Kribs Compatibility Question!

[JSkeleton]

Hi all!

I'm new here, and this will be my first post =)

When I was a kid I was really into keeping fish, though always simple stuff like live bearers, and such. I've also bred Convicts (super easy) as a kid.

Recently got back into fish keeping, and snagged a couple Kribs (male and female) for a 50Gal. My question though, is what I could throw in with them to add life to the tank. Obviously 2 Kribs (which tend to be very shy if I might add), are not all I'd like to keep. I would like to be able to successfully breed the Kribs though. Can this be done (while having a handful of fry survive) in any kind of Community Tank? If so which fish can dwell with them?

I currently have 3 Diamond Tetras in with them. I heard most Tetras (besides Sepraes) are okay and possibly even good dither fish with Kribs? I've actually noticed the Female Krib come out and swim around WAY more since adding the Diamonds!

I was considering possibly a small school of Diamonds, possibly Emperors (unless there's something better?) and maybe something else? Thoughts? Compatibility, while not having the Kribs eat/kill any other fish, and not having those fish bother the Kribs or eat ALL potential fry?

Which fish would be good for such, if any?

Sorry for the lengthy post! Trying to learn =) Thanks in advance !

Tank On!

[JSkeleton]

Oh yeah, one other thing to note! I do have a 30 Gallon in the living room too (50 is in the "man cave" if you will haha), and I thought of taking all the fish from the 30 (3 Guppies, 3 Neons, 8 Bolivians) and putting them in the 50, and putting the Kribs in the 30 alone.. But my Wife wants a variety of fish to view in the living room haha.

BUT I could potentially move around and swap fish between the 2 tanks if need be. That's if there isn't really many or any fish that'd be good with the Kribs in the 50 for what I want (mentioned in OP).

[exv152]

Kribs are probably the easiest fish to breed by a long shot. A fellow hobbyist gave me a couple to try out about a year or two ago, and I now have about 16 plus fry. They'll get along fine with most fish as long as they're not breeding or protecting fry. Then they turn absolutely demonic and insane, and they'll attack anything that comes close. They are African cichlids after all. Beautiful colours though.

[JSkeleton]

Kribs are probably the easiest fish to breed by a long shot. A fellow hobbyist gave me a couple to try out about a year or two ago, and I now have about 16 plus fry. They'll get along fine with most fish as long as they're not breeding or protecting fry. Then they turn absolutely demonic and insane, and they'll attack anything that comes close. They are African cichlids after all. Beautiful colours though.

Hey, thanks for the reply! Yeah, I heard Kribs were pretty easy to breed, and they look pretty cool too! I've heard some horror stories of the Male becoming crazy when breeding, towards other fish. I've also heard other stories where other fish were fine.

Do you think it'd be a bad idea to have a couple schools of Tetras in with them in a 50, or should it be okay? Also, I guess Tetras would be the only potentially safe fish that would be compatible or are there others?

[exv152]

Do you think it'd be a bad idea to have a couple schools of Tetras in with them in a 50, or should it be okay? Also, I guess Tetras would be the only potentially safe fish that would be compatible or are there others?

Kribs are usually fine with most fish. They tend to be crazy only when breeding/rearing. They're also more aggressive toward their own kind. But your fish selection should be fine, and having a spare tank on-hand just in case, is not a bad idea either. I've kept kribs with angelfish, tetras, barbs, corydoras, SAE's, loaches, etc. They're generally compatible with most fish.

[JSkeleton]

Oh, okay! Thanks again!

So you've had Kribs breed in a Community no problem?

My initial thinking behind the 50 was to have a nice natural Eco System where I could breed at least one kind of fish in it successfully. I figured Kribs with some schooling fish might be simple enough.

That said, say I had an empty 50, what would be your personal suggestions of building an Eco System? Just curious some other options for the future perhaps. (If I ever decide to start a fresh Eco System).

[Mike L]

 Your on the right track with the tetras. Kribs  will hide unless the dithers are present. The movement of the dithers tells them that it is safe to come out. Stay away from any fish that occupy the substrate area. Their preferred territory. Give them some rockwork that create small caves and lots of plants. Might want to consider a mid-water swimmer like a barb as a target fish. The target fish will help with pair bonding but will come to no harm as the pair will just chase it away but not relentlessly.
Shoot some pics to the forum when set up.
Mike

[JSkeleton]

Your on the right track with the tetras. Kribs  will hide unless the dithers are present. The movement of the dithers tells them that it is safe to come out. Stay away from any fish that occupy the substrate area. Their preferred territory. Give them some rockwork that create small caves and lots of plants. Might want to consider a mid-water swimmer like a barb as a target fish. The target fish will help with pair bonding but will come to no harm as the pair will just chase it away but not relentlessly.
Shoot some pics to the forum when set up.
Mike

Hey Mike! Thanks for the response!

The Tank is set up with the 2 Kribs and currently 3 Diamond Tetras. I did notice the Kribs have come out a lot more since putting the 3 Diamonds in! The Male is still the most skittish though.

As for scaping, I already blew my budget big time and was only able to get some fake plants and such. 2 bushy fake plants, 2 of the more long leaf fake plants, I have a small to medium sized Castle that the Kribs have taken a liking to, and I have 1 small ceramic flower pot, and 1 Medium sized ceramic flower pot.

I want to get some more plants when I can afford it, as well as a sunken Pirate Ship I've been eyeballing that can act as another cave perhaps. Does that all sound like a solid set up, or would you still recommend including a couple big rocks and what not?

I was thinking of adding a school of maybe Emperor Tetras and adding 3 more Diamonds (for a total of 6)? Thoughts? Also, aren't Barbs usually fin nippers? Wouldn't they bug the Tetras?

[Kelly]

Kribs lay their eggs on the under side of a cave or pot so in order to breed successfully you need to have some sort of cave for them. I've bred many batches of Kribs very successfully. I have a 220 gallon community tank where I first housed the kribs where they went about their usual digging and building a nest and not really bothering other fish until they had fry and then Satan moved in. They are fantastic parents, very protective of their fry to the point that every other fish in the tank was in jeopardy and I don't mean the game show. In a couple of days they (both) mom and dad had killed 5 of my community fish and had the rest of the fish stressed out. I had to remove them and all the fry to a 55 gallon and put in 10 danios as dither fish thinking that these fish stay near the top of the tank so they shouldn't be harmed, WRONG, they killed all of them off within a couple of weeks.

Long story short, I wouldn't try to breed kribs in a community tank again, the parents will hide but will come out to take the fry for a swim around the tank frequently so you will get to see them often and when the fry get big enough they swim around the tank without their parents so you see them a lot.

I just gave away around 100 fry in last few weeks and will take a break from breeding kribs for a while.