Tropical Fish Forums

wigglegerbil · Members Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Location: s ctlnd

recentley I bought (just as an experiment) a grow your own fish kit
it has eggs dried up in peat and they hatch in water into killifish
I heard that this is all part of some sort of breeding programme are these fish rare ?
once they are hatched how big will they be and what sort of water will they like and is it OK to feed them baby brine shrimp???
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heeer fishyfishyfishy

LordVolker · Regulars Joined: 05 Oct 2008 Location: Minnesota

Well I've never had any experience with actaully growing your own fish like the way you mentioned but I have had experience with livebearer breeding. However my brother forgot to do daily water changes, they developed a fungus and then that lead to a combination of dropsy and ich then death of the whole tank. Just make sure that the water is clean and is soft (depends on where you live and what kind of water softner you have), do daily water changes of about 30% or so and feed then infusoria or a off the shelf fry fish food then move on to crushed flake food when they're a little bigger. You can also feed the BBS but keeping them any longer than a day has appeared to be a challange for me.

Obelisk · Regulars Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Location: Miami, FL

I've never bred killifish, but I know that when breeding any fish, use a sponge filter for the fry, as a powerfilter will suck them up. Sorry, I couldn't be of much help there.

I've never heard of a grow your own fish kit. Do you know what species of killifish it comes with?

LordVolker · Regulars Joined: 05 Oct 2008 Location: Minnesota

You could keep them in a tall tank with one of those cheap breeder nets around the filter uptake.

Bubbles13 · Regulars Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Location: Palmer, Alaska

I have never heard of a grow your own fish kit. Where did you purchase it from?? I'm sure it's not, but it sounds a lot like sea monkeys. Laughing

Cliff Mayes · Advisors Joined: 11 Mar 2007 Location: Western NY

You are the victim of a marketing device.

Killies are indeed a real fish, lots of species who live very short periods usually. Not to get into a long drawn out discourse but the Killie folk are usually very serious Hobbiests that care about their fish. It is normal for eggs to pass from one person to another and after a period in peat moss the eggs hatch and the critters go through exponential growth which is part of a natural cycle.

There are many species of Killie and some are readily available in the LFSs as grown fish which live a lot longer in captivity than in a puddle (or some other temporary water holding depression.) Telling a species is very difficult without a program. Not all Killies need a dry period for egg hatching.

I am sure that the Killes people have a dedicated Website just for Killes and if you want an education look it up.
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wirehair

wigglegerbil · Members Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Location: s ctlnd

I have heard of "the killi scheme" as its called where breeders pass along dried moss whith eggs in it but I think this is just a cheap toy really .
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heeer fishyfishyfishy

Cliff Mayes · Advisors Joined: 11 Mar 2007 Location: Western NY

A lot of the Killie folk are very serious Hobbiests that do not consider the fish as toys. Even small puddles are numbered as are the fish and it is very unusual for any specific Killie to find its way into amateur hands.

Killies cover the entire range of sizes from very tiny to very large so giving advice about care is not a good idea. There are a lot of very good books about Killies around but the Killie people are the best resource. I saw one of the old Killie hands at an Auction this Sunday but did not get a chance to talk with him and one of the breeders I was looking for did not show up and he was supposed to have some australes (a small, brightly colored Killie) for me.

Killies are neat and as I said some in the Hobby do live a longer time and the care and feeding are very specific (if you will excuse the term) so any advice would be misleading. Some Killies are rare but unless you are in the loop rare ones would not be for sale to anyone other than dedicated Killie folk.

I hope this helps enlighten even though it may be confusing.
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wirehair

nonamethefish · Moderators Joined: 06 Feb 2003

Basically a way to attempt to market killifish as mainstream.

In the future just buy direct from hobbyists since it is cheaper and you will get more eggs.
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