Krib babies!!!

[Alia]

Well, my two kribs, Speedy and Pink, had quite a surprise for me last night. I had just finished cleaning their tank, a temporary spot until I "fix up" my 29 gallon with new lights and live plants, when I noticed that the filter wasn't pumping and started pulling things out. Suddenly the tiniest thing caught my eye -- and believe me, it was miraculous because my eyes aren't great and the light in there is awful. It was a teensy little fry in the filter box (Whisper type).

Right away I'm freaking out, understandably since I've just done a major gravel vacuuming and water change on this 10 gallon tank and now I see it was a terrible mistake doing either. When I looked in the bottom of the box, I saw more fry swimming around, so I managed to pour them all back into the tank and left the filter off. I start watching my fish and the babies start to appear around the parents.

The parents are miffed -- well, who wouldn't be? But they are gathering the little ones together and it looks like there might be as many as twenty fry. Tiny little things, must not have been out of their eggs for very long at all. I try not to think how many I've killed , and focus on those I've saved. They are adorable!

I had hoped to get my kribs into the bigger tank and experiment with lowering the water pH a bit before they started a family, but I am pleased they liked one another and their home enough to get right down to business. So far they seem to be excellent parents! I'm very proud of them. Now I need to get serious about fitting out that larger tank -- they are going to need the space! What fun!

Alia

 

[CFC]

Congratulations ive just recently bought a pair of kribs my self (well it appears to have turned into two pairs now but its a long story ) and will hopefully have them spawning soon. Good luck with getting the new tank set up and raising your new fry.

 

[Pufferpack]

Congrats on the new additions ....are you going to put a nylon around the filter intake to protect the little gaffers?

 

[Alia]

Gosh, it's good to "see" a familiar "face" (or two!)!! CFC and Pufferpack too . . . just like old times.

Pufferpack, I thought of you today when I saw two sad looking little dwarf puffers at the lfs. I'll bet you could have told them what they were doing wrong, but maybe too late for these two.

So, it's a nylon over the intake, is it? I left it (the filter) off (wasn't working anyway -- it's tempermental once it's been turned off) for now. I've got an UGF in that tank, so it's well aerated enough, and since I just cleaned I'm not concerned about water quality just now. Of course the frozen baby brine shrimp I'm putting in might muck things up quickly, so I'll keep that nylon in mind.

I just marvel at the parents and the quality of the care they give to these fry. I've watched them taking turns hovering over the brood, and I've seen both of them take food into their mouths and "exhale" it out through their gills in a cloud that the fry can easily ingest. They are both nervous wrecks, and there are no other fish in the tank with them (thank goodness, it's such a small tank).

CFC, your one pair of kribs turned into two? That sounds like a good story! The long ones usually are! If you want to tell it, I'll lend an ear. Do your kribs have tankmates? Mine will be the upside-down catfish that are already in the bigger tank. I might get more of them. Would you suggest anything in the upper reaches of the tank -- danios?

I think my kribs are the most beautiful and graceful fish, especially the male -- mine is fully twice the size of my female - one of the reasons I didn't think we'd have babies yet . . . but i digress . . . I hope you enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying mine. Speedy is the reason I bought the 29 gallon tank! My poor betta fairly wears himself out policing it. He may be relieved to go back to a smaller territory (the 10 gallon) when the time comes.

My kids think the babies are the coolest thing. My daughter said the only reason she would ever have fish would be to watch a little family like this one. (Don't worry, she won't be getting any! )

Anyway, thanks for the congrats, you guys. Sometimes I feel pretty lonely on this busy forum with so many people gone. Take care.

Alia

 

[CFC]

CFC, your one pair of kribs turned into two? That sounds like a good story! The long ones usually are! If you want to tell it, I'll lend an ear.

