rm
Passport
- Family
- Killifish
- Grows to
- 3.5 cm (1.4")
- Lives
- 3–5 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- Near the surface
- Keep
- In a group of 8 or more
- Water
- 20–26 °C (68–79 °F)
GuineaSierra LeoneLiberia
Care requirements
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On record for Clown Killifish: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 38 L / 10.0 US gal
- pH 4–7
- Hardness 1–8 dGH
- Diet micropredator
- Tank length 45 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Clown killifish are named for the tail, which is the whole reason to keep them. It's striped in blue, red and yellow and shaped like a rocket exhaust, and it's carried behind a body barred in cream and black like a tiny wasp.
They hang just under the surface, motionless, and then move in short bursts. Almost everything about them happens in the top inch of the tank — feeding, displaying, spawning — which makes them one of the few fish that genuinely uses a space nothing else does.
They're not annual killifish. Unlike the famous killies whose eggs survive a dry season in mud, these live in permanent forest streams and can be kept year-round as ordinary aquarium fish.
Tank setup
Give your clown killis a still surface and floating plants. They are surface fish, and a covered top with plants trailing in it is where they'll live.
Cover the tank properly. They're accomplished jumpers and an open tank will lose them overnight.
Keep the water soft and acidic with wood and leaf litter. They come from shaded blackwater forest streams and the tannins suit them.
Keep them alone or with tiny, quiet bottom-dwelling company. Anything larger and faster will out-compete them completely.
Keep the flow almost nil. They're weak swimmers built for still water.
Feeding
Clown killifish are surface micropredators with very small upturned mouths.
Feed small live and frozen food floating at the top: baby brine shrimp, daphnia, microworm, cyclops, wingless fruit flies. They hunt what sits on or just below the surface.
Many refuse dried food entirely, and none of them will chase anything that sinks.
Avoid: sinking foods, which are simply wasted, and avoid pellets they cannot fit in.
Filtration and flow
An air-driven sponge filter run very gently, or no mechanical flow at all in a heavily planted tank.
Keep the surface undisturbed. A rippling top is genuinely disruptive to a fish that lives against it.
Soft acidic water shifts easily, so keep water changes small, frequent and matched.
With plants
Clown killifish are entirely safe with plants and depend on floating ones.
Floating plants are the single most important furnishing. Roots trailing down give cover, shade and spawning sites all at once.
Fine-leaved plants and moss near the surface serve the same purpose and catch eggs.
Health
They're hardy once settled and often arrive thin, so small live food for the first weeks makes a real difference.
Jumping is the main hazard by a wide margin. Keep the tank covered and check for gaps around filter pipes.
A fish that has dropped away from the surface and is sitting lower in the tank is usually unwell — for this species, position is a symptom.
Breeding
They spawn continuously rather than in events, laying a few eggs at a time among floating plant roots or in moss near the surface.
The adults mostly ignore the eggs, so in a densely planted species tank fry appear on their own — this is one of the easier killifish to breed by simply leaving it alone.
Fry are minute and stay right at the surface. They need infusoria or a very fine powdered food delivered at the very top before they can manage baby brine shrimp, and feeding them anywhere else is wasted effort.
Tank mates
Avoid25
- Common Pleco Common Pleco grows to 45 cm against Clown Killifish at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Clown Killifish at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Clown Killifish at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Panda Garra Panda Garra grows to 9 cm against Clown Killifish at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Clown Killifish at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
Only with care28
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Clown Killifish is peaceful.
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Clown Killifish and Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid are an uneasy mix: killifish and sth american cichlids - dwarf are a pairing to watch.
- Angelfish Angelfish is a risk to Clown Killifish: angelfish and killifish are a pairing to watch.
- Betta Betta is a risk to Clown Killifish: betta (male) and killifish are a pairing to watch.
- Boeseman's Rainbowfish Boeseman's Rainbowfish is a risk to Clown Killifish: killifish and rainbowfish are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 52 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 3 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.