A fish whose whole life runs on a one-year calendar. Annual killifish live in seasonal pools that dry up completely each year — the adults die when the water goes, but their eggs survive buried in the mud in a state of suspended animation called diapause, hatching when the rains return. In the aquarium, that means you keep the adults for about a year and continue the line by incubating eggs in damp peat, exactly as nature does.

Keeping them is easy: most need a small unheated tank (16–20 °C), soft water, a tight lid, and live or frozen foods. Breeding them is the adventure — spawning into peat, drying the eggs, and wetting them months later. Every species we sell has a passport with the exact water parameters, feeding plan, and step-by-step breeding protocol.

It identifies the wild population a line descends from — the country, year, and collecting trip. Keeping lines true to their collection code preserves the natural population in captivity and is standard practice in the killifish hobby. It is a pedigree, not a price tag.

Reserve holds the fish for you with no payment — we then contact you to arrange payment and shipping or pickup. Direct checkout is coming online shortly; reserved fish always keep their place in line.

Yes — on the first delivery attempt. Photograph any loss in the unopened bag within 2 hours of delivery and contact us; we replace or refund, your choice. We also hold shipments for dangerous weather rather than risk the fish.

They are micro-predators: live foods first (baby brine shrimp, daphnia, blackworms, grindal worms), frozen second, dry foods rarely. Each species passport includes a feeding plan by life stage, from day-one fry to conditioning adults for spawning.

A free account lets you watch any species — you will be first to know when it is available again. Annual killifish come in waves (eggs hatch when we wet the peat), so watching is the reliable way to catch a species you want.

To protect wild populations. Our maps generalize every location to the river basin. The hobby has seen sensitive habitats damaged by over-collection after coordinates were published; we will not contribute to that.