By Kate Breimayer
If Barbie had a killie it would look something like this: Mint green above, canary yellow racing stripes on the fins, a brilliant blue fading to violet and then white below, and the whole entire fish smothered with rows of hot pink dots. Don't forget one hot pink lip and one mint green. Striatums vary a bit from region to region in their African home, some more red and others less green or yellow, but all following the same basic formula: stunning.
I didn't know a think about killies when I got my first pair. Thinking myself a seasoned pet owner and having had "fish tanks" for years, I ignored the pet store guy's admonishments to keep them separate from the community tank, feed them live if possible or frozen foods, and low light. I plunked the poor doomed creatures into the 20 gallon show tank with the hyperactive schools of tetras, rasboras, and catfish, and both died within 2 months. This fish is not knows for extreme longevity but I am ashamed to say it's my fault those fish died. Years later I decided to try again, only this time I would learn what I needed to do and stock livefoods first. While I now do keep killies in community tanks they are very heavily planted and have few fish to start with, and I feed them live baby brine shrimp in the morning and frozen food in the evening.
When first put in a tank, killifish will scatter and hide, maybe not to be see ...
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