Rubripinnis nothobranch

Care at a glance

Overview

The rubripinnis nothobranch is a small crimson-finned annual killifish kept as a pair or as one male with two or three females to ease his constant courtship. Males display and quarrel, so keep a single male per small tank or add cover and extra females. Treat tankmates with care: a species tank is safest, and only calm, similar sized fish should be considered. It swims in the middle water. Feed live and frozen foods such as bloodworm, mosquito larvae, daphnia, and brine shrimp. A group is comfortable in a tank of about 40 liters.

In the wild

This killifish comes from small seasonal pools on the coastal plain of southeastern Tanzania, in the Mbezi drainage, shallow rain-fed waters that dry out completely for part of the year. Give it a warm, gently filtered tank over a soft peat or sand base with planting and cover. Keep the water neutral to slightly hard and slightly alkaline, about pH 6.5–7.8 at 22–26 C, as in the pools it comes from.

Good to know

Nothobranchius rubripinnis belongs to the family Nothobranchiidae and reaches about 4.5 cm, the male a steel-blue fish set off by red fins. It is a true annual: pairs spawn into the substrate and the eggs pass the dry months resting in damp peat before hatching, a staged routine that keeps breeding at a moderate level. The name rubripinnis is Latin for red-finned.

Did you know

Because its eggs survive buried in damp peat through the dry season, a keeper can post a breeding of this fish between countries as a bag of egg-laden peat, to be rehydrated and hatched at the other end.

Common questions

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