– a perfect beginner killifish

If you are new to killies, this is a perfect fish to start out with. And no matter how experienced you are – it is still a great fish to have in your aquarium.

Fundulopanchax gardneri, also known as Steel-blue Killifish, Blue lyretail and Gardner’s killi is a species that inhabits the tributary streams and marshes of the Benue and Cross River basins of Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa. It occurs in savannah waters as well as in forested regions.

Hardy… and always hungry

This is perhaps one of the easiest killifish to keep and breed. Gardneris aren’t fuzzy about temperature and water chemistry. I use soft and slightly acid rainwater for my killies, and they thrive and breed at room temperatures. I seldom use heaters in my tanks.

Blue Lyretail will eat most flakes, frozen or live food. If you want to breed these fish, frozen and live food is important. They are always hungry. Kind of the Labrador of killies.

Semi-continual breeding

They will spawn in plants and mops. A trio with one male and two females is better than a pair in my opinion, since the male can be pretty persistent. With two females in the tank, one of them gets time off occasionally.

We have mops in our Gardneri tanks at the moment, but since there are a lot of plants in there as well (mostly hornwort and willow moss) – only a percentage of the eggs ends up in the mops. As a result, fry pop up in the tank on a daily basis, but Ulla also check the mops and collect eggs every day.

If you want to breed more efficient, mops should be the only option for the breeders. But who wants to look at an aquarium without plants?

Our trio is very productive, and the fry grow fast on a diet of newly hatched brine shrimp (artemia) and fine chopped bloodworms. Soon they will be able to handle live midge larvae.

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