Krib Help

[werehatwere]

Today I took a trip over to Big Als. I bought a female and a male albino Krib. The female has a very dark red stomach and looks swollen with eggs. The male is beginning to develop a dark red spot. Im not expecting them to be already paired, but IF they do, when do you think that will be? What do you think the chances of them pairing are? The female has been pretty hung up on a rock pile, and is moving sand in and out of it. The male however just swims around, occasionally coming down to check her out, and she chases him away.


So to re-cap,
1: How long will you think it will take them to pair...IF they pair?

2: What do you think the chances of them pairing are?- Forgot to mention, both are about 2 inches long.

[Fishnut]

It's an impossible question to answer, unfortunately because we have no idea how old these fish are...even size sometimes has nothing to do with it.

When it happens it happens

Kribs like to spawn in caves though.  An upside down terracotta flower pot with an entry hole broken out of it is a cheap and much appreciated Krib accessory!

[dpatte]

Kribs are very 'active' (hint hint). They need a hiding place, like a rock cave, or inverted clay flowerpot. They also need tankmates (such as guppies or zebra), or they tend never to come out because though they are 'active' they are often shy in public unless there are other fish oin the tank.

They are incredibly aggressive parent.

The female is the aggressor in the mating of kribs, which is highly unusual in the animal kingdom.

Great Fish!

[dpatte]

P.S. Kribs are definately one of my favourite fish. They can pair off in a day, then have fry 12 days later. I have a nickname for them, but I can't mention it in public LOL.

[werehatwere]

There has been an interesting development!

I was loving my two little albinos so much, that I went back to big al's to buy some more! Unfortunately, the albinos really weren't interested in each other. The female shows off and flirts with him, but he's not interested. He just swims away leaving her heart broken LOL. So when I went back to big als, I scored BIG. I got two 4 inch kribs from  a recent trade in for only $2.99 each! There was a male and female, so I bought them both. One of the attendents at the store said that they had been in  a tank together their whole life, and that if I were to put them in a tank with no other competition , that they would likely pair up. So I put them in the same tank with the two juvenile albino kribs, thinking that 2 little 1.5 inches aren't any competition for 4 inchers.

So today I did a large water change, (about 50%) and that put them into action. They began flirting (The large ones) by shimmying and dancing for each other. Then they went their separate ways! They both went to different caves, and that was the end of that!

I was wondering, do you think that they really do feel threatened by the 2 juvies?
Do you think that they would pair if I remove the two albinos?

Dumb fish 

[dpatte]

They may breed, but if they do, they will attack the albinos. Remove the albinos and add some zebrafish.

[werehatwere]

So my kribs have "staked a claim" in the tank. An old castle where they hang out and chase anyone that comes near lol. I was just wondering, dose this female look like shes in breeding mode? Im not really sure if this is what shes supposed to look like. The male stays inside the castle all day long. Today I actually checked make sure to make sure that he was even alive...he never comes out! He just leaves the female to defend his territory all day. I dont know if there is any spawning behaviour goig on, because I never see the male!

what do you think hes doing? Dose she look like she wants to spawn?

[dpatte]

This looks like they are ready to spaen or have spawned already. Lave them be, and be prepared for a smaill shool of babies next week. When they come out, he kribensis will attack anything that comes near them.

[werehatwere]

Well when I lifted up the cave to see if the male was okay, no eggs. Also, its frustrating because I never see the male, so I have no idea if they have had any spawning behaviour. The substrate is a large river, pebal, rock thing, that they have no hope of moving if they wanna "clean the cave" together. Could this be a problem?

[werehatwere]

*UPDATE*

So the male actually IS comming out of the tank to chase away other fish. I guess I just haven't been seeing him lol.

They are both going out of their way across the WHOLE tank (4ft) to chase away the other pair of kribs. Theyve never done that before. Normally both just keep away, but the male and female are are being really aggressive all of a sudden. The female is even going to the top of the tank (32 inches up) to chase away the harmless guppies that are swimming on the surface.  The female has reached a new level of red. I had no choice but to move the other kribs into a 40, because of the aggression. There has NEVER been this much aggression before, so what do you think is going on?

[dpatte]

Kribs are great fish, one of my favourites, but once they spawn, or are close to spawning, they are extremely aggressive, which is why i recommended having zebrafish or other fast fish as dithrs in the tank. They are the best parents of all cichlids.

remove any fish you like but keep a few dithers in the tank, or the kribs will get nervous, maybe never come out.

Sounds like they have now laid eggs, or are close. Don;t disturb the parents or they may not breed again.

[werehatwere]

I think that there doing the whole "cave searching" ritual now. There swimming to all of the different caves in the tank, and testing them out.

They have lots of guppies, tetras, and a few other things to chase around 

[werehatwere]

The albinos have been moved to a safe house lol. A 40 gallon community. They are fitting in nicely. Unfortunately, the pair hasn't spawned yet. The female is still red and round. Its odd, I noticed that the male only comes out of his castle, at night. NOT when the tank light is turned off, but when its actually night time. Like past 9pm. The tank light is still on, but hell only come out then. Weird right?

Anyways, the female is scavenging around the rock, and is getting fatter and redder. I want them to hurry up with their spawning, because we are leaving to our cottage in Mont Tremblant for 2 weeks, and if they had fry, Id like to be around to watch them. Anyways, Ill just have to be patient 

Any thing I can do to help them along in the process? Anything that will kick em into spawning?

And thanks for all the advice so far,its really helped me out