Thuan Nguyen, a local killifish breeder extraordinaire, was gracious enough to host the annual holiday Bay Area Killifish Association party at his house. We were all excited to check out his amazing killifish closet! Taking photographs and video of the amazingly beautiful killifish ended up being quite a challenge, since most of the fish prefer darker conditions. I had to shoot most of it while holding a flashlight in my other hand! I am always impressed by how much beautiful iridescence just pops when you photograph killifish.
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Made a short video on my killifish :) I attended my first Bay Area Killifish Association meeting tonight, and met a lot of really cool killifish people. It goes without saying that I managed to bring home a trio of killifish for the newly vacated 5 gallon planted tank in my livingroom. I'm exited to have something a little easier to spawn, but just as colorful and personality-packed as a betta. These photos were taken immediately after a 1 hour drip acclimation, and they are already starting to explore their new kingdom!
Currently the tank is at about 77F, which is on the higher side of their temperature preference. I might try to remove the heater and see if I can get good activity and spawning success at room temperature. I always feel weird having an aquarium without a heater...darn bettas require so much heat to be comfortable. There new page can be found here in the Wilds section of the website. Betta burdigala spawning (again) I caught my B. burdigala spawning, but unfortunately they were at an odd angle and the glass isn't very clean (whoops!). I've been doing a lot of water changes to compensate for the sheer amount of fry in there...it's only a 4 gallon tank, and I'm worried about stunting their growth. I hope to be able to transfer the fry to the 20 gallon (although I'm not sure how yet!) once the B. smaragdina move on to new homes.
Right now, I am thinking of dropping the B. smaragdina permanently and instead focusing on the B. burdigala. I am just in love with this species and hope to have a thriving, self-sustaining colony that I can occasionally share with other hobbyists. There has been a lot of demand for this species recently, which gives me hope that it can survive in captivity even if their natural habitat is lost. I was super excited to get some Betta smaragdina males from Project 30 to match with my females. I hope that they will find good homes with their new grooms. I was blown away with how beautiful these males are though...just as vivacious as Betta splendens, and they really glisten. Their reflective beauty is difficult to photograph...they seem to switch from emerald green to bright blue depending on how you look at them. Really a gorgeous wild! I feel like I'm really starting to get a handle on my new telephoto lens. I've been able to get some good shots of the Elassoma fry as they wander about the tank. One of the juveniles is definitely male, and the rest look female. I will have to figure out how to separate them...
Edit: I will be getting smaragdina males in soon, so I will have trios and pairs available!! I was finally able to take some pictures of my Elassoma! These guys are so shy that I had to use a telephoto lens with macro to be able to photograph them from across the room! They are fine when I sit still and watch them eat or display...but they were NOT ok with the camera lol, even if I set it right by their tank for several hours. These photos can now be found in the Elassoma section.
Better Burdigala Pics! Shooting in the blackwater tank has been a real challenge for me. Luckily, Mr. Burdigala was guarding his nest right next to the glass, so I was able to snap some good head and body shots of him. The pair of burdigala delinquents were also good subjects - they were too busy fighting to be shy!
These photos can now be found in the Betta burdigala section. |
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