Somebody tell me why so many buy kribs and want them but have a problem learning to keep them? It sounds like the oscar dilema. Or convicts. Is it because they are pretty? I don't know what they look like. Are they easy to breed? Have personality? Cheap?
Pretty much everything people have said is spot on in my experience of keeping and breeding kribs. In fact the questions you ask are the main reasons they are so popular.
Forms pairs easily & breeds like rabbits = large supply
Large supply = lot's of cheap Kribs in your lfs
Cheap, hardy and pretty = a quick turnaround for your lfs manager and a happy customer
I kept my Kribs with tetras and because the Kribs are mostly bottom dwelling and the tetras medium/top they didnt seem to bother each other too much for me. But other people may have other recommendations or warnings. Kribs can have very strong personalities in my experience and what works with one may or may not work well with another. In terms of people running into problems while keeping them, it probably has a lot to do with the individual not researching a fish before they buy coupled with the fact that most employees in your local lfs won't give you advice unless you ask for it and even then it's not guaranteed to be accurate. I dont have much experience of convicts so cant make a comparison there but compared to oscars kribs are extremely low maintenance. They are a dwarf species so you dont have to worry much about size and with regard to aggressiveness then a krib next to an oscar is like a puppy next to a hungry doberman
But for me, I even kept the tetras in the tank once my breeding pair had fertilised their eggs and while they were raising the fry. As said before in a previous post Kribs are very conscientious parents and occasionally a wayward tetra would get lunged at but there was no intent to do it serious damage by the Krib and as far as I could see/tell there were no casualties to either the tetras or the fry. When they were patrolling with fry was the only time that they seemed intolerant of a tetra that came in close, but that may just be the result of the fact that the particular kribs I have had have been liberal kribs
and with others I would have had differing results.
I'm not sure what exactly would be compatible with Kribs other than tetras, however if you want to keep more than a male/female breeding pair in one tank then you will need to be careful (multiple females without a male seems to be ok too). From what I have read, if I remember correctly, in the wild a male Krib will usually create a territory inside which 2 or 3 females will each have their own territories. If you stick a group of kribs together they will pair off but I have it on good authority that a male Krib will bump uglies with more than one female at a time if given the right environment
The male will patrol the large territory and ensure that rival males and other unwanted fish are driven out. So on that note, if you are considering breeding the kribs, I would not recommend keeping more than one male Krib (or a male of another dwarf cichlid variety for that matter) no matter how big your tank is for stress reasons. The dominant male is gonna make life hell for the other no matter how many hiding places it has. At one point I had 2 male Kribs in a tank, not a big tank granted (my 24x12x12), and everytime they saw each other it was like closing time on a saturday night. Needless to say, I very quickly removed the second male.
In terms of multiple females with a breeding male, I wouldnt consider it unless you can be sure you can give them adequate territories each. The 24x12x12 seemed to suit 1 female fine but I wouldnt want to have given her any less room than that as a territory. Both the male and the female would regularly patrol the whole area and they seemed to get happier/more active when I changed the substrate to a dark gravel and heavily planted the tank. In my experience the females can be very aggressive toward each other when there are males around. As the fry grew and some of the females began reaching about 2 inches they started gaining their vivid adult colours. At this point the dominant females would force the smaller adolescents into hiding and it was time to get the larger ones packed off to my lfs.
With regard to their courtship/mating: I love the courting acts of the Kribs. The females (or at least the ones I have had) were such little tarts
The first female I had would display her belly to the male and arch her body while swimming around him with a kind of fluttering motion. The male I have is a bit pathetic though, his colours are very vivid when he gets aroused but most of the time he just chases her away so he can have some peace. My male may seem to me a bit pathetic but he certainly gets the job done and while I had the breeding pair in the same tank it was never long after I had removed one batch of fry that they would start on the next.
So that may be a danger if you or anyone else is considering keeping them. I didnt have to encourage them to breed at all, just put a male and a female together and a month or so later when checking the tank I was delighted to see the female surrounded in a cloud of fry. As said before they are very good parents and both the male/female will round up/patrol with the fry around the tank. I've even seen the female picking up mouthfuls of food, bringing it over and spitting it out in her favourite cave while the fry were inside. Most amusing for me though was the second lot of fry my first female had. I dont know what was up with the female but the male did almost all of the patrolling with the fry. He was well whipped! must be a new age man or something
Sorry for the length btw, I think I got carried away but that's a further testimony to how fantastic a breed of fish these little guys are I guess. I love 'em and they have been an excellent breed for an amateur like me to learn the ropes with. Hope I've explained a bit about them to you. Would recommend them for anyone.
