Fwd: dithers (was pingu guppies) -Reply

["Ed Pon" <edpon@hotmail.com>]

>I'd love to find a good killie as an Apisto dither.  What about
>Cynolebias nigripinnis or some other S. American killie to
>keep the species from the same continent?
>

At a lecture given by Uwe Romer at the San Francisco Aquarium Society 
last year, I learned something about characins that I didn't know 
before.  It appears that larger characins are higher up on the food 
chain than Apistos. In many apistos natural environment, the creatures 
that predate on the apistos are some of the larger characins. It 
wouldn't surprise me if the smaller characins may predate on smaller 
apistos and fry.  

Somewhere else in my travels, I came across something about keeping 
killifish with other fish.  Many of the killifish inhabit mud puddles, 
elephant footprints filled with water, etc.  It seems that many of them 
are incredibly aggressive to hold their territory and be able to 
reproduce. Although I have not had a lot of different types of Killies, 
I have not found the ones that I have tried to be particularly good 
community fish,  either they don't make it or the other inhabitants 
don't.

_______________________________________________________


From: huntley@ix.netcom.com (Wright Huntley )
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 11:48:33 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Fwd: dithers (was pingu guppies) -Reply

Ed wrote: 
>
>>I'd love to find a good killie as an Apisto dither.  snip...

Forget it.
 
>... Although I have not had a lot of different types of Killies, 
>I have not found the ones that I have tried to be particularly good 
>community fish,  either they don't make it or the other inhabitants 
>don't.

I keep mostly killies and breed some Apistos when the urge strikes. I *never* 
keep them together. The closest to community-tank killies are the west-African 
Chromaphyos and close relatives. They are *still* puddle fish, hence killers of 
any invader of their territory.

My favorite general-purpose dither fish is Heterandria formosa. A top-water 
live bearer, never over 1.5" long, they don't even eat their own babies, much 
less try to steal others. Nice perky, not hyper, fish that tend to produce a 
calm environment. Grown Apisto parents may eat *them* tho. IDK.

Wright


- -- 

Wright Huntley (408) 248-5905 Santa Clara, CA USA huntley@ix.netcom.com