Did I ever give more info on these?

Nflytrap · Jan 23, 2006

Received 2 young pairs of these guys from Doug Ebeling as part of a SMP project. I had a feeling I would like these alot(and I do) so felt since they have relatively simple requirements it would be a good practice to see how long I could keep them going. Unfortunately the female of the smaller pair jumped(thats my first jumper casualty...). Right now 2 males and one female. I'm hoping for warmer weather to come soon and hopefully they will begin spawning again.

These photos were from several months ago...they have grown somewhat since then.

A few days out of the box

Female some time later.

Male some time later

The blue and red/yellow on these guys is pretty remarkable! According to Doug the blue lessens in deepness as the fish mature and the red/yellow grows more prominent

biggun110 · Jan 27, 2006

Hi N,

Wow, nice fish. I may get some when I restart. Good luck with those. Doug is getting my tanks so his fishroom will be expanding! You know fry do grow better in green water for some reason. No one really knows. You know what makes great green water -- a bunch of feeder goldfish in a tank with little water movement, 24/7 bright light and food. In days it is pea soup. A tank of unaerated water with a little sweet potato baby food mixed in and room light will make for a nice paramecium culture usually. Have you tried the Nothos again?

Nflytrap · Jan 29, 2006

Hi Bobby,

I bet you would like these. They are bold and the males are nice to the females. The pair is currently in a critterkeeper together and though the male often looks to the female to spawn he never does any damage *knock on wood*. Though they are eating well no eggs now...probably too cold.

Glad Doug is getting your tanks. He breeds alot of cool killies and based on these fish does an excellent job.

I may try the goldfish idea, plenty of those around here! I think Wright Huntley also mentioned using Aust. nigripinnis/bellottii and Simp. whitei as "guardians" in his greenwater tubs to keep them daphnia free(don't think they really put out much nutrients). I suppose rosy red minnows or even Gambusia would work as well but growing killies seems like a better use.

I found that 5 gallon buckets do work for greenwater...as one of them turned green. Funny as this one that I simply added a old microworm culture to. The 1st 5 gallon bucket I probably added in a little too many nutrients...

as the water is more cloudy than green. I am going to let it sit and simply add in new water and add the "bacteria" water to the currently green bucket(I heard paramecium eat bacteria too).

I obtained some Moina courtesy of Markus Brown. Currently got them so good greenwater and hoping they will take off.

Haven't tried the kafuensis again. It is about rewet time though correct? Wonder if I could try raising them on Moina for the first several days.

~Joseph

biggun110 · Feb 5, 2006

Hi N,

I'd have the green water and bbs ready for the kafuensis but try baby moina within a few days of hatching. People say it works. I'm going to be in Brian Watters hometown at the end of the month but he is going to be in Africa. I can't believe my bad luck. I wanted to see the new Notho from Chad. The photos look incredible. Doug is getting my fishroom as he is setting up a big operation. Bill Gallagher from the AKA and the guy who helped to save the calabarica is in town so we are going to meet and talk killies this week. The move should happen in mid-March. Everything is finally ontrack but keep your fingers crossed. You won't see me on AHHS anymore as I do not stay somewhere when I am attacked for going out of my way to freely help people. I saw the photo of the nigripinnis on Killies.com. She looks great. I still have reservations about that population so if it doesn't work don't give up on nigripinnis. I think that is just a small and rather weak population.

Bobby

Nflytrap · Feb 5, 2006

Hello Bobby,

If everything goes as planned(these Moina seem to breed fast and at least the nigripinnis love them). I'll give the kafuensis a shot.

I've also tried setting up a larger culture container for BS(5 gallon bucket). It produces but hardly anything compared to daphnia. Since it uses little more than old brinewater and a little bit of flour or what not every now and then I'll keep it around to treat the fish. It would be awesome if one could culture BS and get good yields the way one does with daphnia

Good luck with your move, hope everything goes smoothly(as possible).

Have you kept any of the locations of nigripinnis introduced recently? 'Carmelo' and 'Villa Soriano' seem the most common. Also some AS nigripinnis floating around too...chances are those are robust fish to have made it this far. Seems right now all sorts of new Austrolebias are being discovered too. What other cold tolerant SAA/killies are out there? One I've found so far would be Megalebias. Apparently live in same habitats as some of our smaller SAA's and prey on them. Except for maybe wolterstorffi most do not look attractive but sure sound interesting.

Speaking of which I found my way over to the SAA discussion group on Yahoo through their website and managed to get in. Will be browsing archives sometime.

~Joseph

Nflytrap · Feb 14, 2006

Hello Bobby,

Found someone across the pond who says they've got ocellatus. Don't know if they are breeding them or anything but thought it might interest you.

biggun110 · Feb 15, 2006

Hi Joseph,

I posted a note to martin on Goodeids.com -- nice site. I haven't kept nigripinnis since the 70's but the Maneschawtz or something like that location always looked good. I'd try belottii or viarus. Wolterstorffi is fascinating looking and needs live food to do well but very interesting to observe. Bob Morenski has alot of the cool water Austrolebias, so I'd write to him. Maybe he has some kaufensis tips. Raising BS will work in big outdoor tubs this summer. Let them go green if you can -- maybe buy marine algae. In those conditions you can raise a crop of adults. Marc Weiss sent me his new gut loading product for blackworms. I will send you a package to try. He wants feedback.

