What are they doing

[paynts]

Hi all i have recently set up my tank and run it through a fishless cycle.
The first fish i have bought are 4 x kribs 2 male 2 female. They have been in my tank 10 days now and are between 1" and 2" long . One of the females the biggest of the 4 seems to be ruling the tank and the others hide away when she swims around she chases them and they just seem to be on the run all the time. Her belly is looking swolen and a very ruby red infact all her colours are good . Ive read many threads trying to find out what is happening and spent many hours looking for eggs (in the plants, the plant pots , under and around the bogwood) and found a big fat nothing. can anyone tell me what is happening and what is the next stage along from this. I am feeding them on Tetra min and nothing else at the moment. I have no other fish in the tank and dont want to add anymore or spoil the relationship that is going on in my tank at the mo. Any help would be appreciated and as i sit here now she is chasing what looks to be the smaller males around the tank.
Many thanks in advance

 

[black angel]

as she is the biggest then the males will get a lot of bashing from her and she may even kill one of them. for the female to respond to a male he needs to be a lot bigger than her and more aggressive. i had the same problem and had to seperate the male from her or she would have killed him. i think for you the best solution is to try and divide the tank so they have half each and then wait until the males are a lot bigger to stand their ground and then remove the divider and make sure you have lots of caves for them to hide in. if the female starts attacking the male again then divide and keep doing this until you get a pair to bond.
thats how i did it anyway and i have reared two batches of fry and also be prepared for them to eat the young at the first couple of attempts. good luck

how big is the tank?

 

[paynts]

My tank is a 20g hex so dividing it off would be very hard. Because this female has a dark ruby red belly is she about to have babies ???

 

[black angel]

it means she is in good condition and ready to breed so yes she could have eggs but the other fish arent old enough yet. i think you might have problems trying to get two pair to be civilised with each other. if she does eventually pair off then the other kribs will have a hard time as the breeding pair will take over most of the tank. one pair is enough for a two foot tank which holds around 16 gallons (uk). if you cant divide the tank then you will have to be prepared for a lot of chasing and stressed out male kribs.

 

[freddyk]

I don't believe a 20 gallon hex tank is enough space for two pairs of kribs.