Least killifish Heterandria formosa

[Guppysnail]

Someone from a local fish club offered me a trio of Least killifish. I had been looking the night before at them because I have a temp tank for them and I was curious. Naturally I said yes as the offer was a pleasant coincidence. 
 

I have all the internet info.  I’m reaching out to folks in hopes that those who have kept them will share their first hand experiences. Good things and things I should watch for or be aware of. 
 

Thanks for sharing your experience with me. 
 

pic from the net.. because we all love fish pics 

Oh no, looking at this pic am I going to be the old person at the back of the room in love with a little brown fish like Cory talked of on a livestream? 🤣🤪

 

[Fish Folk]

Awesome! I hear they give birth every day to just a few fry for 10-14 days straight.

I think that . . . @TheDukeAnumber1 used to have a tank loaded with these if I recall correctly.

I heard that @FrozenFins wants to get some shipped up to 🇨🇦 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:49 PM, Fish Folk said:

Awesome! I hear they give birth every day to just a few fry for 10-14 days straight.

I think that . . . @TheDukeAnumber1 used to have a tank loaded with these if I recall correctly.

I heard that @FrozenFins wants to get some shipped up to 🇨🇦 

Thanks. Yeah I don’t know much about them other than internet stuff. They just seemed fascinating then the very next day someone offers me a free breeding trio I had to assume it was meant to be that I try them. 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:49 PM, Fish Folk said:

I heard that @FrozenFins wants to get some shipped up to 🇨🇦 

I’ve only shipped fish twice and near about had a nervous breakdown. Out of the country I would die. But if they breed I’d be happy to give them to someone who knows how to ship to Canada. 

[Mahi27]

I want some of these too. Been meaning to place an order with @Wild Fish Tanks.

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I've kept these fish for years now and still enjoy them. They are easy breeders and you'll get fry surviving with a little cover for them. A dwarf sag carpet is perfect IMO but you can get away with less. They aren't picky eaters and they will eat from the top of the water column to the bottom. They will breed on dry foods but on baby brine they breed like crazy and fry are big enough to eat BBS right after birth. My summer tub colony tolerates 90's water temps just fine and can handle low water temps around the 50's. Much below that they cannot take though. They are very easy to sex with males being much slimmer and have a gonopodium, while females are more round have a dark spot on their anal fin. They are a very hardy fish but if water quality gets truly bad the males will drop much earlier than the females. They are a fish built for more still waters do well in lower current tanks.

 

It's a super fun fish and IMO shows best when you grow the colony so the tank has a ton of them in there. When that happens you can feed and food won't hit the substrate with so many tiny mouths and it's not hard to get them to eat out of your hands. Plus with it being the smallest vertebrate in North America you can have a very high number of them and yet have a very small bio load.