By Al Winstel
This article first appeared in the GCKA Newsletter in May 1981.
The rearing and breeding of killies, just like any other earthly endeavor, is governed by certain immutable laws with which all killie keepers are familiar. However, it may help to restate a few, for newcomers to the hobby, and also for reconsideration by the advanced hobbyist.
1. All killies used to be bigger, prettier, and harder to breed.
2. Any killie raised in a foreign country is bigger, prettier, and harder to breed.
3. If you have a trio of fish and one dies, it’s always the male. The reverse holds for reverse trios.
4. A fish’s lifespan is inversely proportional to the price you paid for it at the auction.
5. Rare fish jump higher and can get through smaller openings.
6. Killie spawning and survival are unrelated to water chemistry, food, or the time lavished on the fish. The actual governing factor is probably sunspots, the stock market, or divine intervention (but only if God is a woman). [Ed. Note: “Careful, there …”]
7. If your mail-in wins Best of Show, it’ll die in the return mail.
8. If you work out a trade with another killie keeper, the only pair of fish he wants will die the night before the fish he mails arrives.
9. The optimum hatching date for peat stored eggs is generally the day after you give up and throw them out.
10. No one knows how wet pipe tobacco really is.
— G.C.K.A. Newsletter, May 1998