Zo breng ik Nothobranchius groot
There is no need to provide aeration or filtration in the “raising trays.” I never change the water in the trays. I only top them up with aged water as the fry grow. Remember to use only aged water. If you add water straight from the taps, all the fry will be dead the next day. I age my water by letting it stand in a bucket for at least 2 days.
Nothobranchius fry do not take well to water changes. I find that a certain amount of neglect works best when raising Notho fry. Changing water, checking on the trays several times a day, overfeeding or moving the trays about unnecessarily can result in massive die-offs.
One of the best food for Nothobranchius fry is baby brine shrimp. I feed only once a day during the first week. Do not overfeed as too much uneaten brine shrimp can contaminate the water and kill the fry. Microworms and vinegar eels are suitable fry food too but it can be a hassle harvesting them. Swollen bellies are a sure sign that the fry are eating well.
Fish rarely starve to death. More often than not, it is overfeeding that kills them. Do not be over-zealous when feeding the fry. A few drops of baby brine shrimp from a turkey baster is sufficient food for 20 fry in a 20 cm X 20 cm tray.
Raise the water level as the fry grow. Always keep an eye out for dead fish and remove them from the tray as soon as you spot them. Killies are good jumpers but Notho fry won’t jump so there is no need to put any cover on the tray.
Do not leave your “raising tray” directly under the sun. It can get too hot for the fry as still water heats up in a very short time. Usually, a layer of scum/oil will form on the surface of the water. It won’t do any harm to the fish but if it bothers you, remove it by sliding a sheet of newspaper over the surface.
When the fry are 2 weeks old, I supplement their diet of baby brine shrimps with chopped tubifex worms. That’s when their growth rate starts to accelerate. At 3 weeks of age, the fry are ready to be transferred into a proper tank.
I use small tanks to raise the 3 week old fry to adult stage. My tanks are about 20 litres in volume. I usually try to grow some plants inside the tanks. Micranthemum micranthemoides or Hygrophila difformis are plants that can be grown quite easily without having to provide CO2 injection or artificial lighting. Floating plants like Duckweed, Salvinia natans and Ceratophyllum demersum (Hornwort) are good for killie tanks too as they help prevent the fish from jumping.
Notho fry won’t jump but adults will. And they will jump through the narrowest of gaps. So if you don’t want to find your fish all dried out on the floor, cover the tank with a plastic mesh or something.
You will never hatch every egg you get nor raise every fry you hatch. It’s very much a numbers game. In nature, for every fry that reaches adult stage, hundreds perish. So be happy if you can raise 75% of your fry to the adult stage.
Photos: Loh Kwek Leong – Hristo Hristov
Source: www.Killies.com
Ever since I became a hobbyist more than 30 years ago, I have often wondered about a particular group of fish. These fish, although often featured in books, are rarely available in the fish shops of Singapore. They were better known as “Egg-Laying Toothcarps” in the old days. The fish were very colourful and had an aura of mystery around them. People say they are the most beautiful of all tropical fishes and that their eggs can be sent across nations and still remain alive.
In November 2001, I received my first few bags of killifish eggs from friends living in the US of A. Since then, many more have arrived. Now I have a good collection of killifish and have managed to breed quite a few of them. They are indeed the most beautiful of all tropical fishes.
Everything they say about killifish is true and more……
Killies.com
