Dad's Duty As A Male Kribensis

[Seal36]

I wanted to know more about what the male Is suppose to do when the female is looking after eggs other than fertilising them. I am asking because I'm pretty sure my new female kribensis has eggs as she has not let the cave all day. The new male kribensis has not been more than 1 body length away from the cave entrance all day too. I can't see in the cave but Im pretty certain there are eggs. The weird thing for me is when I had my last pair of kribensis which had 6 batches off eggs (no wrigglers) is that the male would swim around the tank not bothering to protect the spawning site and the female would go around chase him then come back into the cave as there behaviour is different What I wanted to know is if this male is doing what a male kribensis is suppose to do when there are eggs around, I know bellandshandy if that's there's username can't remember it off top of my head is on there fourth round of eggs and was interested in her kribensis behaviour. Sorry for the long message from Tom

 

[hobby5]

In nature the female would gard the egg or fry closely and the male would roam the wider territory and expell all other fish. So the male is not supposed to stay close to the eggs/fry. For that reason there are a lot of problems in small tanks where the male is too close to the female and/or has no other fish to expell. So you can have either the female chasing the male or the male chasing the female. Surprisingly, it quite often all works well despite a small tank.

 

[misterpro]

Some guard the nest site, most males just roam the tank though (untill Fry are free swimming that is).

I wouldn't worry. Just keep an eye out tot make dure the parents don't turn on eachother when the Fry reach free swimming stage.

Good luck.

PS: My new juvie couple has 8 day old freeswimmers atm (13 days since hatching). It's epic to watch the parents walk them around the tank...

 

[Seal36]

I have only had this pair 4 days now but have kept kribensis for over a year and only ever had eggs no wrigglers. Hoping these guys are better parents and that the dad is not an egg eater like the last one. Also with this pair I keep seeing the male go in and the female come out or the female go in and the make come out. Does anyone know why they might be doing that, and also this time I have seen both fish in the cave at the same time and never saw that with the other pair. This pair is sneaky though because I could always see if there were eggs with the other pair but this pair have laid the eggs on the side of the cave I can't see and if I try to look closely the male sits Infront of the entrance from Tom

 

[CSnyder00]

They are changing the guard. My Red Jewels used to do this. They would do it multiple times a minute sometimes. This is good parenting. Let them do their thing until the fry are free swimming. They will parent well.