Just before bed last night I had a bit of a rummage in the breeding mop (sounds like an awful euphemism) and saw movement. My first ever (non-livebearer) fry! Off to the pet shop now for some artemia. I've heard killis wont eat their own fry, only other fish in there are dwarf corys..do you think they would have a go? Do you think it will be okay to leave the fry and mop in the (well planted) tank? I would be happy if one or two survived. Should I turn the filter off? They don't seem to have left the safety of the mop yet but I don't want them sucked up when they do...

Show them some pics/vids of beautiful big fancies tanks, drop some hints about how beautiful one would look in their house and some info about amazing deals on cheap tanks on ebay/gumtree. Make it seem like their idea and give them loads of help, signoposting to resources. We were all ignorant at one point, sounds like you're getting them excited about sonic again. Maybe feeding some live bloodworm or something will interest them too. Good luck!

Thank you Fishlady! That's what I was looking for ;)

On another note, it's nice to see that some of the most active members of the site are women when I don't think I've ever seen a woman working in a LFS, just a lot of grumpy men! Good to know there are others in the hobby, is all :)

Aw, someone tell me how pretty they are?! Thought everyone would enjoy a photo! Bump bump.

Hello,

I thought I would introduce you to my latest fish, a pair of a.bivittatum killifish who are in a set up of their own and spawning all over the place. I wondered if anyone else had kept this species and had any interesting info or advice other than the general killi stuff.

This is the best photo I could get I'm afraid, being an unlit tank and such quick little fish and doing what I could with an iphone camera but I like that it shows the colours he displays when he's showing off to the female and also the picture shows off the unusually strong markings for a female killifish. When 'at rest' the male looks almost entirely brown but for the orange tip on his tail, the blues only come out when he displays or eats something tasty.

I'm getting so much joy out of these little fish, they love live food, the female eats a lot more than the male but the male dances and flares his fins after eating. The only problem I am having with them is that the female seems a bit harrassed by the male's constant attentions, only really coming out from under the filter or amongst the moss when there's food to be had. I've advertised on aquarist classifieds to see if anyone has any spare females of this species but to no avail thus far.

Does anyone here know anyone who keeps this species and might be able to spare an adult female, particularly in the Leeds area? Or do you think if I put a different species of killi (not other aphyosemions in case of creating hybrids!) or a couple of pygmy corys in it might distract him a bit from her?

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Hi Violet, thanks for your reply :)

The water readings are fine: ammonia and nitrite = 0, nitrate = 10-20, ph= 7.5

It's a new tank, a month old now but was cycled and water levels checked (repeatedly) before adding our first fish and the second (a week after the first).

I will try and keep the nitrates as low as possible with water changes (our tap water doesn't seem to have any in luckily) and raise the temp a bit and hopefully he will stop looking like he's in zero gravity. He does seem to swim absolutely fine if he thinks there's food on the go!

Hello! We're new. I thought I'd introduce our newest fish 'Captain Morgan' who was added two days ago. He's got some buoyancy troubles so we've been feeding peas and they seem to be helping a bit. Can fish with these problems live for a long time? Does anyone find raising the temperature of the water helps? The tank is only at 19C and it was a lot warmer at the shop where we got him.

Do you think he's a veiltail or a fantail? Or something else entirely?