Kribs - Paired For Life Or Can They Swap (in This Case To Daughter)?

[Miles_hot]

We have allowed a "situation" to develop through time constraints - our kribs managed to raise a daughter and we have left her in the tank till she is as big as her mother. We think we know which is which as one looks "younger" - less thick set and somehow more "smooth" however this one seems to have taken up with the male - the other which we thought was the mother has been chased off into the weeds and "daughter" seems to have moved into the family cave.

I thought these fish mated for life but can the male take up with his daughter? Or have we just got confused?

We're going to try to compare Rosy to her picture from a year ago to see if we can identify which one is the mother and which the daughter however I thought I'd ask this question as well.

Many thanks

Miles
Cross posted from new world as I put it in the wrong place apparently but there's some replies there so I don't want to delete that one.

 

[MrsM]

Ooo not sure but id be interested to know, ill go check out your other thread too

 

[ColR1948]

Miles have you got the Kribs on a tank on their own or with other fish?

The reason I ask is I made the mistake a while ago by separating the Kribs and putting them in a tank on their own, all they did was hide all day and I spotted them daring to come out when it was dark.
I got advised they like 'Dither Fish' swimming about then they feel safe and come out, the tank I put them in was too small for Dithers so I moved them again to a larger tank with a 5 x Danio as Dithers, this did the trick.
They came out of hiding and swan around the tank, they took up residence under a fake tree root then spawned.
They have around 70 fry and mum and dad guard them all the time, I got worried for the fry so removed the dithers but they still swim around the tank with the fry.
Great to watch, sometime mum will go off and dad minds them and as she returns he goes off then you see them both guarding the fry as they move about, also see the parents go for a stray and get it in their mouth and spit it back in the bunch again.

 

[Miles_hot]

ColR

Yes I have them in with Tiger Barbs, Odessa Barbs and Dwarf Chain Loaches.

They've had various broods but the other fish eat them. The last brood had more luck as they could hid in amongst an outbreak of moss. Since three of the fry survived (2 have gone now but we couldn't catch baby rosy and now she's got big). Since we had these survivors mum and dad don't seem to have tried for another brood but that's not too upsetting.

Coincidently the last brood was the first time that mum and dad (Big Bad burt and Rosy) had managed to act as a team for the whole process - normally one chases the other off as if they think that they can do a better job than the other one! It's a right soap opera

Regards

Miles

 

[ColR1948]

Thanks for the reply Miles, I like to read of other people's Krib stories.
I looked in on mine earlier and everything is still the same as my above post, mom and dad taking them around the tank, it's funny because now they are on their own in there with no other fish to worry about they are still guarding them, so it must be an instinct thing.

 

[Miles_hot]

sadly I think our tigers (the dither fish) are currently trapped between the two rosies - one in the old stamping ground and one that has taken up in the other rocks! We'll have to take one of them out for the good of the tank.

 

[ColR1948]

I was watching mine earlier and noticed the group were all at one end but I spotted a stray at the other end, luckily they are on their own or it would have been fish food.

I kept my eye on it but it disappeared in the rocks, but eventually the group came to this end so hopefully they picked it up or it found them.