Fancier is Fishing for a Rare Catch
By Brian Nearing, Albany Times Union, N.Y.
Nov. 17–ALBANY — The gentle sound of bubbling water mixed with the smooth jazz of Miles Davis in Jim Randall’s basement. More than two dozen lighted fish tanks lined three walls, where Randall pursues his passion — the breeding of an exotic fish.
Don’t look for killifish at your local aquarium shop. The species, native to Africa and South America, breeds in relatively small numbers and the combative males tend to fight, making them difficult to work with, said Randall, a 59-year-old who works for a supplier of luxury auto parts.
So the supply of killifish depends on a small, but dedicated, group of amateur hobbyists like Randall, who directs membership for the Upstate New York Killifish Association, one of about two dozen affiliates of the American Killifish Association.
"I’m like a mad scientist," joked Randall, as he prepared a solution of tiny brine shrimp in an eyedropper to squirt into several tanks as hungry fish darted toward the surface. Heaters keep the basement room at a constant 75 year round, the optimum temperature for the fish. Each tank is labeled with blue tape with the species’ formal Latin name.
Killifish are small, but colorful, and there are more than 800 species. The name comes from the Dutch word "kill," which means stream, reflecting the fish’s native environment in small streams or ponds.
A killifish tank is not the ornate display that a typical living room tank might be, and is set up solely to encourage the fish to spawn. Randall’s tanks are spartan, containing only some floating plants, as well as small cups of peat moss or tufts of yarn that are used by the fish to hold their eggs.
Because of the male’s competitive nature, a tank usually contains only a breeding pair. "It’s not a good community fish that you would put in tank with other fish," said Randall.
Some species of killifish live in seasonal pools of water in Africa, and because those pools often dry up, their eggs survive prolonged drying. That is a boon to hobbyists, because eggs can be kept on damp peat moss for up to three months, sealed in a plastic bag, and mailed across the country in a normal envelope.
"The peat moss is like the consistency of moist pipe tobacco," he said. Randall has gotten fish eggs through regular mail from as far away as South America. The moss is simply dumped into a tank for the eggs to hatch.
Cold weather can be a problem for the eggs, so sometimes, chemical hand-warmers are placed into envelopes. "We are getting near the end of the season when you can mail fish without that," he said.
Other killifish species are "egg scatterers" that place eggs on floating plants, or as in Randall’s tank, on yarn tufts. He hand picks out eggs, each of which is only slightly larger than the period at the end of this sentence.
"I’ve got bread and butter fish, things that are not that rare," he said. But amateur breeders have been known to pay up to $100 for a pair of exotic specimens, said Randall.
The dedication of killifish fanciers has kept at least one rare species from going extinct. In Randall’s basement, one tank is labeled for a species known as Walkeris GT2/74. "Due to the loss of its natural habitat in Africa, this species no longer exists in the wild," Randall said.
His interest in the hobby was sparked during a round of random Internet surfing in 1999, said Randall. He sports an American Killifish Association T-shirt celebrating the 40th anniversary of its first convention in 1962.
And he is by no means a large breeder. A killifish fancier in Catskill runs 300 tanks at once, Randall said.
"I like this hobby because it is something that you can do at home," he said, as air hoses dangling from the ceiling recycled through the tanks with a soothing background gurgling. "I can come down into this room, and it is like my therapy."
Nearing can be reached at 454-5094 or by e-mail at bnearing@timesunion.com.
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