New Kribs!

[bennett]

That would have been nice lljdma06, breeding kribs I mean. Did you get a lot of store credit? Sorry for your loss during Katrina, ever tried looking up those old threads? And thanks for the invite to PM you, I have some questions regarding krib husbandery I was hoping to get some answers to.

at the muddy comment, bennett, but if you say it's a compliment, I'll accept it. Thank you! You too karen84, I appreciate it.

Not a lot, just enough to buy extra bbs for the fry, and chemicals for water treatment and such. They were like rabbits, so I was just glad to have a place that would take them. I got lucky too, his supplier would mostly give him females, and I had mostly males from my spawns, so the owner was able to jack up the price because he would sell them as pairs. Water chemistry affects the sex ration. At least this what I have found with experience and the books I've read about kribs. The more alkaline the water, the more males are present, the more acidic, the more females.

Nope, I don't want to look up the old threads, General Tsaio and Ping(my goldfish) were family pets. Like a dog or cat really, and losing them was really tough on my family and I, so I probably won't look up the old threads for a while yet.

Disco has wood, wood releases tannins, contributing to the "muddy" look. And the substrate is dark and pretty cool, I might add. My tanks are "muddy" too.

i know about tannins i meant that the substrate looks "real" as opposed to my sand that doesn't really look real, if that makes any sense? basically i can imagine that scene not being in a tank...where are mine wouldn't look realistic by comparison.

 

[Discomafia]

I knew it would just be a matter of time. Didn't know why they uprooted my elodea on the right, but now it's obvious. I only noticed when I was doing a w/c yesterday... The female is fanning them diligently, and I hope the first batch goes well. Should I try to get soem bbs or liquidfry and try to keep the fry alive, or should I just wait for a few more spawns when they'll probably be producing more?

 

[Animation]

Bennett sent me the link to this thread on MSN and i said exactly the same.
The substrate looks natural- As opposed to the sand and gravel that most people have.
Where did you get this from if you don't mind?
James

 

[Discomafia]

It's a couple of pounds of sand, a bag of Eco Complete, and a 4 pound bag of Hagen Geosystems fine gravel, which has since been mixed about quite a bit now... Oh yea, the brown bits in there are the remaints of my old gravel. Not too sure what it's brand is, but I can tell you it looked a lot like laterite, and the stuff I had was supposed to be a substrate for planted tanks... I took out most of it, but the small bits remained in with the sand before I added the Eco Complete. Added the abg of Hagen Geosystems fine gravel less than a month ago. HTH.

 

[Shuggieboy]

wondering if maybe you more experienced krib breeders will be able to help me out with mine? Ive had mine for about 2-3 months now, still no breeding. The two kribs have obviously paired up and are doing the old shaking about courtship routine and i have provided them with a pvc plantpot with hole in side. The kribs often do the courtship behaviour just outside the entrance to the cave and often ends up with one of the kribs entering the cave and the other swimming off. Im doing one weekly 10% water change and feeding them flakes and tubifex worm, parameters are ph 6.8, kh 2 gh 3-4. The only thing I can think of is perhaps do more water changes. Any tips for coaxing them to spawn greatly received......................

 

[Discomafia]

Those water params are almost identical to mine, except my pH is at 6.4 or thereabouts... I've always changed 25% of the water twice a week (8 gallons), or 16 gallons a week... Maybe that'd help? Have you tried feeding your kribs live food? Frozen food like bloodworms and brine shrimp have always been a mainstay in my fishs' diet and Harlequin rasboras, cories, guppies, and now kribs, have all bred in my tank. Do you have any wood in your tank? What are the other fish in your tank? Maybe this might contribute towards your kribs not having bred before? Or maybe they're just too young?

You can also try to PM lljdma06, cos' as stated earlier in this thread, she used to breed kribs for several years.

HTH.

