possibly breeding kribs

[cutecotton]

hi everyone

i have a question on a pair of kribst hat i recently got (about 4 days back), i'm pretty sure i have a pair becuase the male has a very pointy dorsal fin, and the female has a very red belly.

They are in a 25G with 4 danios as dither fish, 3 guppies (which i could move if it's too much), and 3 otos as cleaner fish, as well as 2 mystery snails.

There is also a little clay birdhouse thing as a "cave" for them, and they seem to like it very much. Though the male seems to have a claim over it and never let anything near it.

My question is this: both of the kribs are coloring up very well, the male is more red towards his face/mouth area, while the female has a very vibrant red belly (they are so pretty! ), on occasion i see the female vibrating against the male. But it seems that the male is overly aggerssive and ALWAYS chases her away, is this normal behavoir? They are both quite shy and haven't quite learned to come to the top to eat the bloodworms, i have handfed the male a few times, but the female just refuses to eat. She hides out in a stack of rocks on the other side of the tank, and i put some bloodworms there, but i have no clue if she ate them or not.

Anyways, the males aggression is really starting to worry me what do you guys think?

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Typical male remark I'm afraid.....

Maybe the male is not yet ready for any commitment?

 

[jumpman]

If its only been about 4 days, I would say that they are still getting settled in, and when more comfortable the male may be more welcoming to the female's advances. Just keep an eye on them over the next few days....

 

[cometcattle]

So you don't think the female has eaten in 4 days?

You might want to consider removing her if she continues not to eat.

 

[cutecotton]

she has eaten some of the sinking pellets that i threw in, she's just not eating as much as i hoped that she would eat. I htink i'll give it a few more days/weeks and see how the aggression goes in the tank

btw, should i remove the 3 guppies? none of htem have shredded tails ora nything like that, they are pretty left alone by the kribs.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Okay, the serious side of me now.

I'm also trying to breed my paired Kribs. The male I have is far larger than the female, and is also duller in colouration. The male has a slightly pink belly, but has no red colouring around the mouth. He is also more tolerant of the females presence than the female with my other smaller Kribs.

Do you have a picture handy of the male and that of the female?

As for the vibrating, I wonder could this be a sign of submission from the smaller fish to the bigger? My smaller female is always vibrating around the bigger male.

Until, there is a picture to identify these fishes, could it be that both Kribs are of the same sex, and that is the primary reason why one Krib is hiding and not eating well? I say this because my other two Kribs were 'hiding', and not eating well, when this pair was in the same tank.

With my Kribs, they're omnivorous and can take any kind of food I've provided. I've also fed my fishes sinking pellets, primarily for my Yo-Yo's and Peppered Cory's, but my Kribs weren't even in the slightest bit interested. Have you tried a slice of blanched cucumber?

However, like jumpman says, see what happens in the next few days.

Tell us how it goes. Good luck!

 

[cutecotton]

hi everyone, thanks a ton for the replies

i jsut wnet to feed the kribs, they seem to like the sinking pellets that i feed my otos, adn the female woudl come out and take a bite out of it before the male chases her away.

Unfortunately, i don't have any pics (no digital camera) but i'm almost certain that i have a pair, the male is for sure a male, the female i'm about 80% sure that she's a female.

I believe vibrating is a sign of submission, it seems that everytime the female vibrates the male would stop cahsing her (at least for the time being). She also enters that litilte cave once in a while when the male's not around, unfournately she is chased out as soon as he comes home.

 

[wolfie33]

The thing with kribs is they breed so easily.

I have never known of a pair of kribs that wont breed.
The problem i have is they breed to much,so much so that there other tank mates are constantly being attacked because the kribs have constantly got eggs ,the reason for this is i have a breeding program that works but involves removing the eggs a day before they hatch.
This ultimatley is that i have a line of credit with an lfs for all my guppies,mollies,betta's,gourami's and kribs so success for me is the way i can afford the tanks and equiptment i have.

In answer to the original question is that it may take a couple of months before there settled enough for breeding but when they breed they will be in a constant state of some form of parental care wether its egg caring or fry caring and your other fish will be a sorry site in a couple of months.

And the female will be eating just proberbly at night so try feeding them last thing.

 

[Mamaschild]

I have to disagree with Wolfie33 on this one. I've now come across two different individuals that have had had "issues" with the pair they bought.

One had the female beat the stuffin' out of the male until she was ready to spawn. They spawned, raised the fry for a while, then the female killed the male.

The second bought a pair, had the female beat the male into submission so badly that he did nothing but hide behind the heater at the top with his fins clamped. He couldn't move without her tearing into him. This person removed the male and replaced it with a larger one, who the female IMMEDIATELY accepted and is preparing to spawn with.

From this, and my personal experiences, you can't "force" a pair. Some just don't like each other and that can result in the death of one. They are a bit like people....they don't get along with everyone

 

[gixer]

One had the female beat the stuffin' out of the male until she was ready to spawn. They spawned, raised the fry for a while, then the female killed the male.

The second bought a pair, had the female beat the male into submission so badly that he did nothing but hide behind the heater at the top with his fins clamped. He couldn't move without her tearing into him. This person removed the male and replaced it with a larger one, who the female IMMEDIATELY accepted and is preparing to spawn with.

totally backing this up.

exact same thing has happened to me...both examples.

 

[jumpman]

This person removed the male and replaced it with a larger one, who the female IMMEDIATELY accepted and is preparing to spawn with.

I think as long as the male is much larger than the female then you guarantee yourself a very high success rate....as long as she is mature of course!

 

[rollntider]

One had the female beat the stuffin' out of the male until she was ready to spawn. They spawned, raised the fry for a while, then the female killed the male.

The second bought a pair, had the female beat the male into submission so badly that he did nothing but hide behind the heater at the top with his fins clamped. He couldn't move without her tearing into him. This person removed the male and replaced it with a larger one, who the female IMMEDIATELY accepted and is preparing to spawn with.

totally backing this up.

exact same thing has happened to me...both examples.

ditto mine spawned once the bigger male got into the picture LOL

 

[rollntider]

oh and it took about 2 months before they finally started spawning. they got along but didnt have babies until about 2 weeks ago...

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Wolfie33, I think you had a lucky pairing to start off with. That's why you've not had many problems with pairings.

How much does your LFS buy your Krib fry for?

 

[babyfish]

It is the female krib that initiates spawning, she does this by presenting her belly to the male and quivering.
The female will choose the spawning site, they prefer not to be seen#, so an upsidedown plantpot with a nick in the edge is perfect, place this at the back of the tank in a corner.
In the wild kribs live in mixed groups and young females choose older males to breed with. When they decide on a male they will fight him to see if he is strong enough to protect her and the fry. If he wins they breed, if not she will usually kill him.
If the male is smaller than the female just put him in another tank for a while and reintroduce him when he's bigger than her.