[Killietalk] aplocheilus panchax (blue panchax)

[Kyle Osterholt <snakeskinnerkyle at yahoo_com>]

hey all, rookie killi-keeper here.  I'm slowly learning killi-keeping and have a few tanks of gardneri, nothos and lampeyes going and had found some "blue panchax" at an LFS and bought some to give them a try.  I remembered someone mentioning sexing panchax by the shape of the anal fin but couldn't find any difference between any they had at the store.  I bought 6 and tried getting 3 of the most colorful and 3 of the most drab and hope for the best.  they went in a 5 gallon and were doing great at first and then all of a sudden started hiding around the filter and wouldn't come out to eat.  There was lots of light on that tank so I moved them to another 5 that has black gravel, some more plants and has no light, just a little sunlight from across the room and what light is reflected off the wall from the other tanks.  they still didn't come out from around the filter so I didn't have high hopes.  I had a floating mop just in case but never put much faith in them.  this eveni!
 ng I
 found one dead so I decided they were stressed in the tank and moved them to a planted 65 with tons of rainbows and a couple golden panchax.   I inspected the mop just for the heck of it and found several eggs so now I'm regretting the move.  Here are my questions: 1) what incubation type/time should I use for these eggs?  they are large and clear with a slight yellowish tint to them.  2)Will females lay eggs eventhough no males are around to fertilize them?  3) any ideas how to sex these fish?  My Baensch atlas simply says there are slight differences, females may have orange colored fins of more intensity.  I wasn't positive on species of these fish because they were rather dull but they have a definite black spot at the base of the dorsal and the only fish I can find with that trait is the aplocheilus panchax but mine don't have the blue/red on the side of the fish like the photo I'm looking at.  Once they hit the 65, they started showing a pale blue edging to the dorsal!
  and
 caudal fins and some have an orange edging to the anal fin and possibly the caudal fin as well.  I have the eggs in a bowl of the tank water right now and I'll leave the fish in the 65 (since they're colored up more) until I decide what to do with them.  I wish these were as easy as the lampeyes I bought, they're more like puppies in water.  Kyle

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