First, I will say in advance that I am not an authority. I bred a pair of kribs (as if they needed any assistance
) and they had themselves a passel of fry back in September '03. The father unfortunately became ill and died
, but he was a great dad for a month or so. The "babies" are about 7 months old now, and some are approaching adult size. A few are still quite small. All but two or possibly three out of 24 seem to be males.
Now according to what I've read, this is not surprising, because my water has a high pH, about 7.5 or 7.6. I put a substrate in the tank when the fry were still small that brought it down temporarily, but it gradually climbed back up again. I have read that the sex of krib fry seems to be determined to a large degree by the pH of the water. High pH = males, low pH = females, neutral pH = balance. Is the pH of the tap water in your area low, by any chance?
But your first question was whether you were sexing them correctly. I think you are, even though it can be tricky, they do sound like females -- but I think I've read that spots on the tails have nothing to do with the sex, so that may be a myth. My female krib has other markings I had read only show up on males. The more rounded dorsal fin and the rounded red belly are more reliable indicators, although when I put the female in with my male, his belly turned pink, too -- just not as pronounced as hers. The female has a thicker look to her while the male is more sleek and long.
32 UK Gal Tank
10 Tiger Barbs (Soon to be re-homed in their own tank)
1 RTBS
4 Kribensis
4 Scissor Tails
4 Peppered Cory Cats
1 Albino Lemon Tetra ?maybe
As to whether or not they would be ok together, your tank is 32 UK gallons, and I don't remember the US conversion, except that I think your gallon is smaller than ours, so we'll just say it isn't an especially large tank. As for what other fish you have, I don't know that I would keep kribs and sharks together, but is that the shy and retiring shark? I can never keep them straight. Are there lots of cavelike structures in different areas of the tank? Kribs can be territorial, like any cichlid, and kribs
really like their caves (as do sharks?). I've seen female kribs together at the lfs, and it seemed that one (the biggest) fish stayed in the cave and chased all the other fish away. The smallest females just cowered in the corners. So, my guess is, you are not going to enjoy four female kribs unless they each have their own territory and their own cave. I do kind of see an issue with everyone except the scissor tails haunting the bottom of the tank. How much floor space does your tank have?
I can tell you truly that a mated pair of kribs are a joy to watch, and when you hear people talk about this fish, or the ram, they usually talk about pairs. But I wish you the best of luck and I hope it all works out.
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