In the last couple of days I received the latest issue of Killinews, which is produced by the British Killifish Association 6 times per year. I have been a member of the BKA for a very long time, and too long to think about, but I started my membership in 1980 (if anyone is interested in counting). If anyone is interested, you can currently join the BKA with a digital subscription for £10 per annum, but printed copy is more expensive. If you are interested in joining, then either use the BKA website (www.killis.org.uk/wp), or contact Andrew Frew ([email protected]).
Anway, this issue had some nice articles, like part 5 of a discussion on Rivulus, Aphanius in France, and breeding Nothobranchius on sand. Though the article that took my interest was one by William King where he was incubating non-annual eggs on kitchen towel to stop the spread of mould. Now this is very similar to my previous discussions of using cotton pads, but must admit that the kitchen towel would be a lot cheaper, but maybe not as robust for sending the eggs in the post. Anyway it is something else to try, and I will give some feedback at a later date.
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Well I have been using the new system for a few weeks, so here is an update on what I have found so far. It seems to be working very well, for most non-annual species but not all. Why I am getting a problem with certain species (especially Scriptaphyosemion cauveti), I do not know, but the eggs disintegrate whilst on the cotton pads. If anyone has any suggestions, then please leave them in the comment section, as I would like to get the problem sorted and willing to try other options. I collected some eggs of Fundulopanchax spoorenbergi on the 5th March, and now a month later some of the eggs are well developed but others are still clear. As can be seen in the following pictures. You can enlarge the pictures by clicking on the images. Well in these last few weeks I have been collecting eggs from many other non-annual species and the system seems to work reasonably well, with a few exceptions. My latest, was that I had noticed the males of Paraphanius similis Zengen had coloured up very well, so when I checked the mops there were over 50 eggs that I collected. Now 25 of the eggs I placed onto the soaked cotton pad on the 1st April, and they seem to be doing very well, leaving the rest to water incubate. This species was originally classed as Aphanius mento Zengen, but now has been changed to Paraphanius similis Zengen. Though still a stunning little fish when the males are in full breeding colours.
Well last year I had some of these outside in a plastic container and more or less they were left to their own devices. When it came time, in October, to bring them indoors, I found that the adults had disappeared but I had about a dozen young adults. Now these fish over-wintered in the lowest (coolest) rack of my fishroom, and just recently I have noticed that the males were showing intense breeding patterns. I must try to get some pictures of these fish so that people can see what they are like at this stage. There are a number of males in the tank, but they seem quite peaceful which is a good thing. Well I have watched these fish for a few days, whilst doing the other million odd jobs that need doing in the fishroom, but tonight decided that I would check for eggs. To say that I was surprised is an under-statement as I stopped counting when I got to 50 eggs. So these are now in water with Acriflavine and Methylene Blue added and I will put half of them onto the cotton wool pads in a few days, to see how they cope with mode of incubation. Future updates to follow as part of my experiment. Sorry that I have not been very good in writing on this "Blog" but things have been uneventful in the fishroom. Just doing lots of feeding and water changes.
Now though I have started to use a new system for storing eggs from my non-annual killifish. The picture above shows Scriptaphyosemion cauveti eggs that were collected on 5/3/21. The full article can be seen under the heading above, "Articles ==> New System for Egg Incubation". Have a read and hopefully it may give you some ideas for you to try yourself. Now this was not my idea originally, but based on an article by Tyrone Genade in the Oct-Dec 2020 edition of the Journal of the American Killifish Association. The original article was on shipping non-annual killifish eggs and the best method to do this. I have adapted this slightly for incubating killifish eggs (mainly Fundulopanchax) in my fishroom, and I will be very interested to see how this new system compares to the damp coir/peat or water incubation methods. I might even try selling a few eggs later in the year, once the weather warms up a bit more, and will use Tyrone's method. I have produced a video of my setup for young fry from 2-3 weeks of age until they are large enough to be placed into the tank with the adults and sub-adults without being unduly harassed. Yes, I do have a lot of Fundulopanchax lacustris, as I was down to my last pair or trio, so made a special effort to collect eggs but there was only a few. When these eggs hatched and grew into adults, I was collecting about 70 eggs a week and had to stop. This is my first video and I am still learning how to use the software, but did find out how to add sub-titles as you will see. Just seen this video on Facebook and it well worth watching for both beginners to the Killifish Hobby and the more advanced. Remember that it is never too late to learn and try something new, even if it is not quite right for you but things can be adapted. https://youtu.be/y1_B3Uw5e3w For the last few years I used natural cork as floats for my mops, but there has been two problems, first is that the corks disintegrate slowly therefore slipping out of the tied loop that holds them in and secondly they get water logged and sink. So most of my old mops are now on the bottom which is not a big problem as most of my Fundulopancax species like them there.
