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Serving the Dart Frog Community Since 2004...

cool Killifish / rivulus behavior
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cool Killifish / rivulus behavior
#1
i have a 55 gal viv thats been up and rinning for about a month. it has a relatively large "pond" circulated by an external filter which feeds a "waterfall". with the false bottom, it holds 8-10 gallons of water.

to the point, i added 3 rivulus holmiae to the water section. i was looking at the orchids to make sure they were all getting proper water, when i saw a frog hop by the other end of the tank. i panicked! my mind raced...i hadn't put any frogs in the tank...one must have escaped....and gotten into the wrong viv!...maybe it was a roach...with moist skin....that hopped...then it hopped again. it was my little killifish out exploring the tank! i forgot, in my panic, that many species of rivulus are famous for hanging out on land, basking and possibly hunting. they live in puddles on the rain forest floor in south america, and they like to spend time outside of the overcrowded pools, and hop back into the water when startled. living in soft acidic tannin stained water with lots of waste makes them exceptionally well adapted to live in vivaria with frogs.

A WORD OF CAUTION: some species, including the super beautiful r. xiphidius need VERY CLEAN VERY COOL water, and wouldn't be at all suited to our vivs.

anyway, i just saw one hanging out on the slate embankment of my "pond". it just looks so weird i couldn't help but scare him into the water just to make sure he wasn't stranded! next time i'll just leave him alone.
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#2
Wow that is awesome!

I am currently keeping a pair of R. xiphidius(got them in a trade without exactly asking for them)and it is tempting to try them in my in process paludarium. Not too sure how clean they need it compared to how clean paludarium water tends to be.
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#3
hey man,

i bred xiphidius years ago, and they are NOT good fish for vivs. they need cool water which is super clean. they are also really really shy. you would never see them in a frog tank. set them up in an aquarium which is totally overgrown, set it in the coolest part of the house, use 2-3 times the filtration you would for normal fish in whatever sized tank, and then enjoy glimpsing them trough the plants.

for frog tanks try holmiae. cryptocallus is also fine, but much more shy. i hear that cylendraceus(spelling?) work well in frog tanks.
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#4
Interesting. How cool are you talking of for xiphidius? I've heard from a few they need it warm...though I have them around 60 right now and they seem happy so I guess cool is it. They are shy, but not too bad compared to a few other fish I've kept, I can find them both most of the time, and the male is usually out and about. I haven't had this viv up at the hottest time of year but I don't think the water section would ever get over 80. I'm also keeping R. iredescens...a more typical Riv from Peru.

How do you think Rivs interact with the frogs? I'd imagine any tadpoles put in the water section would be toast.
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#5
hey,

i think below 70* is good for them. cooler than 'tropical fish', which like it closer to 80*.
i don't know for sure if they will eat tads, but i definitely suspect that they would. one of mine was eating a slug it caught off of a plant a couple of days ago.
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