A clown killifish record that does not begin with the lid is missing its most important page. These miniature surface dwellers live at the top of the water, launch themselves with surprising power for their size, and find gaps that look impossibly small. Start the log on arrival day with the security of the cover, the floating plants at the surface they inhabit, and the individual patterns of the males, and the record becomes a practical safety document as well as a natural history of a beautiful little fish.
Arrival entry: numbers, patterns, and the surface they own
Record how many clown killifish you bought, the sex split as far as you can tell it, and where they came from, then photograph the males once they have settled and their vertical banding and lyre-shaped tails show properly. Log the tank they entered in surface terms first: its temperature and test results, the floating plants or surface cover provided, and the stillness or gentle flow at the top, because clown killifish are built for calm surface water and a strong current changes how they feed and rest.
The cover log: gaps found and gaps sealed
Give the lid its own dated section in the clown killifish record and treat it as seriously as the water diary. On day one, write down the cover arrangement: full lid, mesh, or glass, and walk the rim noting every opening around filter pipes, cables, and feeding hatches, with the fix you applied to each. Update the entry whenever equipment changes, because a new filter or a rerouted cable quietly opens a fresh escape route beside the old sealed one. If a fish is ever found out of the water, record where and through which gap as best you can judge, painful as it is to write; that entry is the one that prevents the next loss.
Surface feeding, tiny foods, and who eats first
Clown killifish feed at the film of the water, so their food log should describe presentation as much as menu. Record the small floating and live foods you offer, the amount, and how you deliver it to the surface near the plants where the fish wait, noting whether food sinks past them uneaten, because a meal that drops is a meal missed for this species. Track which individuals feed boldly and which hover at the edge of the group, since in a small school the shy fish can thin out while the bold ones thrive on the same offerings. Keep the water diary alongside: temperature, test results, and your careful small water changes, made gently so the surface world these fish live in is disturbed as little as possible.
Displays, eggs, and the upper-water social diary
Note the social life of the surface in a short weekly entry. Clown killifish males display to females and each other among the floating plants, and logging who displays, where eggs appear in mops or plant roots if you provide them, and what you do with those eggs turns casual keeping into a documented breeding picture. Record additions and losses with the circumstances as you understand them, and any change in confidence across the group, such as fish abandoning the surface for mid-water, which can point to a surface problem worth investigating. Write your threshold for seeking aquatic advice, for example several fish refusing surface food together, and file responses with the entries that prompted them.
Maintained this way, the killifish log protects the fish physically while chronicling them properly. KinsLe's Pet Passport means the killifish file opened before a holiday, a house move, or a change of hands already answers the questions a worried substitute would otherwise phone you about.