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Dont know what to do with male Krib and babies...

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kribensis
3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  jeaninel 
#1 ·
Hi,

I set up my 110L tank around mid September this year, and have been learning about keeping tropical fish since. I did have nitrate/ite problems at first but now it seems to have settled down and the fish seem happy. I added two Kribs (m&f) around the end of September and they were doing well together proven by the fact that they had a fry of which around 2-3 babies survived up until now. They do occasionally display aggression to the other fish, particularly when they are breeding (fin nipping of guppies).

They have just had their second fry of about 15 about a couple of weeks ago and today i was devastated when i found out that the female krib died. Over the last few days i didnt see the male and babies much, as he hides in his little bogwood cave only coming out to eat. I suspected that something was weird because last fry, him and the mother were outside most of the time chasing other fish away from the babies and looking after them. I noticed that she died just now whilst looking for her and i dont know if she died today or yesterday. On Monday i did a water change and introduced 4 Rainbow fish which seem to be doing fine. The tank also has 4 Guppies, 3 Platys, 2 Swordtails, 2 Corys, 1 Bristlenose Pleco, 2 Armano Shrimps and 4 Neon Tetras.

Also, a few weeks prior to the new fry i noticed the krib parents were being hostile towards the old fry, and chasing them away like they were enemies. I phoned my local aquatics shop and they said they dont take in babies. They have the black stripe across their body and are about 2-2.5cm in length.

Now i dont know what caused this, and would be grateful if you could give any advice/suggestions as to:
1)What shall i do with the new fry and the male, he spends his time hiding in the cave and now there are around 6 babies left of the new fry. Shall i introduce a new female krib and if not, would i be able to in the future? Would they breed, even though the male has lost this krib?
2)What shall i do with the old babies?

Thanks for reading this and for any help you can give me.

Ijaz
 
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#2 ·
Its not uncommon for male cichlids to become hostile and beat up or even kill thier partners. That's why it's reccomended that you provide plenty of hiding places so the female has somewhere to escape. Even with more docile cichlids like kribs, I have heard on multiple occasions where the male has killed the female. It's also not uncommon for the parents to be hostile toward older fry once there is a new clutch of eggs. That's why it's often reccomened that you remove the babies once the parents kick them out of the nest so to speak.

To answer your questions. The male is fine raising the new clutch on his own but once the fry are evicted move them or he might kill them. Yes it's fine to get a female for him but wait untill the current fry are evicted. Then introduce the new female. It might help to re arrange the decor and please make sure there are plenty of places to hide in the form of caves so the female can occasionally get away from the male. Sight barriers like plants and driftwood work well too.

I hope I answered all your questions good luck with you fish
 
#3 ·
If you need to get rid of the babies and the LFS won't take them you can try posting an ad on Craigslist or in the classified section on this forum.
 
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