Kribensis Unwilling To Breed

[HippoHen]

Many years ago i had a successful pair of kribensis, who bred in my tank numerous times. However this was many years ago and the fish have since gone to the big tank in the sky. I went of kribensis for a while, however i have now decided to try them again. I have had the female for a few years, and introduced a male into the tank a few months back. It seems that the pair have not really "paired up" as such. The female is extremely bright and colourfull as is the male, so look like they are up to the job lol. However occaisonly they show some mating behaviour and go into their cave, but only one in the cave at a time. They show mating behaviour only it seems when they bump into eachother in the tank, then afterwards go their separate ways and then do it again. Please help. I have tried to take a video of their behaviour but every time i get close to the tank they think its dinner time and come to the upper level of the tank. So I have tried to take a video from a bit further away.......



Excuse the extremely poor quality.
So any ideas as to what I can do to encourage them to breed?

Any advice much appreciated

 

[SchottayB]

Is the female too old and passed it? Try getting another two in the tank and hope one will pair up?

 

[HippoHen]

Is the female too old and passed it? Try getting another two in the tank and hope one will pair up?

Now that you mention it the female must be atleast 4 years old, is this too old? From the vid, do you think I have enough room for another pair? they are the only fish obn the lower level. The only other fish are tetras: harlequins, bloodfins, neons, and a lonely black widdow.

 

[micko]

Kribs are not like mollies and guppies, they pick their partner, not the fish keeper. Introduce about 6 in total if you have the room and wait for them to pair off, then sell the rest.

 

[HippoHen]

Kribs are not like mollies and guppies, they pick their partner, not the fish keeper. Introduce about 6 in total if you have the room and wait for them to pair off, then sell the rest.

Cheers for the advice there. But do kribs that are not "a pair" sometimes show mating behavior like mine are doing? As you can see from the vid, I dont think i have enough room for 6.

Henry

 

[micko]

I'm really not sure about that, best to get proper advice from someone more experienced with kribs than me giving you bad advice.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

 

[kribensis12]

She may be to old. But I am thinking that if she were too old, then she wouldn't even have breeding colors and she would flirt with him. my advice? Do weekly water changes of 25 percent, and feed them blackworms. That might get them going.

 

[HippoHen]

Just done a a 20% water change, and am defrosting some blood worm for them If anything happens ill let you know.

 

[HippoHen]

Hey guys sorry to make it look like im bumping my own thread here. Have been doing regular water changes and varying their diet but still no success. However i tested my aquarium water today and the ammonia level is 0.1 which is good, but the ph is around 8.5, am i right in thinking a more neutral ph is needed for kribs? How can i bring the ph down?
Also here are a couple of pics of the kribs.

Here are both the male and female, you can see that they are both very brightly colured

Here are 2 of the caves that the female likes to be in, the one at the back is half a coconut. She is showing what i think are breeding signs, swimming up to the male showing her belly, and shimmering(if thats a word) to the male but the male doesnt seem to be that interested

Oh and the eggs on the bogwood are eggs from my zebra snails to avoid any confusion.

Any help very appreciated

 

[elisew]

The setup and decor looks ok, they have cave areas which is good but my concern would be the ammonia reading you got after a water change. Ammonia and nitrite should be at a constant 0 at all times, anything over that should be brought down with bigger water changes. What test are you using?

As kribs are Africans the ph is fine, just concentrate on getting your ammonia to 0. There's never a guarantee that fish will pair, maybe they just aren't interested in each other enough, have you thought about exchanging the male you have now for another one?

 

[KittyKat]

Check your tap ammonia before you panic though. If it is over 0 ppm, use a dechlorinator which will deal with it (Prime, Stress Coat, etc).

I wouldn't worry about the pH and hardness too much, but if you really want to lower both, I would recommend adding lots of bogwood and letting the tannins do the work.

 

[HippoHen]

The setup and decor looks ok, they have cave areas which is good but my concern would be the ammonia reading you got after a water change. Ammonia and nitrite should be at a constant 0 at all times, anything over that should be brought down with bigger water changes. What test are you using?

As kribs are Africans the ph is fine, just concentrate on getting your ammonia to 0. There's never a guarantee that fish will pair, maybe they just aren't interested in each other enough, have you thought about exchanging the male you have now for another one?

Hey there, test kit made by Interpet, which is called "Easy Test". I did a large water test throughout today (roughly 40%) and here are the results. I treated the tap water before the water change. What could be the reason for this high ammonia? Ive havent cleaned the external filter for just over a month, could it be waste build up in that? Yeh ive thought about maybe getting another 2 and seeing if any pair up then giving away the 2 that have not paired, does that sound like a good idea?

 

[KittyKat]

Hey there, test kit made by Interpet, which is called "Easy Test". I did a large water test throughout today (roughly 40%) and here are the results. I treated the tap water before the water change. What could be the reason for this high ammonia? Ive havent cleaned the external filter for just over a month, could it be waste build up in that? Yeh ive thought about maybe getting another 2 and seeing if any pair up then giving away the 2 that have not paired, does that sound like a good idea?

You can't know if the ammonia is coming from tap water until you test some dechlorinated tap water. It would be silly to make guesses when you have a test kit.

Yes, it could be the reduced filter efficiency which is causing it. To clean the filter, swirl the sponges in old aquarium water (never use tap water).

Yes, it does sound like a good idea to keep only two our of four.

 

[HippoHen]

Hey guys! Just thought id update this thread with a good old video



These are not the pair that are mentioned previously in this thread, I introduced this pair to the tank while the original pair were still in it. It didnt seem to go well atall at first. The new pair hid behind a piece of bogwood for about a week, and the male got a pretty rough time from the original male I thought id give it a week and see if anything improves, or ill remove them. Anyway a week later i saw that the new pair were a lot more confident and were guarding the left hand side of the tank. Im sure you can guess the rest of the story...... Anyway the original pair that didnt want to breed have been moved to a friends 4 foot tank, as they were stressing out the other pair by trying to eat their babies!! The fry are now over 2 weeks old and are very adventurous an are doing very well

 

[minnnt]

congratulations!