Temperament: Males sometimes fight. 2 males in the same aquarium will just about always fight, but if you have a group of males they will grudgingly get along. Males are quite rough with lone females, standard practice is to use at least 2 females when set-up for spawning.
Adult Size: Up to 2in (5cm)
Minimum Tank Size: 1 gallon to 2 1/2 gallon bowl for a trio
Feeding: Best results with live foods, but will accept most standard Aquarium food.
Breeding: A Soil Spawning Killifish, has a somewhat short incubation period of 8 to 12 weeks. See Nothobranchius Fry Tips - below
Comments: Very pretty fish. An excellent representative of the Soil Spawning Killifish from Africa. A very prolific spawner. Guentheri are a good introduction fish for Soil Spawning Killifish.
Guentheri were the first Killifish that I ever owned, therefore I will always have a special love for them. They are by far the easiest Killy to begin with. Most Killykeepers advise to start with the Plant Spawners, but other than the Gardneri group, I feel that Guentheri is an excellent choice.
3 Keys To Raising Nothobranchius Fry
Raising Nothobranchius fry is in many ways similar to any other fry, but here are 3 tips that are especially helpful with Nothobranchius.
Nothobranchius fry are very small. Although many of the fry are able to eat baby brine shrimp, most of the smaller fry can't and they will usually turn out to be females. So if you only use BBS to start the fry with you'll probably end up with a lot more males than females. To get around this I usually add some "green water" to the Nothobranchius fry tanks.
Nothobranchius are sensitive to large water changes. Nothobranchius like clean water just like all fry but they don't do well with large water changes and / or sudden changes in temperature. I use airline airline tubing and an air valve to make a slow (1 drop per 3 seconds) drip for adding new water. Snails are useful with Nothobranchius fry, they will compact all the fish wastes and excess food into easy to remove packets that can be easily removed with a turkey baster or eye dropper. The key is very small but very frequent water changes.
Nothobranchius are especially prone to getting Velvet disease. This can be controlled by keeping the water clean and adding 1 teaspoon of rock salt per gallon to their water.