My first alternative was to try plastic champagne corks, and though these work, they do not look very nice and I found it very difficult to securely tie the nylon mops onto the float, but they worked okay. Next I tried some white foam that came as packing in a DIY bookcase box, but even that is now getting water logged. What I need to find is a foam swimming aid that is called a "pool noodle", but it is the wrong time of year to find these in the UK shops. As the air is trapped inside the foam micropores, it can be cut into smaller pieces and used as floats Recently I have been trying out some dry fry foods called Golden Pearls or GP Diets, that I believe is produced by Brine Shrimp Direct in the USA. These are being used mainly by the Marine trade and Rainbowfish enthusiasts for feeding the very young fish, so I thought that I would give it a try with my killifish.
Well I must admit that the finest grade (5-50 micron) has worked well in feeding some of my smallest fry that find newly hatched BBS too big, like Poropanchax luxothalmus. In fact for this species I have continued feeding the larger size (50-100 micron) on a regular daily basis as they seem to like it a lot. In fact now I am feeding BBS (+ small worms) once per day to the fry in the fishroom and other feeds are with GP Diets as it is much easier and quicker to do (so get done on a more regular basis). This product is not cheap, but the amount used daily is quite small so they last a long time. As the foods are so fine and you only want to add small amounts I use a small children's paintbrush and tap it gently on the edge of the fry container. The food stays on the surface for a long period of time and then the finest will stay suspended in the water. The fry have got used to the tapping on the container to mean that food is on the surface and quickly rise to start eating. Well I must admit that I am not the best at keeping live food cultures going in the fishroom, but at the moment I doing quite well (hope this will not pre-empt their demise) at keeping quite a few cultures going. These being,
Vinegar Eels Microworms Banana Worms Grindal Worms White Worms Tropical White Worms Fruit Flies All the worms are cultured on or fed a mixture of Ready Brek and bakers yeast, including the vinegar eels. Where as the fruit flies are cultured on a mix of potato flake, milk powder, sugar and a small amount of cinnamon to inhibit mould. The larger worms and fruit flies are all fed to my breeding adults, whilst the smaller worms along with newly hatched BBS are fed to the fry daily. All of us that have kept non-annual killifish will have experienced the problem with "resting eggs" where they will just not hatch after the normal incubation time. Therefore we result in trying to force-hatch the eggs, by putting them into a small bottle and carry it around in your pocket for a few hours, or add a small amount of microworms. The reason to force-hatch the eggs is that the fry continues to use up nourishment, and if you do get it to hatch at a later time then they are just too weak to survive.
Now if you have been reading my recent comments then you will know that I have been watching a "few" things on Youtube and one of these concerned Rainbows and Pseudomugil eggs not hatching, where it was found that the problem was caused by the hardening of the outer shell of the egg. The cause of which was found to be the use of a Dechlorinator. Now not sure if the same thing happens with Killifish, but I seem to get better hatchings now that I use Jack Heller's mixture (see earlier comments, 10/11/20) that uses untreated rainwater mainly. Now I try to do weekly water changes on all my tanks that hold my adult killifish, but I must admit that sometimes this stretches to two weeks, especially when I am busy with other things.
