Aquarium in the interior of a house and apartment: design options for an artificial reservoir, living room design

Such a sentence – “live fish from Aliexpress” – can be confusing. But, as it turned out, Aliexpress is not only a convenient trading platform operating all over the world, but also a place where you can find almost everything. There are many products for aquariums on offer here - not only various accessories, but even aquarium inhabitants. How can you deliver safe and sound the most delicate creatures that require certain conditions from one country to another, using postal services or regular transport companies? In fact, there are inhabitants who tolerate such “travels” well.

What kind of killie fish are they?

Even if the thought of ordering fish from a Chinese trading platform does not occur to you, many will still be intrigued by such an offer. And a completely understandable question arises: what kind of fish can withstand a 30-day or even longer trip? After all, during this time the water will evaporate, and its inhabitant will dry up. But this only applies to ordinary aquarium fish; this does not happen with killifish. Its caviar can be obtained by aquarium lovers from anywhere on the planet.

Killifish, abbreviated as killifish, are members of the order Cyprindiformes and are widely distributed throughout the world. This is a large family consisting of 1000 species of spawning fish. They are found in America, Asian and southern European countries, and Africa. Here they live in small drying ditches, puddles, and shallow lakes. The word “killifish” itself comes from the Danish “kilde” - “source, puddle”.

A wide variety of species are found in nature, some prefer to live in the waters of North American thermal springs, others love brackish or salty sea water. Many species are very unpretentious and do well in puddles that tend to dry out periodically.

The life cycle of most African killifish does not exceed 12 months. This is no coincidence and is associated with the peculiarities of the climatic seasons of the African tropics - during the rainy season, numerous small reservoirs form here, rivers and lakes become full and overflow.

During droughts, everything changes dramatically. If in the forest zones of the tropics the complete drying out of water bodies does not occur, they only become smaller, then in the arid savannas hard times come for aquatic inhabitants. Only large rivers remain, and the rest not only become smaller, but are completely left without water.

Living in such a harsh environment undoubtedly left its mark on the “habits” of aquatic inhabitants. And the main task of the fish is to leave the most numerous offspring before the drought. Nature took care of this by providing the eggs with a shell that has a special structure.

The walls of the eggs are so strong that they can withstand not only long periods of waterlessness, but also the walking of heavy animals on them.

Fish that live in more stable bodies of water spawn by laying sticky eggs on the leaves of aquatic vegetation. The shelf life of such masonry is much shorter, and their transportation is quite difficult.

Thanks to the ability of caviar to retain its properties even in difficult conditions, it became possible to transport it to different parts of the world. It can often be found on sale in the form of sets for children's games. This kit includes, in addition to the caviar itself, various additional accessories and detailed instructions. You can also watch a video where eggs that have survived a long journey hatch into nimble fry.

In addition, many communities and groups have been created on the Internet in which breeders sell and exchange Killie caviar of various varieties, including rarer, selected breeds. A lot of information can be found on aquarium forums.

At first glance, it may seem that only nondescript fish, unremarkable except for their resistance to climate, can exist in drying puddles. However, even wild killifish are quite spectacular and superior in beauty to selective goosefish. Males have more intense colors than females; during the mating season they resemble multi-colored, bright candy wrappers.

Some killifish have luxurious fins , and their compact dimensions - no more than 6 cm in length

Fishfish swimming. How robofish swim close up

For the test, we took fish from our store - 4 Chinese analogues of “Happy fish” in the colors: pink, blue, green and orange, the type of fish is clown.

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  Green robot fish Robofish. Robofish

  Coming soon

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  Blue fish robot Robofish. Robofish

  Coming soon

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  Pink robot fish Robofish. Robofish

  Coming soon

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  Orange robot fish Robofish. Robofish

  Coming soon

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Choosing the right fish caviar from Aliexpress

A fish is not shoes or a blouse, but a living creature, the purchase of which should be approached more seriously. After all, there are often cases when the order not only did not reach the buyer, but also did not give the expected result - none of the eggs ever appeared.

