Territorial Kribensis

[charlton]

during the week i bought myself a couple of kribs, one of the (the more colourful one) is quite a bully, in the tank is another krib and 2 opaline gourami's and they hardly ever come out anymore cos they just get harrased so they just hide in the corner. is this common or is they anything i can do to improve this situation?

cheers

charlton

 

[dnn3]

it sounds like your bully is a female.yes,kribs are very teritorial.make sure you have plenty of hiding places in your tank.were they sold to you as a pair?

 

[charlton]

it sounds like your bully is a female.yes,kribs are very teritorial.make sure you have plenty of hiding places in your tank.were they sold to you as a pair?

yes they were sold as a pair, is this an error of my lfs then ? I can get some more plants so the others can hide in there but to me that doesn't really help, i bought the other fish because i like looking at them and if they're hiding all the time this sort of defeats the object. thanks for the advice though !!

charlton

 

[LauraFrog]

This is normal breeding behavior... they will drive away (viciously) anything (other fish) that they see as a threat to the eggs or fry even before they spawn. How big is the tank? If it's less than 20 gallons there's not much point trying to keep other fish in there with a breeding pair of kribensis.

 

[doresy]

I am starting a dwarf cichlid tank and have been looking into Kribs. If, as it does indeed sound, you have a breeding male/female combo then they are dreadfully territorial and will clear your tank
I have sort of been put off even though the female is so colourful

 

[saz326]

What you could try to do is to break up the line of sight. If two disputing fish (in this case the krib female and all others in the tank) cannot see each other, they will pay no attention to each other. They feel alone and secure.

So rather than filling the tank up with plants that would hide all of the other fish, plant carefully so that a wall is positioned, maybe at an angle. Put plants or stones etc in positions like curtains so that the fish are prevented from seeing long distances.

drew a diagram in "paint" but couldnt paste it.

Anyone have a picture of plants put in such a way so as to break up line of sight?

 

[Bigbadbaz]

I have been through this scenario a few times, Usually ending up with my male killing his mate after spawning, make sure you have some good shelter in the tank, i have a couple of slate caves and some terracotta plant pots with holes drilled in. Once they have decided on a place to spawn they will usually only defend their "home" and will stop flying up and down the tank harrassing the other fish.
I have split my tanks into a few areas using slate caves and bogwood, since I did this my male has not killed another mate as she has somewhere to hide when he is in a bullying mood.

 

[kribensis12]

Not all kribensis are territorial. You have your placid, kribs, which get walked all over my mollies. Your mildly agressive kribs( the most common kind) and they will do damage if someoen is attempting to get their fry or steal their breeding area, and then, you have your overly agressive, im going to eat you because i can krib( i have unfortunatley dealt with one before). So, its not all kribs. As Laura said, if the tank is under 20g , then i would suggest putting anything else in the tank, as it will only be killed.

 

[charlton]

wow thanks for all the replies, not sure if i'm gutted that its so aggresive or excited that it might be spawning. Its in 100l tank and i think thats about 25 gal (correct me if i'm wrong), i might try rearranging my plants to break the line of sight as was mentioned. It seemed strange because there are other smaller fish, rasboras, swordtails and a clown loach but they don't get bothered at all !!!