Bobby

Nflytrap · Feb 18, 2006

Hi Bobby,

Got back to you in the email but...

Have you any personal experience with Megalebias? Are their any other cool water genuses I am missing?(I'm assuming Simpsonichthys , etc. etc. are mostly warm water). I read somewhere Pterolebias longipinnis prefers temps from 17-22 celcius but it would seem this is also a warmwater killie.

I hope to try an outdoor culture of BS in the summer. I had them on a smaller scale last year and they did well(but indoors in a 5 gallon bucket is not working).

Interesting product that is...I'd love to try it out. I'm guessing it is mean't to give the blackworms an extra boost of nutrition before being offered to the fish?

Kafuensis eggs in the water now. Lets hope that their are more fry. Currently 1 fry survived from the last batch and is all alone in the ten gallon tank where its parents were raised last year. I suppose he/she likes it. How much of a size difference can their be before kafuensis fry cannibalize or cause problems? This one is not very big(afterall it was missed for a while) but I wonder if it would pick on its siblings. Maybe keep it seperately...

Best Wishes
~Joseph

biggun110 · Feb 23, 2006

Hi Joe,

I had M. elongatus in 1973 and raised a few. I recall 4 months incubation. The eggs were huge. I kept each pair in a 15 gallon tank. Austrolebias are the only cool water annuals I know about. Now there are all the West African species that like it cool.

The worm food is for gut loading. Send me your address again will you and I will get it off to you when I get back from Seattle at the end of next week. Marc wants a report on its effectiveness and I am betting you'll do a careful one.

I'd keep the kafuensis separate for safety's sake. I just don't get why they aren't hatching but kafuensis can take 5 months. If you noticed the post by Edson on Cynolebias, watch for him. He is a great breeder/collector in Brazil and is extrememly knowledgable and helpful. You might want to get to know him. I still think you should email Morenski as he is working with all the cool water Austrolebias and all forms of kafuensis.

Bobby

Nflytrap · Feb 23, 2006

Results of the hatch looks like maybe 3 or so good fry. It seems they feast on the microcritters that hatch with them or are introduced via the hatch water(I found when I left some peat from rewet Aust. nigripinnis eggs in the water for a while daphnia popped out...and even a day or two after wetting it you can often find cyclops). Definetly keeping them seperate as I just eyeballed the first kafuensis fry and it probably at least doubled in size.

Hope to email Bob soon and see(got an AKA Roster which helps).

I'm assuming you've not had any experience with the west African fish("jewels from Gabon"). David Sanchez actually posted on killies.com that he thought Diapterons might actually like warmer conditions. Interesting stuff. If their are any that have been in captivity long enough to be able to take my water conditions they would be worth a shot.

biggun110 · Feb 24, 2006

Hi Joe,

I thought Diapterons were all cool water fish. The water you will have to play with and see as some fish adapt. They are suppose to be mean little guys though. I still say the Austrolebias are the best. Don't judge by that nigripinnis location as it is a bit odd.

Bobby

Nflytrap · Feb 25, 2006

Hello Bobby,

He posted a hypothesis of sorts on www.killies.com where he said it seemed his Diaps did better when the tanks were warmer.

I ain't too interested in getting Diapterons(don't like fish that kill each other alot or cost a fortune) but a few such as ogoense pique my interest and seem to be prolific enough to be within reach as well.

Someone by the name of Tru has nigripinnis 'Maschwitz' up on aquabid with a photo which to me seems to be a pretty nice representation of this species. bellottii location also looks nice. A few photos seem to make bellottii appear a pleasing blue/grey color though.

I've heard also that Simp(or is it Netamolebias...) whitei is quite cold tolerant but not as much as nigripinnis(they would probably not survive winters here). They also have very nice finnage and grow pretty big(hummm wonder what pond raised whitei would look like). Cynopoecilius melanotaenia is also said to take very cold temps but I think you mentioned somewhere that these are not particularly interesting fish. All this being said I will probably only be able to work 2 or 3 annual species at one time as at least indoors they require the most work/space of all the fish I keep. They'd probably have to be species that are easy to tell apart and would not interbreed.

Totally off the top of my head but have you heard of anyone sorta "self sustaining" their fish? As in getting things to the point where they didn't need to purchase food? Seeing how fish in ponds need little/no feeding it seems it would be possible. Going off topic a little bit but the redworm bin has worked so well that the worm needs of the fish and a few newts(who live almost solely on worms)...based on a few calculations this bin saved me quite a bit of $$$ from the alternative of buying them in packs of 50 from the baitshop. I've been working with greenwater/daphnia and things have been going pretty well.

And last but not least removed those kafuensis fry from the peat. Turns out their were two but boy had they grown! Must be lots of microcritters in the peat for them to eat as their tummies were fat and they were almost the same size as the fry from the first wetting(makes sense as this one turned up after I thought they had all died).

~Joseph