If you want to purchase killi, it is recommended to consider a number of factors:

1. The first thing people pay attention to before any order on Ali is the seller’s account, its rating, number of orders, reviews . This applies to the purchase of any product if you want to get a quality product. The most useful are customer reviews from the customer's country with detailed descriptions, real photographs and personal opinions.
2. Killie eggs are sold not only from the Aliexpress site, but also in the online store . There are a number of reviews from experienced aquarists who say that the quality of the product in the latter case is higher. In addition, you can find sellers in various aquarium groups, forums, and communities. This option definitely has advantages - you can contact the breeder, find out the features of the incubation period and raising young animals. But you can’t do without disadvantages - not all sellers turn out to be conscientious.
3. The eggs of African fish successfully withstand long-term droughts, but a decrease in air temperature is detrimental to them . Therefore, this product can be found on sale in the spring and summer, and in the fall and winter, as a rule, such offers are absent.
4. The caviar of different types of killifish has a different shelf life . Clutches of individuals from arid savannas can survive weeks and even months without water. In varieties from non-drying reservoirs, eggs are usually stored outside the aquatic environment for no more than one and a half weeks. Most often, nothobranchius eggs are placed in play sets. These undemanding annual fish produce clutches that can remain viable even during prolonged droughts.
5. Water for the incubation tank is usually prepared in advance. If it is of medium hardness, then it can be collected from the tap and left for 3-7 days.

Although the eggs are sent in tiny containers, it is worth remembering that fry will hatch from them. And given their short lifespan, they will grow rapidly. Therefore, it is important to immediately purchase a spacious tank equipped with the equipment necessary for the comfortable living of “African guests”. It is worth familiarizing yourself with the natural conditions to which these fish are accustomed.

A little history

About 10 years ago, Japanese scientists and designers began creating robots that imitate the behavior and movement of fish.
The experiment was intended as a way to study the lifestyle of real, living sea and river inhabitants. The first controlled models were produced by Sedensha Co LTD, but they were controlled by signals traveling along a wire. Radio-controlled prototypes soon appeared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrjsGdIWw28

Improvement of samples of underwater robots (in particular, at the Japanese Institute of High Technologies) has led to the emergence of devices that imitate turtles, swordfish, seahorses, stingrays and other amazing inhabitants of the seas and oceans. More recently, they even managed to create a high-tech robot that looks like a jellyfish!

The inventions of Japanese designers, initially aimed at solving scientific problems, soon became the basis for the creation of mass production of water toys for children and adults. In recent years, the New Zealand company ZURU has been very successful in this activity, whose high-tech toys are widely sold in more than 40 countries around the world.

What's included in the play set?

Today, various play sets for children are very popular: “Grow a flower”, “Plant a tree”, “Make a photo frame”, etc. Manufacturers have gone further and offer to grow fish from eggs, selling kits containing:

• peat substrate with caviar;
• incubation container-cup;
• starter food – Artemia nauplii;
• measuring container;
• salt - brine shrimp eggs ripen in it;
• instructions.

Some sellers supplement the kit with accessories for decorating an artificial pond - these can be beautiful pebbles, glass balls, figurines or plastic bushes. The owner decides for himself whether to place them in the tank or not, but it is worth knowing that if the items contain chemical dyes, they can be harmful to the young inhabitants.

Test results in more detail

1. The original floats for about 90-105 minutes, after which it floats for another 20-30 minutes, but due to the lack of battery power, the movements are sluggish and there is no particular sense, after drying and “resting” it floated for about 30-45 minutes, then the same amount , as a result, the average operating time is about 3-4 hours.

2. Chinese fish swim for less than 60-75 minutes and stop moving almost immediately after the battery runs out. After a “rest” they swim again, without replacing batteries, for about 30-60 minutes, so the operating time of Chinese fish and the original ones is approximately the same. Also, after the “rest”, the fish also swam for some time, in total about 3 hours.