 

[Shuggieboy]

The only other fish that are in my tank are 3 mountain minnows and 6 neons, and another krib that just gets harassed into a corner by the pair. Ive got lots of plants and wood in the tank. I did buy some live food a while ago and fed them it over the course of a week, the kribs condition at this time was top class and they were showing all the tell tale signs of breeding though they never spawned. I think im gonna give the 25% water change twice a week a go, it is only a 24x18x12 tank, would this not be too much? i`ll see if i can get some pics of the tank to let you see, it does look very nice.....if i do say so myself!

 

[lljdma06]

Sorry, I haven't looked at this thread for a while, I've been nursing a sick sparkling gourami back to health and dealing with Green water in my 15g. I've been busy.

When dealing with breeding, the water has to be very clean. I had a pH of 7.6, but you can still successfully breed kribs even at that pH. I ended up with mostly male fry. If I am correct, your fry will be predominantly female. As the pH nears 7, the ratio between the sexes is more equal. I would aim for smaller, more frequent water changes. I never did more than twice a week for the adults, though. The other krib could be a part of the problem. Mine bred with Zebra danios in the tank, but Zebra danios kind of just wizz buy in the surface and don't really cause much trouble in the krib's domain. The other krib, however, is perceived as a legitimate threat. The pair won't breed unless they feel secure. The other krib may be hindering it. Yes, it may be cowering in a corner, but that might not be enough for the pair. If you can, try removing the offending krib. The other fish don't appear to be a problem, they are just dither fish.

Another problem is that the eggs are susceptable to fungus. I used to loose batches until I started using a fungicide. When I saw that my kribs were going through the motions, I would dose the tank with a mild fungicide. I used Maroxy at half the recommeded dose. If you have another brand, you may have to experiment with the dosage. I continue this dosing, with small water changes, until the fry are free swimming. Wrigglers are really prone to fungus too. Once they're free-swimming, the fungicide isn't really needed anymore, but that's when your water changes really start. Small daily ones, work really well then. Careful, though parents can be a royal pain when you are cleaning the tank. As the fry grow, you can reduce it to the two the adults need. I kept my free-swimming fry with the parents as long as I could. One month, sometimes a little more, was as long as I got before the parents got the urge to breed again. I've heard stories where the parents kill the previous fry, but my pair never did that, they just drove them away.

Of course, while you're doing all this, you're getting your brine shrimp factory going, right? That was the most annoying part. Hatching brine shrimp. I fed mine 3 times a day, which doesn't seem like much, but my tank was planted and BBS can survive for a time in the tank. Krib fry are very large for egg-layers, and 1 month growth on BBS is very impressive. Adults ate the BBS too. It's been a while, so I don't remember everything they ate, but I have a vague memory that they were eating very fine flake food by then. They were big piggies. I gave them to my LFS when they were about 4-5 months old, or when I could tell for sure the sex. Hope this helps a little.

 

[Shuggieboy]

Thanks for the feedback. With regards to the fungi stuff, i dont think that it is needed at this time because would i be right in saying that if they had spawned then the female or male would constantly be in the cave i have provided or standing guard sort of half in half out of the cave. This has not happened. The female or male has been doing the courtship shaking about and then one of the two of them will go into the cave for a period of time (couple of minutes) and then come back out again. It may be the case that the kribs just havent worked out how to breed yet, ive heard cases of kribs taking as many as 8 or 9 times to get the breeding right and with an average of say 3 weeks between each breeding period you can see this adds up to quite a long time. I changed 25% of the water last night and the kribs have coloured up again, i`ll leave it a few days and do another change and see what happens.......i`ll keep you updated.
Thanks

P.S. Any tips for trying to catch this other krib, my tank is quite heavily planted and has lots of driftwood, god help me

Shuggie.

 

[lljdma06]

P.S. Any tips for trying to catch this other krib, my tank is quite heavily planted and has lots of driftwood, god help me

Shuggie.

Feed the fish, and use two nets. Have fun!

 

[Shuggieboy]

Managed to catch that krib last night, so hopefully my two remaining kribs will get some breeding on the go soon!