I have tried to make doing this as simple as possible, in the opinion that the easier it is the more often it will get done. I have 2 hoses for syphoning, a 6mm diameter one for the smaller tanks, and a 12mm hose plus gravel cleaner for the larger tanks. The effluent water is run into a 10 litre bucket with a 25 watt sump pump fitted, the output from which is directed into the sink (very nice to have in the fishroom) that drains into the sewer, or alternatively I can redirect the output to an external 220 litre water butt that is set up to water my garden (hence getting two uses for the cost of the water). So in my fishroom I have 3 large water containers, a 200 litre water butt for holding my treated very hard tapwater that has had salt added ( a teaspoon per gallon, i.e. 4.5 litres), another 90 litre plastic container that holds filtered rainwater, and a third that holds 50% tapwater, 50% rainwater. Now in each of these containers I have a 25 watt sump pump, connected to 12mm (half inch) garden hoses which makes it easy for me to refill the tanks after syphoning. The larger tanks I refill using tapwater and rainwater separayely, but for the smaller tanks and containers I use the premixed water, especially for those that contain fry. Now this may seem a lot of extra equipment, but as I get older the less I have to carry full buckets of water around the better. My next project may be trying to improve on the 10 litre bucket for syphoned water setup, but that will be discussed in a later comment. Following on from my last comment I have been trying to expand my collection of Fundulopanchax species in my fishroom over the last few months. To this end I have purchased eggs from Aquabid of the following species,
Fp walkeri Spurelli - as already mentioned Fp cinnamomeus Dikoni-Bafor Fp intermittens Tinto Fp sjoestedti Loe - only 2 fry hatched unfortunately Fp filamentosus Ikeja - eggs not ready to wet yet so these along with the one that I already have had for some time (see below) gives a reasonable collection, Fp marmoratus Mbonge Fp oeseri GEMHS 2000-45 Bioko Island Fp gresensi Takwai Fp spoorenbergi Fp mirabilis mirabilis Nchemba ADL 13-30 Fp lacustris Fp gardneri Jos Plateau Fp cf amieti Ndokndak ADL 13-49 - which I am finding it very difficult to get any eggs from Just wish that I had some good photos to go with the names. Recently bought some Fundulopanchax walkeri Spurelli eggs from Aquabid, and had a dozen fry hatch out. I lost a couple in the first week but now have 10 large healthy fry growing on.
Not many days ago, another BKA member wrote on Facebook that he had bought eggs of exactly the same strain of Fundulopancax walkeri and unfortunately all of his fry have turned out to be females. Now hopefully mine will not turn out to do something similar, but just in case I recently looked at the fry with a LED torch (lovely little tool for anyone keeping killifish) and I can see that at least one of my fry has some slight colour in the anal fin which is a good sign. Now I just have to feed them well and wait until they grow to a size where the colours of the males will become evident. Well I must admit that I am much better at keeping and breeding killifish than I am at taking a good photograph. I would love to have a record of the fish that I have in my fishroom, if for no other reason than seeing if they change in quality (size, colour, etc.) over the years as we always start with quite a small gene pool, compared to in the wild.
With regard to this, I have decided to try my best over the coming winter period and hopefully will have some photographs and videos (only the good ones) that I will be able to post on this site. I already own a good SLR camera and a couple of zoom lenses plus recently bought myself a couple of flash units that can be fired remotely. So watch this space and see what I can produce. Well I must admit that I have been watching a lot of videos on Youtube over the last 7 months what with all the Covid problems limiting movement, and I saw a great film about "Master Breeder Dean's" fishroom, especially his fry rearing setup.
So I have been thinking on how I might adapt his ideas and fit it into my fishroom, as I did not want to lose a tank for the reservoir/sump. After a few ideas that I discarded as impractical, I have have now finalised a plan and will be building my system over the next few days and just waiting for a last item to arrive. Once this is complete, I will add a photograph of the final setup. Rather than write a step by step method in these comments, I will write a separate document that will be filed under "Articles" in the menu above. I plan to take some photos as well, which I hope will improve the article's understanding. Plus, I will give a link here, once it is finished - In yesterday's comment I mentioned that I watched a Youtube video on Jack Heller's fishroom, and on there I learnt that he water incubated all of his non-annual killifish. Now I have tried this in the past without much success and it did not make any difference whether I added Acriflavine or Methylene Blue but I thought that JH's mixture would be worth a try.
