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Killies come from all sorts of habitats and have lots of different lifestyles. Some, like the Aplocheilicthys normani that were mentioned on the list recently, do fine in a group with a lot of swimming room, a lid and moving water like from a small power filter. Some, the so-called "annual" killies, live 'short-ish' lives and don't, in general, do well in community tanks; their motive in life is to grow fast (egg to adult in a month, typically), and breed till the pool dries up, or they die. Rainforest killies like most Fundulopanchax and Aphyosemions, live in 'permanent water systems' and don't die young. They come from fairly dark habitats with a lot of cover, and live in relatively shallow streams. One of their techniques for feeding on insects, is to jump onto the land, roll around in the bugs, and jump back into the water. Another is surface feeding. In all cases, they tend to hide. A big, open community tank setup in my experience rarely does well. A darkish, roomy species tank works ok, but note: darkish. Java moss, java fern, an internal air-driven filter, a tight lid and they're fun. Mix them with other fish, and they tend to hide, quite a bit. Finally, no one calls killies panchax anymore. That's appropriate for a very limited genus from the Indian subcontinent. It was used when Boulenger et al started describing killies in the 19th century (everything was originally Panchax), but more modern (beginning in the 20th century), has broken killies up. Rainforest killies are usually either Aphyosemion, or Fundulopanchax. "Panchax mamfensis" is probably Fundulopanchax gardneri mamfense, a good beginner killie. For more (free and usually accurate) killi information, visit www.aka.org and browse the online information. There's a wealth of information there and a fairly active forum. Matt, who is skeptical of someone selling killies with a name from pre-1900 Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. Get it now. |
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