3. After 3 battery replacement cycles (this is about 10 hours of operation), both the original and the Chinese fish work flawlessly.

As a result, we think it doesn’t make sense to overpay 2 times for the original, especially since after an hour the fish are already fed up with swimming and if you put them in the bathtub when bathing a child, you won’t bathe him for more than an hour either. In the end, it all depends on the batteries; the better they are, the more the fish will swim, and the operating time will be approximately the same.

RECOMMENDATIONS: fish swim better in square containers, because... in round ones they almost always swim in a circle. Change the batteries after thoroughly wiping the fish from the water.

Feeding the fry

First of all, for normal growth and development, young animals need nutritious live food. As a rule, fry are fed microfeeds:

• a mixture of ciliates (it is called “live dust”);
• microworms (nematodes);
• grated yolk;
• nauplii of Artemia and Cyclops.

What is each type of starter food and where can you get them? Even inexperienced aquarists can breed Artemia nauplii on their own.

The incubation period is short - they hatch after a day.

For this you will need:

• Artemia cysts;
• a little salt (table or sea, but not iodized);
• capacity 2.5-3 l;
• a device that enriches water with oxygen.

Place salt in a jar - 3 tbsp per 1 tsp of brine shrimp eggs, then place an aerator tube in the jar, the end of which is equipped with a sprayer. The jar is filled with warm water (+23-+25°C) and placed in a place where there is good lighting.

After approximately 20-24 hours, the incubation will be completed, after which the chitinous shells of the cysts are removed from the jar. To do this, the aeration is turned off, and the jar is set aside to allow the contents to infuse. The nauplii will settle to the bottom, and the reddish-brown shells will remain on the surface; they are removed with a net. Then they turn on the device that saturates the water with oxygen, since without it the brine shrimp die in a short time.

Small nauplii for feeding the fry are caught using a pipette or a fine-mesh net. It is more convenient to do this in the dark, illuminating with a flashlight, the crustaceans begin to strive for light. Artemia themselves can be fed dry diets with spirulina, and they are also given yeast. Artemia is harvested little by little, as individuals quickly reach large sizes for fry.

Incubation period of eggs

When the preparatory process is completed, you can begin incubating the eggs. Before placing the peat substrate in the tank, it is better to take a good look at it - whether it contains eggs and how ripe they are. Fertilized killi eggs have a dark brown color and a translucent shell. Dark dots peek through, which are actually the eyes of the larvae.

The eggs should be placed in an incubation tank and filled 5-6 cm with cold (+15-+18 °C) water. If the water is hard, it is recommended to stand it for 2-3 days by placing a little activated charcoal or charcoal in it. The fry begin to hatch within 5-6 hours; they are already formed and there is no yolk sac. They immediately rush to the surface to take in the air needed to fill their swim bladder.

If the peat contained eggs, but the fry did not hatch, most likely it was due to their immaturity. Then the water must be carefully drained, the substrate must be squeezed out so that it remains slightly moist, placed in a bag and sent into a warm place. After 7-14 days, the eggs will be fully ripe. You can find out about this by examining them - if the eyes are visible, then the larvae are ready for incubation.

When all the “crumbs” have been born, it is recommended to transplant them into another tank or remove the peat substrate, since living organisms that serve as food can hide in it, and then the fry starve. In the first 1.5-2 weeks, it is almost imperceptible how the offspring grow. And later this process proceeds so intensively that by 6-8 weeks the fish reach sexual maturity.

When raising fry, attention should be paid to their sorting; stocking density should be low. Sexually mature individuals are seated so that a group of females and 1-2 males remain in one aquarium.

Comparison of Chinese and original fish

Robot fish (robofish) have taken the toy market by storm. Nowadays there are many fakes of the original, and so we decided to figure out why Chinese fish are worse in contrast to the original (produced by ZURU) and whether this is true. In the end, we will say that Chinese fish swim just as well, not nearly inferior to the original fish.