Well you asked for it

Whilst having a unscheduled day off work i went on a crawl of all the fish shops i use within about a 20 mile radius to see if there was anything new or unusual about and have a chat with a few of the people that work in some of stores who have become kind of friends. After disapointing visits to the first 3 shops i arrived at the 4th and started to look around the various racks of tanks when a tiny pair of kribs going through the mating ritual caught my eye, they had been seperated from the main tank of kribs and were the only fish in a 10g tank. Now as most people will know i dont usually care much for cichlids but for some reason i was drawn to these and since i had a 40g tank sitting practically empty i thought "what the hell" and bought them.
Once i got them home disaster struck , as soon as they were released into the tank the male started to attack the female who obviously didnt have a clue what was going on and kept on displaying her bright red belly to him, at first i thought it was just the stress of being moved and left them to calm down but after 2 days it was still happening and the female had tornfins and missing scales, it was time to act.
I went back to store and the guy there recomended buying another female and introducing her into the tank so the male would either reform his bond with the original female and see off the intruder or form a new bond with the new female.

Well it didnt work right away and instead i had a 3 way war going on with the females fighting each other while both trying to woo the male and the male attacking both females, i was starting to think i had a gay male krib since he was turning down two hot females both fighting over him and offering themselves so blatently ) .
But it worked out in the end, finally on saturday morning i walked in to find the male had taken up residence with the new female and the old one was hiding in the stalks of giant vallis. I removed the original female and placed her into a 30g community tank where i intended to let her damaged fins and scales heal up before i returned her to the lfs, that was until the mrs took pity on her a decided to adopt her and then decided that she was lonely and insisted that we got her a mate So now i have two pairs of kribs in two different tanks, mind you its not all bad since it has rekindled the mrs interest in fish (she had got a bit fed up with it and was starting to suggest shutting down a tank or two ) and we are now having a race to see who can breed theirs first, of course ill win since technically theyre both mine anyway

As for tankmates the first pair share with a shoal of congo tetras, pair of geophagus jurapari, a pair of goldenwonder panchax, a pair of morgunda morgunda gobies and a pair of bristlenoses.
The second pair are in a mixed community tank with corys, rainbowfish, tetras and barbs plus a few other small pretty fish.
If either pair do spawn then ill probably move them to smaller tanks on their own so they can get on with it in peace, at least for the first couple of spawns anyway so they can practice parental care without the problems of the fry being eaten.

 

[Alia]

EXcellent story, CFC, sorry it took me so long to read it. Busy, busy, busy! So, has anyone won the great "breed the kribs" competition yet?

I still haven't gotten my 29 gallon ready for mine, but they have a ways to grow before I will be moving them, anyway. Thus far, the babies are doing well. They have markings, now, and are oh-so-cute. I've been feeding the parents some of their regular diet (cichlid crumbles, dried bloodworm, lightweight sinking pellets) with the addition of frozen baby brine shrimp cubes. Those seem to take them the least time to distribute back to the fry, but I'm trying to keep the variety thing going. Everyone seems happy enough and I don't think we've lost any. Guess I'll have to get out the nylon and start the filter back up pretty soon.

Thanks for sharing your story. Hope you get some eggs soon!

Alia

 

[aernympha]

his made fun reading like the stroys, all of them

 

[Yaya]

I'm very curious to find out what a krib is. Could you provide the scientific name so I can search for a picture? I put in krib and it gives me a fish website. Sorry, I'd never heard of kribs before. gotta learn something new evey day.
Yaya

 

[CFC]

Pelvicachromis pulcher is the scientific name for Kribensis

 

[pebbles]

well ,perhaps someone could have a word with my two!!! they just don't want to know.. he comes out ,she goes in , he goes in ,she comes out of the planted and sheltered area.dont seem to do more than scrap, no damage done.will have to think about another female.... i love them really . congrats on the babies,i hope they do well... pebbles

 

[paleprincess]

Mine have been digging a deep ditch in their cave. And there's always one of them in there all the time, they're starting to chase any fish who comes anywhere near it away,a lot more bullyish than usual.D'ya think they're spawning?

 

[Morrgan]

paleprincess, when my kribs started doing that it was a sure sign that there'd soon be babies in the tank. I hope your other fish have enough space to be in, for kribs can get very aggressive for their size when they're guarding the young.

 

[paleprincess]

Yes, there's plenty of room and hiding places for the other fish.
The female krib just keeps picking up peices of gravel, taken them to the outside of the cave, there's quite a little hill growing! I am sitting here all day watching her.I never expecting them to do this.