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Re: community killi tank, substrate Q

Hi Paul,
I have killie community tank that has been running for 6 months with only
one
small hiccup and a bristle nose catfish that knows I want her out of there
and wont strip the tank down to do it.

The 3 species I am using are 4pairs Fundulopanchax sjoestedi, 1 pair
Jordenella floridae and Epiplatys bifasciatus started with 5 fish now have
group of 30. Have one fry each from the other 2 but this is because of the
bristle nose and pictus catfish and not from the fish failing to spawn.

It is the most entertaining tank I have set up yet, some nights instead of
doing water changes have sat for hours watching the tank. The SJO are
always spawning and the smaller males are always trying to get in on the act
quiet often the 2 males are so busy doing their thing the female will swim
off leaving the males in an awkward position( I wonder if fish get
embarrassed
they surely look like they are when they work out what they have been
doing). The bristle nose will be following the spawning fish eating what
ever
they leave behind. The SJO males have the odd blue but nothing really
viscous.

The Jordanella floridae are a cool fish, the male has picked out some java
moss tied to some drift wood and this is his turf if they have eggs he
starts to act like a cichlid. This was the cause of my one hiccup he killed
one female SJO that was stealing eggs. The female is an eating machine first
to any food and always nibbling on algae or plants. Really want to set these
up in a species tank soon.(Will I have to remove the female once they
spawn?)

Epiplatys bifasciatus are a bit smaller and not as colourful as the other 2
but the bigger the group has got the more entertaining they have become.
Have about 30 in the tank . They love a floating plant that I have growing
in the tank, it is an Aussie native I can't remember the name. Very social
fish for a killie they school sometimes(reminds me of a bunch of school kids
trying to cross a road). One of the few killies that it's not easy to pick
males from females at a glance unless it is the dominant male.

The tank is 6 foot 72x20x20 with creek gravel as a substrate the tank has a
single 3foot fluro one end with lots of rocks and drift wood and some java
moss the other end has 1x 3foot and 2x 2foot fluros with lots of plants

Gary  H-H
Adelaide
Sth Australia




----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Cezanne" <oblique at alum_mit.edu>
To: <killietalk at aka_org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 12:58 PM
Subject: community killi tank, substrate Q


> I was at my LFS this weekend and I finally saw several different species
of killi at once.  Most of my exposure has been via photographs on the
Internet!
>
> Ok, so I want to set up a community killi tank.  This is particularly
fortunate since I was planning to setup my office tank this last weekend.
(The flu prevented that.)
>
> Anyway...
>
> I keep only one species of killi, Fundulopanchax Scheeli.  At the LFS they
had australe orange, Rivilus XXXX, Epilatus XXXX, and Lampeye XXXX.  Oh,
there was a single Gardinari that was a mean SOB and supposedly there was a
Blue Gularis in the store but I never saw it.  (Yeah, it is a pretty good
store... :-)
>
> First, I loved them all, especially the Rivilus.  I was next struck by how
each of the layer of the tank was occupied, the australe and Rivilus hung
out on the bottom, the Lampeyes in the middle, the Scheeli go everywhere.
>
> Now I have no guarantee that any of these will be in the store when I
finally get the tank setup.  So instead of asking are these a good mix, a
better question is how can I tell what are good species to mix together?
>
> Secondly, how can I tell if the species will interbreed?  I have no desire
to create hybrids, what is a good rule of thumb for determining if species
interbreed?  At least with all the fish above, the females were
distinguishable from each other in case I wanted to breed them.  (I'm pretty
resigned to the fact that no breeding will take place in this tank.  I
assume that any fry would prey for other species (or their parents) and that
the snails and/or bottom feeders will most likely prevent any eggs from
hatching at all, yum, yum)
>
> Finally, the most pressing question, what substrate should I use?  I'm a
big fan of Flourite in my planted tanks but I've never used it with
substrate spawners before. It is a fairly sharp substrate and when I watch
my Scheeli's spawn, she really gets pressed into the gravel.  I have no
problem layering it, but what should I put on top?  I'm currently fond of
playground sand, is this a good substrate for killies?
>
> Oh, the tank is a 29 gallon tank, fairly tall, but it is what I have.
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
> --
> pZ -- Paul Cezanne
> Please visit http://www.customline.com/peace/ and think about what is
there.
>
>
> ---------------
> See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
> Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm
>



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