Kribs May Have Bred

[Fishy_7]

I have a pair of Kribs that seem to have bred. Female is almost exclusively in a coconut shell cave and male is standing guard and chasing away cories that venture too close. I have read that Kribs do make good parents but are tue fry likely to survive in a tank that has a shoal of Odessa barbs, Angel fish, festivum, Cories and a couple of Bolivian Rams? I do not intend to remove the fry from the tank as I do not have a spare tank to move them too. Do they stand much of a chance of surviving?

Thanks.

 

[SchottayB]

I'm not sure on the survival rate. But I'm intrested... do the Kribs bully the Rams or Angels while breeding? Word of mouth is they are a pain when breeding!

I'd love to get a couple, but worried about my Rams and Angel Fish your input would be great, thanks!

And good luck with the fry

 

[Ben M]

Kribs are known to have fought off fish 4x their size whilst protecting fry. The most likely time for the fry to be eaten is if a few wander off, and then they will be picked off by the other fish. Unfortunately, kribs are very aggressive when breeding. It isn't a good idea to keep them with corydoras or other slow bottom dwelling fish, as they will bully them, especially corys, who will be nipped constantly and may eventually die or just be ill and unhappy. When I got rid of my kribs from my 4ft, the corys immediately became much more active, the change in their character was amazing.

cheers

 

[micko]

I haven't had the experience myself but I know a few friends who have had bad experiences whilst their kribs were breeding. Kribs are well known to be very aggressive whilst breeding and minding their fry.

 

[Fish Guy]

It's hard breeding any fish in a community tank and keeping the fry alive. In a tank by themselves I even found that the male will eat the fry after a few weeks when he wants to breed again. So the chances of the krib fry reaching maturity in a cichlid community tank might be somewhat slim. Also as mentioned above, it's hard on all the fish in the tank, including the parents. Stress levels get pretty high when half of the tank is occupied by a breeding pair.

 

[Fishy_7]

Thanks for the input - I figured as much. I posted the thread when I was out on my phone. When I got home and put some food in the tank, both male and female were zooming around eating and seemed to have abandoned the cave. Looks like it was either a false alarm or something has gone wrong.

Are the parents known to abandone the cave in hunger? First time I have seen the female leave the cave in 4 days.

- SchottayB - to give you my experience, I have kept a few kribs but it purely is down to the fish's individual character. I had a male that was chasing everything when it wasn't breeding. I traded that in and got the one I have now. This one seems very docile. While it was guarding the cave entrance, it would only give chase if the fish - Cories in my case, got very close. When the offending swam off, it would just return to where it was.

 

[Gunngee]

My Kribs haven't been all that aggressive. They do chase any other fish that comes near their cave including my big Pleco. I was surprised however that my gold gourami doesn't even try to fight back when getting chased away.

 

[Fish Guy]

Like mentioned before, every cichlid can be very different. When I had my pair of kribs, I found that the parents would eat all the time. But wouldn't stray too far from the nest. Best think to do is to keep an eye on their behavoir and have a look at the cave/nest entrance for any fry that may be free swimming. If it is the parents first spawn they could have messed up as most cichlids do on their first, but they'll figure it out.

 

[Tizer]

I had my Kribs breeding in my 4 foot tank and they basically claimed the left hand side to themselves, although they did allow a trio of corys i have to stay down their end, rarely chasing them.

From what i can tell, their agression doesnt involve any biting/nipping and simply relies on intimidation.

Your fry should be ok in your tank but of the 40/50 that start out i would only expect half a dozen to reach maturity. Good luck

I have Bolivian Rams in my tank too, with the Kribs they got along fine, but they are relatively young and did end up getting pushed around themselves a little.

In the end i got a bit annoyed with how agressive they get and how often they spawned, it was a little too much, so i've since moved them into my Tiger barb tank along with the 5 Juvenile kribs i got with the first spawn. Spawning Kribs is fun the first time around, amazing to watch, but it kind of loses its appeal quickly, as there isnt any real effort or trick to get them to spawn and you just end up with loads of fry which you have to get rid of, which around my way is quite hard as every lfs has loads of kribs already!

I wouldnt recommend Kribs go into a tank thats under 4 foot long if you want to breed them, as mentioned before, their demands for space when they move their fry around is quite high. Im hoping they dont actually spawn in my 90 litre, i'll be a tad annoyed if they do and i'll be looking to rehome them. bleh.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Please keep a close eye on those corydoras, Kribs have an awful reputation for pecking their eyes out when breeding. Do you have another tank that could accomodate either the Krib family, or one that could have bullied fish moved to a sancturay, just in case the worst happens? If not, Tescos amongst many others sell plastic storage containers for <£20 that could do the job.

 

[Fishy_7]

Thanks of the feedback. Still unsure as to whether they have actually bred. This is the 3-4 day since I noticed they were in the cave a lot. Over the past 2 days, the male has been swimming around the tank more and sometimes the females joins him. But then, the would retreat back to the cave. This morning, I noticed the female out and about but the male was in the cave. When she returned, the male came out like he was relieved from duty.

Still early for fry (it there is some) for them to come out I suppose.

I would love to have the Kribs in there own tank but the boss has ruled "NO!"

 

[mark2109111]

I enjoyed my kribs while i had them but when they killed my yellow dwarf cichlids it was time for them to go

 

[guppi]

They probley wont finish the breeding it takes them a few goes before they get it right.