Really Aggressive Female Krib!

[jambo1238]

Hi everyone, I'm a bit confused. I recently added a male and female krib to my rio 125 which contains black ruby barbs, honey gouramis and cardinals.

The female and male immediately hit it of, and spent a lot of time in a certain cave together, I also saw them displaying to each other,
however, now the female has gone psycho and is constantly trying to chase him as well as all of the other fish.

My first thought is that she is protecting eggs, but I always thought that a pair of kribs could live happily in a tank together.

Anyone got any suggestions please?

 

[bullheaduk]

How big are the male and female?

 

[jambo1238]

How big are the male and female?

The male is about 4 inches and the female is about 2 or 3 inches. The female is now attacking the majority of the other tankmates,
not to sure what is going on but this is one aggressive fish. Should I remove the male or female or neither?

 

[bullheaduk]

It seems strange the smaller female being the dominant of the two. it's usually the other way round.
I had a male krib that constamtly harassed the female and had her tail in tatters. They were around the same size. I removed him and she recovered well, then i put a smaller male in. He gets chased by the female now, but no agression.

I would remove the female and exchange her for another (but smaller than the male). See if that restores some harmony in your tank. Good luck.

 

[kribensis12]

two males will not restore harmony. It will make it worse. How long have you had them?

 

[jambo1238]

two males will not restore harmony. It will make it worse. How long have you had them?

I've had them about two weeks, they came from separate shops. As stated in an earlier post, I also wouldn't think that a smaller female would attack a larger male.
At the moment I have removed the male as I was worrying he wouldn't make it, should I take him back and try with a different male?

Also, how is the best way to sex kribs? The shop said that males have a pointed anal fin and females have a round one, they also said that the colour in the dorsal fin
goes all the way to the end in males but stops in females, is this true?

 

[Gilli]

That way of sexing them is correct.

It may well be that she has eggs - sometimes the female wont even let the male as well as any other fish anywhere near them - other pairs will defend them together. Keep an eye on it - as long as she is not doing any damage and just 'chasing' your other fish things may calm down. They are complicated little fish but well worth having!

 

[jambo1238]

Glad to hear that it's not just my krib pair that don't get on well, I'm gonna leave them separate for a week or so, and then try and introduce them to each other again.

Cheers for the help.

 

[Gilli]

I would check to see if she has laid eggs first before removing her because if she has she will need to look after the fry.

 

[bullheaduk]

two males will not restore harmony. It will make it worse. How long have you had them?

I did'nt say 2 males m8

 

[kribensis12]

two males will not restore harmony. It will make it worse. How long have you had them?

I did'nt say 2 males m8

I misread. Sorry about that. The best way to sex them is by body shape. Females have very deep stomachs. They are usually purple or red. Males are torpedo shapes, and may have a red stomach. Females fins are usually rounded, with a lot of gold/yellow on them. Males are usually elongated, with almost no yellow.