Hi everyone! I am new to this site, and just recently a friend got me into killifish... I am sure to be around a lot, asking questions and reading up. I started about 6 months ago with three "Golden Wonder Killies" I bought at Petsmart. I recently traded them in for some killies that were labeled "gardeneri" from my LFS. I was wondering if anyone knows the exact name... I have linked two pics of males that came from the same tank. I also picked up some females that look like guppies with some red dotting...

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t2 ... reSnowChic/Picture004.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t2 ... reSnowChic/Picture032.jpg

Fundulopanchax gardneri.
If you google that name, you'll get loads of information on them. A very common killifish among hobbyists and for good reason - they're beautiful, hardy, and most strains are easy to breed. You couldn't have picked a better fish to start out with.
Good luck.

It's a great fish. If you like and want more, it's easy to breed. The first time I had gardneri I put my pair into a heavily planted tank and left them for ten days. I removed the adults and within a week I had 35 relatively fast growing fry.

In the AKA, you will see an emphasis on location names. You might see F gardneri Akure (or Jos Plateau, Makurdi, etc). We have the luxury of often knowing where our killies come from, and since there are often genetic differences between different populations isolated from each other, the location name serves to help us keep the genetic forms distinct. There are a lot of different "gardneris" , all of which are great fish.

Gary in Montreal.

Thanks guys! I'm much less confused on the naming system now! :)

I would really like to have more of these little guys around, and can't wait for them to breed. I have a heavily planted tank with a large wad of Java moss growing in the corner, will that be sufficient for the eggs/fry? And I'm assuming that I should turn the filters off? I've only had them about 5 days now, how will I know when they have bred? Will I see eggs?

The male in the first pic is a Fund. gardneri, and it looks like the "gold aquarium strain" to me. The second picture is a completely different fish, Fundulopanchax sjoestedti, more commonly known as blue gularis, you'll notice this fish on the seal of the AKA. Without seeing the females it's hard to say which species they are. Maybe you could post a pic of them? Both fish are great fish, but the blue gularis do tend to get larger, reaching possibly 5-7 inches.

Wow... That's not good! I was hoping they were all the same fish! The first male, the gerndeneri, came up missing a few days ago. So I have three fish now; one male and two females. Here are the only pics I could get with the females as they move so fast!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t2 ... reSnowChic/Picture029.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t2 ... reSnowChic/Picture033.jpg
http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t2 ... reSnowChic/Picture039.jpg

And the blue guy is small... guppy size....

It's difficult to tell from the pics what species the females are, judging by the male, they look young yet. My suggestion is to keep feeding them well, and see how they do in the next few months. If you go to google and search for blue gularis you should come up with loads of information on them. When they reach maturity, the males are very beautiful fish! As for your disappearing gardneri, make sure you have some sort of lid on the tank! Killies are avid jumpers and, given the chance, will jump right out of the tank. Good luck!

I'm just afraid that the females will be the gardeneris and the male will be the blue gularis... LoL, they all came out of the same tank at the fishstore, LoL, but then what will I do!!!

I don't know if it helps but the females have red dots on their sides like the other male I had...