Ok so I "inherited" some lovely killies a little while ago. They are Nothobranchius Korthausae Yellow and they look like they are trying to get up to some mischife.

It looks as if the males are trying to "wrap" the females. So I assume this is breeding behavior. They are in a comunity tank and my question is, what do I do now?

I wouldn't mined breeding these as they are a nice addition to my comunity tank and I only have the two males.

All suggestions welcomed.

get a small container... say an oyster pot. cut a round / square hole in the lid.

Half fill it with peat

stick it in the tank.

hopefully the killies will lay eggs in the peat.

Hey Wok do you need a container? or will a few cms of peat on the bottom be sweet?

if they are in a breeding tank then No, you don't need a container. But Mrskz said they were in her community tank. so container would be needed so that she can take the container out when it is full and raise the eggs up in another smaller tank so the fry don't get eaten by everything else

Cheers Wok, do you have to dry the eggs out for 6-8 weeks?

I don't

some do.

personal preference i think.

Check with Alan though... he knows best or AquaNut

hey thanks for that. I've been looking and I think they have already reproduced. I'm sure there was only one male and a few females when I got them a little while ago. Now there are 3 males and probably 8 or more females. I'll keep an eye on them to see if they increase in numbers.

I thought that the eggs had to come out, be dried for abit then rehydrated. Can you hatch eggs after they have been stored for over a year? Got some eggs from someone that was moving, along with the fish, and was wondering if it's actualy doable to hatch them.

Your females may become males when a little older.

The Nothos do need a dry period.

I know of no instances where they have water hatched, not for me any way.

Caserole use to dry his for 2 mths before rewetting.

I've not heard of killies changing sex once coloured up, although there is a species that is hatched all one sex and needs a hormone given of from urinating female mammals that pee in the fish's water.

NZKA #1 has a face slapping experience about that species.

I prefer to spawn the fish in a BBT with a pot like Wok describes, Caserole does the same but has gravel on the bottom to capture eggs laid out of the pot.

The base can have spagnum moss over it as a base for them to spawn in as well.

Ok so I "inherited" some lovely killies a little while ago. They are Nothobranchius Korthausae Yellow and they look like they are trying to get up to some mischife.

It looks as if the males are trying to "wrap" the females. So I assume this is breeding behavior. They are in a comunity tank and my question is, what do I do now?

I wouldn't mined breeding these as they are a nice addition to my comunity tank and I only have the two males.

This really doesn't make sense, not to me anyway.

Or if after reading it again, is it that you have two males AND some (??) females?

Where did you obtain them from and what ratio are they: males to females??

Then further down you say that you have three males and eight females??

How long have you had the for and could you post a pic of them please.

Just want to confirm if they are the species you are referring to.

What were the species of eggs that you obtained. If I know that I can possibly help you.

And the answer is yes, you can hatch them after a long storage, numbers may be down tho dependant on the species. If the medium has dried out completely over that time, I doubt if you will have success with any hatching tho.

Did the previous owner leave a note with the eggs, it should have the date stored, the date expected to rewet, and most important, the specie of fish.

Hope this helps, and answers to the above will clear up the ambiguity of the posts, well, to me anyway.

Alan 104

Perhaps I should clarify: I meant the fish all look the same (female) until the males colour up, not that a female will change to a male.

Gotcha now Alan.

Yep and I find that if you can get a lit background, that you can pick out the changing colours of the anal and dorsal fin early in the piece of the males.

Alan 104

here's an article from PFK on breeding Killies..

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... cle_id=503

Says upto ten years for eggs ? WOW!!!

I used to breed hundreds of N. guentheri years ago when I had a fish house and storing eggs was only a matter of chucking the bag up into a corner and waiting. I had best success by spawning them onto fine sand that will run through a net but leave the eggs behind. That way you can count the eggs and work out what your hatch rate is. I found only about 10%would hatch and another 10% a month later. This seems like a chore but 6 - 8 months down the track it all falls into place. If you seperate males and females and condition them up you can breed 6 - 12 trios every week and and your only problem becomes finding a market. I used to store N.guentheri eggs for 4 months, I am not familiar with your species. With good feeding they can hit the market in 6-8 weeks which is a good turnaround time.

righty o I've managed to "evict" the cichlid babies from the little 19lt tank (moved them n2 the 2 footer n a breeding net w/the older cichlid babies) I left the water that was there in the tank (probably 10 lts or so) then put enough peat in to cover the bottom. I waited for 2 days for most of it to settle, scooped off some of the floaty stuff and now have 1 male and 2 females in that tank. Gave them a small feed of white worms hopefully my chances of success are reasonable (just hoping not to kill the adults). I'm not running any filtration on the tank but have verious options if need be.