Features of keeping killifish

Considering the natural habitat of these fish, one can only imagine how tenacious and unpretentious they are, therefore they are quite suitable for beginners in aquarium keeping. And although killifish are accustomed to a soft water environment, they have managed to adapt to ordinary tap water.

Caring for fish is not difficult; they do well in a 10-25 liter aquarium, water at room temperature, with a minimum of equipment.

It is enough to equip the container with a low-power airlift or internal filter. Fish can do without additional heating of the water, but a heating device helps maintain a stable temperature during the off-season.

In their natural environment, killifish eat various insects and larvae. Aquarium specimens can be fed with small bloodworms, tubifex and brine shrimp, live or frozen. It is important that the food is not too large so that the fish can eat it. Dry diets are also allowed, but there is information that killifish either eat them reluctantly or refuse them altogether.

The tank can be decorated at your discretion, but the presence of soft dark soil and floating vegetation with small foliage is welcome. Killies prefer to be in the upper layer of water and are able to jump high, which means that the container should be equipped with a reliable lid. As for the quality of water, these fish have no special requirements, except that they prefer “old”, acidified water.

You can artificially increase the life cycle of pets if you lower the water temperature to +22-+23°. When it's cool, fish's metabolic processes slow down. After 6 months of age, the fish begin to age, this can be noticed by a decrease in their mobility and curvature of the spine. But during this short period they leave numerous offspring and their life ends.

You can buy robofish (robo fish) right here on the website

From a technical point of view, this device can be called an electronic device that turns on when it comes into contact with water.

This “toy” for children and adults was invented several years ago by Japanese engineers and designers. In principle, scientists and engineers from the Land of the Rising Sun have long been at the forefront in the process of creating various technical innovations, which then become popular throughout the world. This is exactly what happened with robot fish, the demand for which is only growing every year.

The electronic device, located inside a waterproof plastic case, consists of an electronic chip (control element) and a micromotor. Of course, there must also be a power supply. Its role is usually performed by small batteries (for example, alkaline batteries RL44, A76 or similar). The sizes of artificial fish can vary, and the most common are “toys” that are about 7–8 cm long.

The color range of aquarium robots is varied: red, blue, green, black, gray, spotted, striped. It is impossible to list all the types of colors of these “toys”.

It should be noted that artificial electronic fish most often imitate certain types of living aquarium fish.

LEDs built into the device body turn on when ambient light decreases. In the evening and at night, the aquarium is illuminated by the fish themselves; it is a very original night light, where the light source is a flock of floating robots, very similar to real inhabitants of the water element.

Invented relatively recently, small aquatic robots received the international name RoboFish, which literally means “robot fish.” Precisely and without excessive imagination.

Who are killies compatible with?

Despite the peaceful nature of African fish, some difficulties may arise even within the species group. Dominant males are capable of showing aggression by attacking other males. Moreover, this concerns not only strong competing individuals, but also weak ones - they may not even be allowed to eat.

To avoid such problems, it is recommended to start a small harem, where there are 2-3 females per male. In addition, it is better to keep them in a large, spacious aquarium, delimited into zones. Individuals are seated as soon as gender differences appear and conflicts become more frequent.

Killifish usually get along with aquarium inhabitants of other species of approximately the same size and temperament:

• neon;
• guppy;
• swordtails;
• mollies;
• lalius;
• gourami;
• cherry barbs;
• rasborami;
• zebrafish;
• catfish: ancistrus, corydoras;
• peace-loving small cichlids.

You can also add shrimp to the aquarium; they are not in danger. Live fish from Aliexpress can be a very pleasant purchase. After all, the very fact that they, having traveled many kilometers, were able to hatch and turn into cute aquarium inhabitants is amazing. The purchase will not disappoint if you approach the issue responsibly and follow the recommendations.

Killie photo