Large Male Kribensis With Small Female

[MrNiceGuy]

i have a large male kribensis thats been in a new 10 gallon tank (cycled filter) for about a week. he's probably full grown. today, i went to the store where i ordered a female and i was disappointed to find that the only females they had were about half the size of my male. i bought one anyway because i took the bus all the way to the store, and i dont have anywhere else to buy kribs.

im afraid the male may become aggressive with the female, so i took the male out, cleaned out the tank (there was plant debris everywhere because i didn't rinse off the new plants), and did a full water change. about 5 minutes ago i put the female in the tank by herself, the males still in a bucket.


the tank is well sheltered with 2 nice caves and plant coverage (wisteria and whatnot). despite cleaning the tank, i did put it back together pretty much exactly the way it was before the clean... i know it might've helped to rearrange but i kinda had my heart set on the first arrangement.


so is my male going to destroy my female, or will they be alright?

 

[MrNiceGuy]

anybody? a quick reply would be nice because i have them both in the tank now and its about midnight. i'd like to be able to sleep tonight knowing they aren't going to kill eachother. the male is freaked out because, while out of the tank, he jumped out of the bowl i had him in, fell off the table, and landed on the dusty basement floor for about 2 minutes. i discovered this, went crazy looking for him, threw him in some clean water from another tank, and he recovered in a few minutes.

he seems relatively okay now. hes been nipping the female a little bit but nothing too serious. the female doesn't seem to mind, she stays by his side despite the nipping. this is just throughout the first 5 minutes though, i dont know if it'll get worse.

 

[the biffster]

the male is normally a little
larger than the female i am a
bit concerned about the size
of tank you have them in i would
say it was a bit on the small size
for a pair i would say 20+ gallons
for a pair but that's the way i look
at it if she is not moving from his
side i should think they would be OK
but like i say tanks size she as know were to
run if she needs to

 

[angelfishguy]

its the female you have to watch, when trying to get a pair get the biggest male you can and a female thats smaller, there shouldnt be a problem with your two fish, sounds good to me

 

[MrNiceGuy]

alright, a day later i had a real hard time finding the female... but i did eventually. shes in the corner of the tank hiding and every now and then the male comes over and nips her. she looks pretty freaked out, should i let this go on for a while or act immediately?

the male is normally a little
larger than the female

just to clarify, the female is not a little smaller, shes a lot smaller... literally half the size. the male seems to be a full grown adult while the female is somewhat of a juvenile. even the males at the store with my female were much smaller than my male.

 

[kribensis12]

Okay, this is how it works. The female SHOULD be smaller than him. They are quite feisty. The larger the male the easier it is for him to subdue her, as she will bully him. The males, unless trying to steal the batch of babies from the female, or trying to protect territory, are pretty chill. They just relax around the tank. THe females though are very territorial and aggressive (at least they can be), and therefore require a larger male as her mate or she'd kill him. This is all from personal experience, and reading 100's of articles.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

Okay, this is how it works. The female SHOULD be smaller than him. They are quite feisty. The larger the male the easier it is for him to subdue her, as she will bully him. The males, unless trying to steal the batch of babies from the female, or trying to protect territory, are pretty chill. They just relax around the tank. THe females though are very territorial and aggressive (at least they can be), and therefore require a larger male as her mate or she'd kill him. This is all from personal experience, and reading 100's of articles.

i understand, my problem is that the male was there first and is therefore protecting territory. ever since i added the female (2 days ago) he has forced her into hiding in plant foliage. so what should i do?

 

[kribensis12]

Take them both out, completely redo the tank, and put them in at the same time, or the female in first.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

Take them both out, completely redo the tank, and put them in at the same time, or the female in first.

hm... i feared this would be the only solution. i really like the way the tank is right now though. how about this, could i try the rearrange method for a while then switch back once they pair up?

 

[kribensis12]

I wouldn't mess with it. Just re-arrange it. Make it completely different so there are no recognized boundaries.

 

[MrNiceGuy]

I wouldn't mess with it. Just re-arrange it.

lol kinda the same thing eh?

anyway, i rearranged it completely about 2 days ago and the situation hasn't gotten too much better. the male still nips and chases the female, but he's less territorial now. the male has pretty much claimed the left half of the tank while the female stays to the right. its better in a way because the female isn't constantly forced to stay out of sight, but the male still isn't interested. any ideas?

 

[vanderdraay]

im just curious is the female a male ? no one has asked this question yet and ive found the kribs ive had always got on ,when sexed right ,just a thought .ive got a fully grown female that pesters all the other tank shes about 2 n half inch and got quite a character she wont think anything of bullying my leafish out of a place she wants to ge to .i think she was the reason my male died actually .but such a lovely looking fish .

 

[kribensis12]

Do you have a picture?

 

[roadmaster]

Sometimes with cichlids the male is quite interested in the female but if the female is too young for breeding, and shows no interest in breeding, (too young) then male can become overly aggressive.
I agree that 10 gal is too small for the small female to avoid the advances of the male and eventually the female may become stressed to the point that she becomes sick if she isn't picked apart first.