# Killie australe



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

They just bred! I had them setup in a 10g tank. 2 females 1 male and a heck of a lot of taiwan moss.

I've been feeding them bloodworms and tropical basic flake. They took about 3-4 weeks to get into breeding condition.

I saw the male and one of the females going around the tank together and the male would wrap his anal fin around her stomach and waving it (probably to blow sperm towards the eggs) as she pressed her stomach to some moss. They were at it for about 2 hours!! I can't see any of the eggs probably because they are clear, but in 7-14 days I'm hoping to see babies!!

Do you think he will breed with the second female?


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## suaojan (Oct 21, 2006)

You can take the moss out and try to find the eggs that should stick some where on the moss. You have to hatch the eggs in another tank because killie parents will eat the fries.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yikes, hopefully not since there is a basket ball sized chunk of moss in the tank! I'll never find them all haha.


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## clifford (Jun 28, 2008)

Congrats on the success. I had heard that this species wasn't difficult to breed, but it's one of the only killies I've tried that just will not reproduce for me. 

My pair is in a ten gallon with a decent ammount of java moss that has been getting plenty of live food-- still, nothing. They've been "adult sized" for well over a month now...so either I'm doing something they don't like, or maybe they're eating any fry that show up.

Tonight I'll have to try suaojan's advice and start searching for eggs, but I never seem to find eggs in my killie tanks...I just notice the fry once they start to show up!

Cliff


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I heard they only start breeding if the tank is a bit dirty. I left the extra food on the bottom - some started to decay but I left it alone.

I noticed that there are thousands of tiny white microscopic things crawling on the glass now. I suspect the extra rotten food stimulated the growth of microorganisms that the fry will eat. The parent killies probably noticed there was enough food for the babies to eat and started laying eggs.

Mine took 3-4 weeks to breed, I have 2 females 1 male in a tank full of moss.


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## Lionsfan (Jul 21, 2008)

I've breed australes many times and you can do a couple of things to get them to spawn. Hanging a spawning mop will almost always work and doing water changes will also trigger spawning events. I have never heard of dirty water spawning but hey if it works... Keep feeding bloodworms too.

Parents may eat their fry. Larger fry may hunt smaller fry. Provide a ton of cover all over the tank and that should eliminate some of the predation.

The best set-up I have seen was a 40 long tank that was heavily planted with vals and duckweed with some other floating plants. The owner used mops and left them in the tank to hatch. Once the fry hatched, they swam up to the top of the tank into the cover of the floating plants and vals. He would just scoop the babies out of the tank and seperate them by size every week or two. Pretty cool set up.

Good luck with a very pretty fish,
Scott


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Well, the male hasn't bred with the second female and seems to dislike her. Sometimes he makes runs at her, but it doesn't look severe, she doesn't seem to be stressed by this, just a little taken aback.

The original pair of killies keep breeding every day to every other day! They are like machines!

I'm still feeding them frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and flake food. There are also a ton of micro worms all over the glass and in the moss and several tiny water bugs.

I'm a little worried that the female will wear herself out with so much egg laying. But we will see.

Hopefully the first batch of eggs will hatch soon! I heard they take 10-20 days to hatch and according to my first post they laid eggs about 14 days ago soo... any day now...

There is some duckweed growing at the top as well (which is insane because I haven't had duckweed in months and the only possible source was dried up duck weed that was dried up and stuck to the glass of the tank for the last 6 months).


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Hmm, well I saw a baby fish yesterday for about 2 seconds before it vanished. I didn't get a good look at it but I am pretty sure it was a baby since it moves horizontally sideways extremely quickly and there isn't anything in the tank that small that could move sideways that fast.

I can't seem to find any others but I suspect they are well hidden in the taiwan moss.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Success! The killies did in fact have babies all those months ago since my last post here. I was very surprised because I had removed the parents from the tank ages ago and was about to break the tank down when I noticed little killies swimming around in the bucket of water that I had drained out the tank.

I put all the water back and waited for a few months. Now the babies are roughly a quarter of an inch to a half inch long! They are still quite slim and haven't put on a lot of weight yet. I've started feeding them hikari first bites and they seem to like it. I have seen at least 5 at the same time, so I assume there must be quite a few more hiding in the moss that I can't see. 

I guess they must have waited a few months to hatch. 

I'll try get some pictures of them soon.

Does anyone know how long it takes for them to grow up fully?


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## nkambae (Nov 6, 2007)

Congrats on the A. australes! Bunches of babies. They are one of the species occasionally found in LFS's and if I remember correctly, they take about 9-12 months to reach sexual maturity. They are one of the longer lived species at about three years life expectancy. But even their extended lifespan doesn't leave a lot of time for passing on one's genetic material! They gotta get busy a an early age. 

Do you have the chocolate variety or the gold/orange? The youngsters relish micro worms and brine shrimp naupli. Are you gonna trade sell 'em to your LFS or give them away to close and valuable friends? Don't forget the American Killifish Association as a valuable resource for all things killie related. Good luck.

stu


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Thanks! I've got the gold variety. I'll probably keep them and try breed them again since I don't have too many of them. I just hope I have males and females so I can breed them again.

Do you breed killies? It sounds like you know quite a bit about them?


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## nkambae (Nov 6, 2007)

I've kept and bred them in the past but don't have any right now. I'm looking to change that in the not too distant future with a couple of blue gularis (Aphyosemion sjoestedti) which are one of my favorite killies. If you have 6 fish you have about a 97-98% probability of having at least one of each sex so keep your fingers crossed.

If I remember correctly, the gold variety is a captive bred morph and the wild type is the chocolate or brown type. Have fun with them and good luck.

stu


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Time for an update!

There are roughly 5-6 killies (that I have seen at the same time - so there might be more). They are huge now! Roughly half an inch long they are starting to get their adult colors! It looks like I only have one male fish though  which is a pity since the original male died somehow... 

I don't know what they are eating, but their bellies are constantly full even when I don't feed them for a few days. There is a lot of moss in the tank and a good bit of hair algae so perhaps they are eating that? I feed fry food and hikari first bites.

The male is sort of aggressive, he chases the females away if they get near him. Maybe cooties exist in fish world too?


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