# Nothobranchius Guentheri Red Fry



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

About 3 or 4 weeks ago, I hatched some N.guentheri Red Killifish eggs that I had purchased off eBay for C$8.63. Eleven were then I tossed into a nano container with floating plants, a moss ball and hornwort. Killifish fry are TINY, essentially silver eyeballs that move, you can suck them up in a pipette.

A week later I added some neocaradinia and while I was staring at this tiny tank (about 4 gallons), a tiny transparent fish swam by, I had no idea if they had survived or not! I had seen infusoria which probably had come in on the plants from Vandermeer's. After another week, I saw two microscopic fishes. Last week I discovered there were three and I started feeding baby brine.

Today, I saw FIVE killis about 1/2" long when I tossed in a bunch of baby brine!

Thankfully I've had a 10 gallon planted tank cycling since June 21st because I'll need it! When they become sexually mature, I'll have to sell some males.

Sucks that I can't upload photos.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Yesterday evening I added a bag of Fluval Stratum to my 10 gallon, it's eventually going to be a neocaradinia tank with some sparking gouramis. Our water is very hard, out of the tap our GH is 180, KH: 80 - 120 & PH: 7.5. So I've been using filtered water which has a GH of 30 - 60.

Anyway, I tested the water this morning and the GH was 0, KH: 0, PH: 6.0.

That's a little too buffered so I added coral rocks and will test again tomorrow morning.

As soon as I get the parameters settled, I'm going to move the killies and ottos until I get a larger tank cycled.

Here's a video from July 3rd, they've trippled in size since.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

This tiny tank, approximately 4 gallons, contains 2 Otocinclus, 5 N.guentheri fry, 10+ Neocaradinia, a number of pond and ram's horn snails and more floating plants than you can shake a stick at. I test this tank almost daily and the nitrates and nitrties are always 0! It has a nano heater and a diy sponge filter.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

A Ha! Finally got a photo of one of the fry, you can see how small it is compared to the juvinile otos.










And here's the 10 gallon.










And I know many of you are going to hate me for saying this but... I need to grow algae for my otos!


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Since moving everyone to the 10 gallon and feeding live baby brine shrimp, the killi fry are really growing at an accelerated rate. There are 5 total, I think I may have 2 males and 3 females, one is starting to get red on his tail and chase anyone who comes near. I can't wait till the Fluval is ready so I can separate them. Two females and one male will go in the Fluval and one pair can stay in the 10 gallon.










I took the rest of the peat and dumped it into the 4 gallon from which 2 more fry popped up. There's a ton of live food in there for them, lots of snails and some baby neocaradinia.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

I have the worst camera phone, it takes great photos if nothing moves because the lag is something from the 90's! This is the best photo I could manage of this guy's colours coming in.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

NEED HOME for TWO Nothobranchius guentheri (Redtail Killifish)

They're about a month old and maybe an inch long. At what age, considering their short lifespan, should they be rehomed? I'm not 100% sure of their genders but one is getting red fins.

Adult size is approximately 2", you cannot house 2 males together (unless you have a large tank with lots of plants). They easily spawn in peat, there are a number of YouTube videos if you want to try.

*** NOT SHRIMP SAFE ***


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Borrowed hubby's old iPhone, the results are marginally better.



















And this is the one I THINK might be a female (I'm basing it on colour but I could be very wrong):


----------



## LaceyRen (Mar 22, 2018)

That is so cool! The colours are starting to come in beautiful. 

How long did it take to ship to you? I hear it can take like two months...but I guess the eggs stay dormant long enough. 

So are you going to continue breeding them with the ones you've hatched? 



Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

LaceyRen said:


> That is so cool! The colours are starting to come in beautiful.
> 
> How long did it take to ship to you? I hear it can take like two months...but I guess the eggs stay dormant long enough.
> 
> ...


Shipping took about a month. I started a nano tank (the rum pot in the photos) with plants from Vandermeers which brought in a lot of food for the fry. The eggs came with a starter culture of microworms as well.

I counted 11 out of 30 fry hatched in the first two weeks. Out of those 11, 5 survived to this point. I'm not set up to breed so no, I don't have any plans for that project!


----------



## LaceyRen (Mar 22, 2018)

Tabatha said:


> Shipping took about a month. I started a nano tank (the rum pot in the photos) with plants from Vandermeers which brought in a lot of food for the fry. The eggs came with a starter culture of microworms as well.
> 
> I counted 11 out of 30 fry hatched in the first two weeks. Out of those 11, 5 survived to this point. I'm not set up to breed so no, I don't have any plans for that project!


