Re: [Killietalk] Golden Wonders - feeding

[Gary Hoover <gmh52389 at yahoo_com>]

Hi all,
>Those egg production numbers don't surprise me, if
>they are fed frequently with meaty foods
Who says they need meaty foods?  I have a trio of them spawning a considerable amount in a South American community tank (beside angelfish, cories, and tetras, theyre a little out of place, but oh well).  I use 2 way-to-thin mops, and there is java moss and fake plants in the tank.  I still get at least 10 eggs a day off flakes, which is great for me because I don't have the tank space to breed fish in large quantities.  It still is a great fish to have, and it's popular at almost all of our local pet stores (a place for young fish to go, when they get big).  One of the LFS nearby had a "blue panchax killifish" sign, but no fish.  I also heard a guy talk of a blue strain.  Does anyone know about this?  Or where to get it? 
Any help on the blues would be appreciated,
Gary
Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net> wrote:
They are gluttons. It would take a lot of fruit flies
to fill them up! Large adults will take a house fly
once in a while and manage to work it down. They will
also swim around the tank "smoking" a medium size
angleworm (or fragment) from the garden.

They love blackworms, will eat the occasional floating
flake and (clean them off well) match up well with
freeze-dried krill. Being dedicated top feeders, they
don't follow flakes down too far in the water column.
They will chase Daphnia anywhere though. Blackworms,
which escape the floating feeders, will be cleaned up,
if their tank is bare bottomed. Eventually killie and
livebearer culls will disappear.

. I taught our
kids to pick killie eggs, shortly after the age of
two, using them because the lineatus not only provided
a lot of eggs (so those dropped were not a serious
problem), but the 2mm diameter egg was much easier for
a little kid to find and hold. ;)

Their tolerance of heat also makes them a great fish
to breed in the summer. They will be found in rice
paddies and indeed are sometimes left there for
mosquito control purposes. Those can not be cool
places to forage.

They are not very tolerant of fry. If one is found,
usually it is a big cannibal - almost always a male.
Once in a 20 gallon tank, choked with various water
ferns, we pulled a dozen 3/4" fry out after catching
the folks. But the parents had been fed exceptionally
well and the tank was terribly crowded with plants.

Also while feeding them often, sort the fry by size if
discrepancies arise. Otherwise you may become the
proud owner of a bunch of males, not entirely a bad
thing if peddling them to shops.

And one can not emphasize covered tanks enough. If the
tank is well covered, they do stand a chance of
growing to five or six inches (less than their wild
counterparts) and living 4-5 years.

All the best again, 
Scott

To join the AKA see http://www.aka.org/pages/join.html
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/

		
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses.

To join the AKA see http://www.aka.org/pages/join.html
Archives are at http://fins.actwin.com/killietalk/