Krib Aggression

[jamie2010]

evening all.
 
so recently my male krib died,pretty sudden one day he was off colour the next he was dead.i left it a week and popped to my lfs to pick out a new male,they have adoption tanks out back and there was a male needeing a tank so i was happy to re-tank him. now my up tll now very docile female has turned into a lunatic and the male is rarely given the opportunity to leave the sanctury of the top of the tank.
 now i realise that not all partnerships are made in heaven,and pairing up can be tricky but im concerned she will batter him given the chance.
he is bigger than her so im hoping he will find his feet. but in the meantime is there aything i can do to smooth the mood in the cube. food,temp,decor
 
thanks
jamie.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

You've introduced him to her territory so she is defending it. How big is your tank? You say he has to stay at the top which suggests its not very big.

Take her out, rearrange the tank a bit and put her back in after a day or so. That might help. It did once for me.

 

[TooManyChoices]

You say he has to stay at the top which suggests its not very big.

Not sure where the logic is in this statement, regardless of tank size, they all have a top

Take her out, rearrange the tank a bit and put her back in after a day or so. That might help. It did once for me

A lot more logic here. I you throughly rearrange the tank, you can probably put her straight back in, or not remove her at all.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

ou say he has to stay at the top which suggests its not very big.

Not sure where the logic is in this statement, regardless of tank size, they all have a top

 
My logic is that as Kribs are bottom dwelling fish, the only reason I can think of that this one is spending all its time at the top of the tank is that it is ill or there isn't enough space for it at the bottom!

If it can't find space at the bottom it suggests the female has taken all of this area as her territory so he isn't welcome there. If this was a 3-4 foot tank then there should be plenty of space for them to spend their time at opposite ends of it. However, as the OP says the male is at the top of the tank it suggests to me that he can't find any bottom area for himself and therefore the tank must be on the smaller side, hence my question:
 

How big is your tank?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Staying up the top, often in a corner, is classic behaviour for at least West African dwarf cichlids (Kribs, Blockheads etc.) that are acting submissive and would go further away from the dominant fish it it was possible in a longer tank.
 
Try pulling them both out, position at least two caves (on opposite diagonal corners), with a good set of line-of-sight barriers on the diagonal. Then add them both as simultaneously as you can, perhaps with a slight headstart for the male if you have to choose one over the other.

 

[jamie2010]

thanks for the advice guys guys.
 
there is plenty of room in  the tank for both of them,its only stocked with  the kribs.....its a fluval roma 90 .i have today invested in a co2 system. so i  will  rearrange the tank when i  fit this. he just seems to hang at the top bi  the external filter return.
 
i will be back  on  to  let you know how the re introduction goes

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Staying up the top, often in a corner, is classic behaviour for at least West African dwarf cichlids (Kribs, Blockheads etc.) that are acting submissive and would go further away from the dominant fish it it was possible in a longer tank.

Fair enough re behaviour, however I've always had fairly large tanks (minimum of 3ft) so have had space for a few different bottom dwellers along with my Kribs without any major issues and when I've been in a similar situation as the OP (introducing another Krib to make up a pair) it's been ok due to them having their own space initially.
 

thanks for the advice guys guys.
 
there is plenty of room in  the tank for both of them,its only stocked with  the kribs.....its a fluval roma 90 .i have today invested in a co2 system. so i  will  rearrange the tank when i  fit this. he just seems to hang at the top bi  the external filter return.
 
i will be back  on  to  let you know how the re introduction goes

I'd say there's plenty of room for them if they're a pair... My pair patrol an area of my tank around 2 foot wide, sometimes a bit more so if they're not getting on there isn't enough space in your tank for them to co-exist.

Good luck with the re-org though. I think you'll be ok.

 

[char la]

i had kinda the same thing happen to me years ago.
i had a pair of kribs very much in love, bred many times, but i lost the male. i searched around for a new male as big as the other and eventually found one. i put them together expecting that they would pair up like the female did with the last but it wasnt the same. she would court him, breed with him but as soon as the eggs hatched she would attack him. there was other fish in the tank to cause distraction but she would violently attack the male. i had to remove the fry, place her into a trap, sink it with a lid on and place it next to there breeding cave. for the first day she would try to get at the male aggressively, but by day two she would start flirting with him again. so i would release her and the cycle would start all over again. she never did this with the previous male. it was like she was using the second male just to fertilise the eggs