Well I'm sure it was a rewarding process to go through 

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Fry are spoken for!


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

I can get you some scrapes off my walls, if you're still looking for green algae.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Black Pearl said:


> I can get you some scrapes off my walls, if you're still looking for green algae.


Thank you for your offer but after over feeding, I've managed to get green hair algae.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Colours coming in nicely but a lot of growing yet to do! They are stubborn when it comes to food, won't take anything but live at the moment, buggers!


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

Great shots! Also, lots of happy microworms


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Black Pearl said:


> Great shots! Also, lots of happy microworms


Baby brine shrimp or algae, I hadn't cleaned the glass.


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Good grief, they're trying to span already, silly teenagers!

Spawning Video


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

That's funny...  Are you going to go through the whole fishing out the eggs, dry them, etc...?


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Black Pearl said:


> That's funny...  Are you going to go through the whole fishing out the eggs, dry them, etc...?


I wasn't planning on it, I have a buyer for both pairs and I'll keep a single male.


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

I would have sworn that bottom left are microworms... 

Just did some reading on them, it seems like in 3 weeks they are adults! In a hurry to lay eggs while they still have water!

Do you still have some microworm culture? (Any to share?)


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

You may have seen microworms, they could have come in on the plants from the rum pot. I don't have a culture, it dried out. Contact ShrimpFever.com, I think they have some, located in Scarborough.



Black Pearl said:


> I would have sworn that bottom left are microworms...
> 
> Just did some reading on them, it seems like in 3 weeks they are adults! In a hurry to lay eggs while they still have water!
> 
> Do you still have some microworm culture? (Any to share?)


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

I'm gonna try to harvest from the garden, with the potato method I've read about and now I'm curious if it will work 

But the killifever is definitely a thing, I ordered some eggs, too. Delivery between 2 weeks and 2 months! lol 

I got the $24-26 versions, double the number of eggs and the shipping is free. (rather than $8 for 30 eggs + $13 shipping). One from the Russian Federation, one from Thailand. The Thailand one comes with ghost shrimp culture kit so now I'm curioser and curioser


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Oooh, that sounds exciting, I hope you document your progress! Did you also get N. Guentheri or a different kind?



Black Pearl said:


> I'm gonna try to harvest from the garden, with the potato method I've read about and now I'm curious if it will work
> 
> But the killifever is definitely a thing, I ordered some eggs, too. Delivery between 2 weeks and 2 months! lol
> 
> I got the $24-26 versions, double the number of eggs and the shipping is free. (rather than $8 for 30 eggs + $13 shipping). One from the Russian Federation, one from Thailand. The Thailand one comes with ghost shrimp culture kit so now I'm curioser and curioser


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

Nothobranchius Guentheri Zanzibar 30+eggs for $16, free shipping and 60 EGGS NOTHOBRANCHIUS KILLIFISH (mixed species) + shrimp for $26, free shipping. I wanted Rachovii, but couldn't say no to the others  I'm also curious about which ones will hatch better, faster, etc..  
(I guess free shipping is another kind of fever, too  )


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
I got the Zanzibars!!!!


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

CONGRATULATIONS! That was FAST!!! Are you ready? Do you have microfood prepared?


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

I've got microworms and an established tank full of microorganisms (fresh batch of guppy fry).

I am nowhere near ready  Still watching YouTube videos about hatching killifish with various degrees of success...  So I'm now enjoying that moment of "no failed hatch attempt" or "no dead fry"  

Tomorrow morning - different story


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

Is there a difference between Zanzibar and red? Because I cannot see it...


----------



## Black Pearl (Dec 27, 2011)

How's #5 doing in the community tank? (and what else you've got there?)


----------



## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

Nothobranchius Guentheri Red is also known as the Redtail Killifish, I Googled Zanzibar and the photos are indeed identical. A little more research indicates that it's the place where the fish was collected in Tanzania on the east coast of Africa. They are really one in the same.
https://www.fishbase.de/summary/Nothobranchius-guentheri

Once the two pairs go to their new homes this morning, I'm going to leave #5 in the 15g Fluval Flex with the 6 Sparkling (killer) Gouramis. If the brats pick on him, I have a 5 gallon I can move him to till he grows more, he should ultimately be bigger than the Gouramis at 2". I really hope he gets big because I'd like to add Pygmy Corys to the tank.


----------

