gravity above about 1.003. It sort of melts away like a Cryptocoryne in new water, except it never grows back.

Perhaps in the 70s they had some more salt-tolerant species...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I live in the panhandle of florida and their everywhere. Here we call them sheephead killies. I often catch them with a cast net and use them as bait for fishing. They are mostly found in estuaries where a river meets the bay. They are very hardy fish. I never thought of using them as aquarium fish though.

-Vincent

yea we swhould be talking about the same fish. J/W but can u find out how to catch them using a fish trap instead of a net.

like bait and set-up.

i dont see why not to add them to a fish tank. while taking them from the wild isn't a good thing, i like to think of it as rescueing them. But they are very jumpy.

I am sure you good catch them in a trap if it had small enough holes. For bait you might want to use like meal worms or something I'm not sure what they eat. Any way if you do add them to a tank you'll definantly want to put some aquarium salt in their.

-Vincent

yea, idk why but i have seem to fall in love with these fishes.

i knew it was going to happen. i dont have the heart to feed them to anything so i made them into pets.

and figured that since they are in my back yard, why dont collect some wild ones.

Have fun but they make great flounder or trout bait.

-Vincent

yea, use to use them for fishing for flounders. but now involved in conservation well at least for a while.

Sheephead Killie?

Google turned up Cyprinodon variegatus, one of the Pupfishes. Here is the Fishbase summary]http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=3181[/link] for that fish, and [link=here is a photo.

According to the Fishbase info, this fish can be found in anything from pure freshwater to full marine water. Found all the way from Massachussetts to Mexico, and listed both as a commercial aquarium fish and a bait fish for anglers.

Is THIS your Killie Bettachris?

Bears a passing resemblance to Adinia xenica too but for the feweer stripes - has a similarly 'hump backed' body topography.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

umm..doesn't really look like it, but tomorrow i will have a pic. but these fish aren't colored up.

from the info that u have, it sounds like there are more than one speices that are used as feeders.

thanks for the effort and care.

i believe after looking and looking, it was kinda like

fundulus heteroclitus
fundulus confluentus
fundulus grandis

all three of these look like them. if not them.

Well, you do have something like 25+ species of Cyprinodon native to the USA, so you've got quite a choice

Try hunting through Fishbase's page on the Genus Cyprinodon and see if yours turns up in there.

Here is the page in question. Note that not all of the fishes listed there are valid members of Cyprinodon, some are fishes that were once in the same Genus but have since been moved.

Just checked the valid names link - you've got fifty three species to wade through!

EDIT : just looked up your Fundulus species. Fundulus heteroclitus is listed as the Mummichog, a 6 inch fish that is described as 'difficult' from the standpoint of aquarium maintenance. If your fishes live happily without too much trouble on your part, I don't think it will be this one. You've got 41 valid species of Fundulus to wade through too!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

wow, from the fish keeping side, they are very nippy fish. so a spieces tank is neded.

i have a couple that are about 5-6 inches, i am guessing that those are the adult females. from the other info that you provided, it says that the males will stay smaller than the female.

i want to breed them and use the fry as feeders. i would hate to find him the bigger ones.

also for feeding, they love algae wafers.

here are the pics

http://s104.photobucket.com/albums/m191/BettaChris_Fish/Killies/

Anything like this fish perchance?

That is Fundulus zebrinus, the Plains killifish. More info on that can be found here.

According to Fishbase, Fundulus zebrinus is tough, survives all kinds of extremes, and is easy to maintain in the aquarium. It's also somewhat variable in colour. Check the Fishbase page for location details - it has a pretty wide range.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

still thinking fundulus grandis

my type doesn't have lines all the way to its head. more like 1/2 body