Nothobranchius nigripinnis hatching video

Hatching of Nothobranchius rubripinnis.
Scientific Name: Nothobranchius rubripinnis Seegers 1986

This species is on the ICUN list of threatened species classed as ‘Vulnerable’ D2 (ver 3.1).
This status is a high concern status, and is classed as having a high risk of extinction in the wild (according to the IUCN categories www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/static/categories_criteria_3_1 )

According the species author (Seegers, 1986) “…Only known from the Mbezi River under the bridge of the road to Kibiti, about 40 km south of Dar es Salaam…”.

This single location is the type locality of the holotype (the specimen upon which the species is described by Seegers in 1986); having such a limited distribution makes this species vulnerable to endangerment.

Now, this piece of breeding is not a marvellous breakthrough or anything like that; but it was an opportunity to demonstrate the marvels of killifish egg hatching. Unfortunately, the eggs were hatching from the peat as it floated on the water; that meant is was difficult to get a video of the eggs bursting open.
However, these young fry are very very small and difficult to video in such a ‘kilner jar’ hatching.

A little bit of a pre-amble as the dried peat is placed in a jar and water added (no great breakthrough video footage there….just me chatting away about what type of water I used etc).




These are young as they first hatch at about 45 to 50 minutes after adding the water (my OH was quite ecstatic over seeing these young burst into life….hence I removed the audio track)



This the young at 20 hours being fed newly hatch brine shrimp.




I cannot find any photos of the males…..they have long passed away shortly after spawning.

Hope you enjoy.

ian

Fascinating stuff there Ian-I really enjoyed that and the live commentary to boot. Is that a laptop being used as a worktop? surely you don't recommend this-water and electricity and all that.

Dave


PS. now I get it-you're using it to keep the water to temperature?

Killifish are pretty cool haven't seen many of them not a lot in fish shops and are great looking little fish
watching a lot of youtube videos of the guys seem a preety tough fish



Do they have to go through the the peat stage or can they just be like a normal fish and hatch in the water.

Good work ian.

@DJK.....I am a qualified safety and health pro (and member of a university safety committee), and that mixing of water on top of switched-on laptop was just a test to see if we have any safety conscious fish keepers on the forum.
But as they say.."...this is done under strict supervision of health and safety professionals, do not try this at home..."

Well spotted....so 10/10 for my first SHWW student.

@Jambomac.... nice video you found (although it was not 100% natural environment by the looks of things).

The killies in that video are different to the Nothobranchius. Those killies (in the video you linked) will lay either in mud or on floating or sunken plants....and the young will hatch with good yield in the water irrespective of the eggs being dried out ever.

The Nothobranchius, however, need a period of out-of-water.

As for being tough......nearly all killis are aggressive; and some are simply hyper-aggressive (to the state of not being happy unless only one fish exists in a tank).
They maybe brutish fighters and survivors but they are quite sensitive to water conditions, and some almost defy captive keeping.

Another difference between the fish shown in your link and the Nothobranchius is that the ones in your link are not true Annual fish.....they can live 3 or 4 years without a problem; whereas Nothobranchius and similar killies really are pushing it at 5 months old.

ian

Awesome stuff Ian. Great clips.

Jay

great stuff, looking forward to more videos and info regarding safety

I couldn't believe it was a laptop underneath all that water

wow that is awesome stuff very good thanks for sharing amazing.

igmillichip wrote:

@DJK.....I am a qualified safety and health pro (and member of a university safety committee), and that mixing of water on top of switched-on laptop was just a test to see if we have any safety conscious fish keepers on the forum.
But as they say.."...this is done under strict supervision of health and safety professionals, do not try this at home..."

Well spotted....so 10/10 for my first SHWW student.

ian

Nice one Ian. I dropped a name not so long ago (Prof. Michael Hynes from NUI Galway) on my Mother's side. It's obviously in my genes.

Dave

DJK wrote:

igmillichip wrote:

@DJK.....I am a qualified safety and health pro (and member of a university safety committee), and that mixing of water on top of switched-on laptop was just a test to see if we have any safety conscious fish keepers on the forum.
But as they say.."...this is done under strict supervision of health and safety professionals, do not try this at home..."

Well spotted....so 10/10 for my first SHWW student.

ian

Nice one Ian. I dropped a name not so long ago (Prof. Michael Hynes from NUI Galway) on my Mother's side. It's obviously in my genes.

Dave

I remember that DJK....a chemist as well if my memory serves me well (no better people than chemists to look after safety and health).

My poor laptop is covered with cigarette ash filling the gaps between the keys; next to the mouse pad is a coffee-cup stain; and when I'm not using the machine it is my foot rest when watching the Rose of Trallee on TV.

@Smitas.....my history on safety is ruthless: I would stand in the chemistry lab practicals wearing a lab coat and pair of athletic shorts and boot out any student who entered the lab wearing non-cotton clothes, not wearing their googles or lab coat or latex gloves. As I said....do as I say, not as I do.

ian

Fantastic work Ian, I'm always delighted to see recording of fish hatching, as they say a picture speaks a thousand words - and the commentary alongside the video enhances the experience and helps to answer a few obvious questions.
Am having a wee bit of a problem getting some SAA to hatch at the moment so I'll try something different at the next attempt.

Can you record their progress and next stages as well, including transfer to their first filtered tank?
Andrew

@Andrew....which SA species are you trying to hatch? That would be really cool.
You may have to see if you can isolate an egg and get it under a microscope.

I'd divide up the batch and try different treatments.
Use mature water....and maybe a small pinch of flaked fish food added to it, and to another batch add a bit of salt.

With the guys hatched above, they are still in their kilner jars. The ADDED food is fresh hatch brine shrimp, brine shrimp eggs (with husk taken off), small powdered fry food, and liqui-fry.
The liqui-dry is really added as food for the rotifers, infusoria, and micro-worms growing in the water.
I place the jars at an angle over a light (actually it is as crude as simple laying them ontop of another fish tanks lighting hood with the light exposed.
That will aid the growth of micro-food within the water.

To date the yield is looking good, but there is always the danger of velvet getting the batch.
These young will be ready to breed in about 5 weeks time....if, and only if, I get a mix of males and females.
Sometimes you get 100% male or 100% female.

ian

Yeah, I must get a hold of one of you guys with a microscope and the packaging, perhaps something our next meeting could attend to - a live "eyed-up" status review!
Andrew

Robert.

Here is something along the lines of the chat tonight.

ian

Thanks Ian , certainly going to have a go at these ,once the pressure comes off from the current project