Kribensis Breeding

By no means a full indeph idea but this is what happend so far


I purchased my Kribs about 1 mths ago as a apair but after speaking to my lfs owner we decided that she was a juvi as she didnt have any colour at all (could have been wrong on this)

when the went into the tank he went straight for a iglu type cave


she was happy at just swimming about and showing her top fin at every thing that came near


well all of a sudden they were eating side by side and she was swimming up and down as usual and he was getting braver, she started to get colours as well ,(so were a few of the fish), and then the other night she wasnt swimming about and when i finally found her she was in my castle cave also i have noticed when she does come out her colours have changed as well she has a red belly but she also has a grey patch directly behind which wasnt their befor so i am guessing this is down to spawning,(might not be tho)

and the last 2 days she hasnt ventured far from the cave unless he has been in the cave and then when she comes back he goes back to his cave, also if any fish come near the castle then she will come out with all fins up and then goes back in and continues this all the time.

i will post some pics if she ventures out any more tonight :face:

How exciting! How long should all of this go on for kbekl - do you know?

Will the next step be seeing babies swimming round?

I really look forward to your next update

I better see some babies next week Karl. lol. All this anticipation is no good if you dont get babies. Hehe.

She will probably have spawned if they are taking it in turns to guard the cave, then there will be eggs, Fry are taken out first time at around a week old and the parents shepherd them around making sure nobody gets them lol.

Its sooooo cute to see!

Good Luck with them!!

i keep reading different advice in this some places say 3 days others say a week so not too sure

also they choose a cave right up close to the front of the tank wounder if this means they are happy with the tank

as it has already be said tho the parents might eat the fry the first time round but unsure about it

They dont like other bottom dwellers I believe and will chase them and even nip them if they go too near kbekl.

Could that be a problem for you?

not too bad as the bulldog and clown dont really go near them

clown stays on the bogwood and billy goes every where except that part of the tank for some reason always at the other end

but thanx for the warning

Congrats Karl, sounds like they're guarding eggs

They will be very territorial so if any of the other fish decide they might go and have egss for dinner.. Mummy & Daddy krib should do a pretty good job at protecting them.
Bet you're glued to the tank aren't you?

a little lol

here's some pics of the cave and them on patrol :lol:


the chosen cave



she is constantly doing this



off to hunt for some food not too sure if you can tell from the pic but she is slighly darker near the tail



him in the cave whilst she was out and about


his original cave and his retreat after she is back (he stole this cave from billy)

Diana wrote:

They dont like other bottom dwellers I believe and will chase them and even nip them if they go too near kbekl.

Could that be a problem for you?

i am not too sure about this as they seem happy with the pleco's at the mo as i was taking pics and noticed that my clown pleco was on the roof of his cave just befor thats where he's been hiding for the past few days (did wounder where he went)

or it might not be the same for pleco's

I guess you'll find out soon!

Here's a pic of some krib fry, they are 1 week old in the pic

Oh they are awesome! I really like the idea of getting some of these but think I need how to lok after some easy ones first!

these are actually the easiest fish (that lay eggs) to breed i have read and as i say they have only been in my tank for less than a month

it just seems that they have a habbit of being a bit territorial thats all

what do they feed on as fry?

same as adults what ever fits in their mouth at a guess lol

but probably crushed flakes that reach the bottom or the tetra prime that i use to feed all of the fish and will also look into baby brine for them

Are they still guarding the cave karl?

yes they are still doing so she is getting a bit more agressive towards the others but only going as far as chasing them from the area and not from that side of the tank also she is putting fins up if i put my finger on the glass near the cave

Awww bless, it's great to see

Right i am noticing something lol


they only attack the cories and not the pleco's as one of the pleco's lives with the male krib and if the kribs are feeding they dont attack anything only if the other fish come near the cave but not the otto's or the pleco's as they have sat on the roof and been fine odd aint it

I guess they see the cories as more of a threat. Don't know why but i suppose they're right. I reckon the cories would be the first candidates for eating the eggs

well i have lost an otto in the last 4 hrs so i am not too sure all stats are fine and he had a big belly from all the brown algae but he was right next to the kribs cave so i am woundering if they are being naughty as one of my rainbows had a graze on it yesterday

Well otos are notorious for dying suddenly so I wouldn't worry too much about it. How long was the tank set up before you added the otos? It's generally recommended to add them to tanks that have been established for at least six months.

They are 2mths old in the old tank but they got move to the 50g tank and all have fat bellies but think it might be because one of them tried to do the great escape and jumped on the floor so it might have been that one

Ah ok. Well I added four to my tank that had been set up for eight months or so. I've had them about two months also and so far, so good. Although I only ever seem to see 3 at any one time but they're small enough to hide easily. Great little cleaners though. The tank has never looked so good. Even though I didn't have them on the original stock list for the 165L, I'm going to put four in there as well.

I have Babies lol

lots of the little blighters

some pics