Now Jack Heller's Mixture is basically rainwater (or RO water) to which both Acriflavine and Methylene Blue is added. I converted the approximate proportions and personally I use a 4 pint (2.27 litre) milk carton which is filled with filtered rainwater and to this I add 2 drops of Acriflavine and 4 drops of Methylene Blue. You get a lovely shade of green, and I will try to get a picture to show you. In this mixture any infertile eggs absorb the colour in the first few days and are easy to see and must be removed, but there is very little fungus that could affect the good eggs. Once the first fry hatches I start diluting the mixture with clean water (50% rainwater, 50% treated tapwater - approx. 150ppm TDS) and most of the fry hatch within a 2-3 days. Though I only put eggs that have been collected over 3-4 days into one container, otherwise fry that are a week old could easily eat any newly hatched fry. So now I am using water incubation for all of my non-annual killifish and getting excellent results. Just wish that I knew why my ole method of placing the eggs onto damp peat/coir no longer worked, as I had used this method for many years. I was down to 1 male and 3 female adults of Fundulopanchax lacustris and was having problems with the few eggs that I could collect. I was placing the eggs onto damp peat (as I always done with my Fundulopanchax species) but the eggs just disintegrated over about 5-10 days. I use a mix of fine peat and coir, but nothing I did seem to help. Then I was watching a Youtube video on a visit to Jack Heller's fishroom, and something mentioned there (see tomorrow's comment) about keeping the eggs in treated water. I tried this and must admit that it worked.
My first batch of collected eggs were 10, and they all hatched after 18-21 days. The newly hatched fry were moved to a separate container where I started feeding a mix of BBS and Microworms. My second batch of eggs were 18, and 15 fry hatched after 19-24 days. The longer hatching time was because the containers had been moved to a lower level in my fishroom and the eggs had been collected over a few days. Now my third batch of eggs were collected on a single day, but about a week after the second batch, and numbered around 70 (must admit that I lost the count a couple of times, whilst picking the eggs off the mops). Lost a few eggs over the first few days, but what I am going to do with so many fry. So it looks as if Fp lacustris is safe in my fishroom for some time to come, as all the fry are growing nicely on BBS, microworms, banana worms, and golden pearls 5-50micron then 100-300micron dried foods. Once again, I must apologise for not entering anything onto the site for some time. You would think that in these Covid times I would have more spare time to do this, but it seems that I have even less.
Must admit that I have been busy in the garden during the summer, and recently trying to get things sorted for winter. Also have been busy in the fishroom, with a few new species, and trying to get eggs/fry from my existing Killifsh so that I will not lose any species. Must admit that I have also been looking at a number of videos on Youtube that relate to Killifish or fish-keeping in general, and these have given me a few ideas on ways to improve things in my own fishroom (hopefully - watch this space). Also have been busy on a few things for the BKA, which will hopefully become evident before Christmas, or early in the New Year. Well it is six weeks approx. since I have entered anything onto the website, but have been very busy in the garden and the fishroom (but that I will discuss in a later blog). Anyway at the end of May I purchased 15+ eggs of Aphanius mento Zengen from a good killifish breeder in Spain. I started to get worried when nothing had arrived after a week, but on the 8th day they came safely through the post. Well packed and and 18 eggs were sent, with 3 showing a bit of cloudyness but no fungus, so I had my expected 15 viable eggs (see pictures below). Well I used the old technique to add some previously prepared water (my hard tapwater plus some salt and epson salts). This old technique uses a strand of wool to slowly add drop by drop the water from one container to another. It is said that "a picture is worth a thousand words", so look below to see how this was done. The first fry hatched yesterday, 6th June, which was removed to a separate container with the same quality of water, and now I am waiting for the rest to hatch.
I will keep you updated. I am hoping that when the fry are a reasonable size, and I can transfer them to a container in the garden for the rest of the summer. Well since I wrote that piece on the 12th, I had a request for some eggs from the Fundulopanchax oeseri GEMHS 2000-45 Bioko Island. So I was very happy to help and started to collect some eggs from the 15th, and this is what has happened so far.
15th - collected 14 eggs (all on sunken mops). 16th - collected 19 eggs (7 on floating mops, rest on sunken mops). 17th - removed 6 eggs that hsd turned white (not fertilised) and collected 20 eggs (only 7 again on floating mops). |