Krib Fry

[Supersalmon]

I have a bunch (10-15) of krib fry that have been free swimming for 3 weeks. Mr and Mrs Krib are doing a great job at protecting the babies chasing the other fish away, though in a large community tank with Rainbowfish, Angels and Gouramies quite a few have disappeared. The babies are now becoming very independent and straying away from the parents a lot. What I want to know is when can I separate the babies from the parents, the parents have no intention of breeding again just yet and are still only concerned with the babies. Also now that they are more independent the other fish are much more interested in the babies. Last night a very black baby(by the way, the babies appear to be mainly gravel coloured stripey fish, but some are very much darker almost black, is this normal?) was separated, one of my angelfish was very interested in it and others joined in chasing it, but they couldn't catch it, it was too fast. Could they still eat the babies at this stage, the angelfish are young fish, not babies but nowhere near adulthood?

 

[thecichlidaddict]

If they can catch them, they can eat them.

You can remove the fry at any point once they are free swimming, which is typically about aweek or so after hatching.

 

[jumpman]

If some are fast enough to get away then why move them?? even if half are eaten and the rest get to adulthood you'll still have more kribs than you want/can work, and then they'll breed again!!

Do you have another tank to put them in?? I'm sure the fry will do better wih the parents. When I moved my parents and fry (4 weeks) out of the community tank to their own tank this weeknd gone, the female turned on the male (I guess because there were no other fish to defend against), so watch out for that......

jump

 

[Supersalmon]

Thanks guys. The babies are very quick and although I have seen them being chased by the angels I havent actually seen any eating them, there are a lot of plants in which they can hide which makes it hard for the angels to catch them. I dont have a spare tank but have some friends who want some of the babies when they grow up a little so I dont think I will be left with too many after giving some away. What about the darker babies any ideas why there are 3/4 darker ones (almost black)?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Do you have another tank to put them in?? I'm sure the fry will do better wih the parents. When I moved my parents and fry (4 weeks) out of the community tank to their own tank this weeknd gone, the female turned on the male (I guess because there were no other fish to defend against), so watch out for that......

There needs to be 'target' fish in the tank to keep the male occupied, so then he won't turn on the female.

Targets should be fast swimming middle/top dwellers as far as I am aware.

I am going to set up my albino kribs in a tank with some tetra and perhaps mollies.

 

[Supersalmon]

My male Krib has been an incredibly good father. He only either chases fish away from the brood or stays with the brood when the mother is away feeding or when she decides to go for a little swim round the tank. I would even venture to say that he is more parental than the mother. He used to gather up the stray fry and spit them back into the middle of the others. Now they are just too big for his mouth, though he does try and its funny to see a little fishy tail hanging out of his mouth and spit back into the middle of the brood