I initially bought a pair and a trio of Nothobranchius sp. Messalo River MZHL 05-12 from the BKA convention in October 2006 - they were were not small fish, but despite their size, had practically no colouration in the BKA show tanks (see picture, right) . Once set up at home, in a darkish tank with some floating plants, the males ’switched on’ their colours.

The fish did well, laying huge numbers of eggs, many of which were distributed in the UK. When my first bag was ready I had a lot of tank space, and so raised a LOT of fry.

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I wasn’t planning on buying any fish at the members auction of the BKA 2007 convention - I was saving myself for the show auction the next day - but then a fish I didn’t spot earlier on came up, and what a magnificent pair. Fundulopanchax sjoestedti ‘Niger Delta’, starting price £10 - right across the room flashes of blue and orange were telling me this was a special fish. I raised my hand.

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Its hard to say what your favourite killifish species are… but in my top 5 would have to be Nothobranchius furzeri; i’ve been keeping the Gona-Re-Zhou furzeri on and off for some time now, a long with other Mozambique collections since they became available in 1999.

And what an interesting animal. Furzeri actually holds the record of shortest living vertebrate - you’re pretty lucky if the fish live past 6 months old. Its also one of the longest kept strains in the killifish hobby, having been imported into America once in 1969 - and still going strong almost 40 years later.

It is regarded as one of the more difficult species to maintain long-term, but this need not be the case, if a few simple steps are taken.

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It’s amazing how much you can forget in a year. Having just returned from the 2007 BKA convention (British Killifish Association), and having downloaded all my fish images from the camera, I thought i’d have a look at last years pictures. Some surprises for sure. Like I say, it’s amazing how much you can forget in a year.

Hence my new killifish blog. Hopefully i’ll keep a record of some of the more interesting developments in my fish room, and surprise myself at some point in the future.

So, what new fish were at the 2007 convention? Well I returned with a few interesting new fish, and a few old favourites. Practically all of my newly purchased fish were Nothobranchius - with three notable exceptions. I bought a nice pair of an unusual Colombian anual killi Austrofundulus guajira, some lampeyes Rhexipanchax lamberti, (I can not recall either of these species available at auction in the UK) and a giant pair of Fundulopanchax sjoestedti ’Niger delta’

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