Hi I thought i would share some notes on breeding my killifish on demand!

Having kept and bred fish for some 38 years now I still enjoy the buzz of picking two fish and seeing my fish spawn.

I have devloped a style with my killifish of getting them to spawn on demand! Mad you may think but its true. I have around 40 pairs of killifish at the moment and as many killifish breeders are aware the eggs from these fish are quite hardy and can be transported around the world cheaply swopping various strains to enhance the hobby further. 

The demand bit then means you can play a "stocks and shares" type game producing eggs as and when fish become rare or hard to find. I have some Northo's Eggs which i have in a small plastic jiffy type bag and are two years old, and they still hatch out! Even if they don't I dry the peat out and try again in a month or so and I still get a small amount of eggs hatching!

The fish below is a One of my Northo's which spawn in a small plant pot filled with peat, every day they will dive in there and drop 4 to 6 eggs, after 4 or so hours the eggs are quite hard and can be picked out and added to my plastic jiffy bag with dates and times to add to my collection for the future. I hold these eggs in fish room for a minimum of 100 days! before i will add them back to a small amount of mature fish water to re-wet them for hatching.

I coud go on forever on this subject but the reason you are probably reading is the "On Demand" bit so here goes.

All of the fish pictured below breed nearly every time 95% on demand. I have found the trick is a big feed of defrosted bloodworms, I dont use frozen straight into the tank as the fish gorge on them and it can chill the fish to a point where they can go into shock!

After a good feed I do a 50% water change with Half Tap water (declorinated) and 50% Rain water from my tub outside. The rain water had a ph of 6 and my tap water is 7 so i gate a perfect 6.5ph and a Dh (softness) of just 2 which is the key to triggering my fish to spawn.

Of course temprature needs to be equal when such a big water change is done and its important to leave your sponge filters alone, with so much new water in the tank lacking bacteria your filters will replace this from the old water removed. Dont ever be tempted to do a big water change and then clean your filters at the same tank, you will get new tank syndrome and could lose all your fish!

I have had people come around to my home and fish house to pick up there fish won on Ebay and been amazed at how quick and easy it is to switch killifish on and off for breeding, try the above you will be pleased with the results!