Is my Kribensis still breeding?

[AmberLucy]

Hi there,
I recently bought my kribs a coconut and straight away they took to it, spending a couple of days digging it out and guarding it.
The female then spent about 2 days in it constantly apart from when the male chased off other fish, she would come out to guard it and then go back inside once he returned. This made me pretty sure she had eggs in there.
However today, she has completely abandoned the coconut, and the male sometimes chases her around the tank. Apart from that they have nothing to do with each other. He is still somewhat guarding the coconut and chasing other fish, but also swims around the tank nowhere near the coconut. I wouldn’t expect them to leave the eggs on their own if there was any in there.
any ideas if they were unsuccessful/given up or if this is typical breeding behaviour?

 

[nik_n]

Did you check the cave to see if there are any eggs? Just lift it a bit and tank a quick peak. How old are your kribensis? If they are young fish breeding for the first/second time they might not know that they are supposed to be doing. Fish with parental instinct often times fail when they are young and the first couple of spawns don't always survive. If you want to breed them feed them high protein food but don't over feed. You can also feed some baby brine shrimp. The adults won't eat it but you can fool them into thinking that there is food for the babies. Also you can practice raising baby brine before the fry come.

If the fish spawn successfully you can take the fry out and raise them yourself or let the parents try. They will eat most of the first few batches but they will learn eventually.

Best of luck

 

[AmberLucy]

Did you check the cave to see if there are any eggs? Just lift it a bit and tank a quick peak. How old are your kribensis? If they are young fish breeding for the first/second time they might not know that they are supposed to be doing. Fish with parental instinct often times fail when they are young and the first couple of spawns don't always survive. If you want to breed them feed them high protein food but don't over feed. You can also feed some baby brine shrimp. The adults won't eat it but you can fool them into thinking that there is food for the babies. Also you can practice raising baby brine before the fry come.

If the fish spawn successfully you can take the fry out and raise them yourself or let the parents try. They will eat most of the first few batches but they will learn eventually.

Best of luck

I haven’t yet, I was worried that if I disturbed their cave they might not want to breed in there any longer. I’ll take a look tomorrow and let you know. They have been around quite a while, not sure how old but definitely quite mature. They have dug caves before but I don’t think any babies ever came of it.
I dont have an extra tank or nursery set up so I was going to let them try to raise them theirselves. I find their breeding behaviour fascinating so am a bit disappointed it seems to have stopped.

 

[nik_n]

They will try now and again. My blue gourami pair breeds every 2-3 weeks, and I'm pretty sure its the same with kribensis

 

[AmberLucy]

They will try now and again. My blue gourami pair breeds every 2-3 weeks, and I'm pretty sure its the same with kribensis

Great, thanks! Hopefully they will become parents soon