# New to Kribs, have questions please.



## jbjack (Jul 10, 2005)

Hi, and thanks in advance for all your help, all insider hints and tips are appreciated.

(i will go into great detail, alot to read but i know how you guys like and need detail to provide the best, and most accurate answers, / suggestions)

I have kept fish (mostly malawi, central, and south amer. cichlids) for over 10 years and am fairly knowlegable, however i have never kept krib, and always like to research the **** out of a fish before i buy it. BUT i know not to trust my lfs, and every site on the web is a bit different, even conflicting so i like to talk to real ppl. who really care about fish and know from experience on things im not familiar with.

this is what i got,

i have a 50g wide, cycled and ready to go, i have it set up with alot of gravel and enough filtration for a 140g tank. ihave a **** load of rocks piled up creating 1 large cave and several (4) smaller ones on each side of the tank. along the back i have large skinny rock siting on fake drift wood that reaches from the middle of the back to the top with about 4 inches btween the rock and the glass seperated in sections creating 3 more cave like spots, the drift wood provides 3 caves with in it as well. thats 16 caves. i also have a large area in the midle for open swimming, there are 2 powerfull airstones on each side of the tank and 3 water falls coming from 2 filters into the tank. with in the rocky areas the tank is medium to heavily planted, but not in the cave openings, nor in the open swimming middle of the tank (in the open part there are sparse, very short moss like plants) and all the plant work is fake, as well as the drift wood, however all rocks are real, and "aquarim certified"

this is my water perimeters: (in ppm)

Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 0 Nitrate = 5 Total Hardness = about 100 Total Chlorine = 0
Total Alkalinity = 130 PH = 7.5 Water temp = 78 degrees

This is what I understand:

not very aggressive, easily bred, rock dwelling fish from africa, care for simliar to Mbuna. Omnivore. Males 4 inches, females 3 inches.

What I need to know:

Is this info correct? are my water parimaters ideal for Kribs? is there a differece between kribs and rock dwelling kribs (2 different lfs, would like to get the males from one and females from another to ensure no inbreeding) Best temp for colouration and activeness? Should or can i slightly over stock like i do my Mbuna? How many can this set up hold? are they random, haram, or paired off breeders? female to male ratio? are they happy in a species only tank? What catfish or loaches can I add, keeping the well being of the kribs and catfish/loach in mind, as well as the Kribs eggs/fry. what are they like as a pet ( as in fun to watch, active skittish, shy, etc?) and finally any hints and tips you have from experience.

I am hoping to do at 1 or 2 males and 9 females thats 10 fish full grown put in all together at 31 inches in a 50 gallon with plants and 16 caves ( i know the gallon to inch doesnt really apply, but a roughy to go by)

sorry for the long novel like post but like i said details matter.

thanks forr all you input!

(ps the kribs go on 50% off tomorrow (Aug 25th) for 1 day only and i would like to get there first thing to get the best pic, so speedy replies is super appreciated :wink: )


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## Mikey13 (Apr 1, 2008)

LOL.........whoa, put the brakes on things for a second. I can only assume that with hinting at that many females, you are wanting to breed them, so let me start off with a very general warning. In my humble opinion.....all you would need is one handsome, robust looking male, and if you had room to keep another female in another tank, 2 females. The reason for the low numbers is simple. These little guy's are possibly the worlds best fish parents, and once they pair off....the other female will need to be removed soon, and once they have SPAWNED, all other fish with the exception of some type of armoured pleco, will also have to go, or they will be hunted and harassed relentlessly. If i were you, and wanted to raise some fry(i have some now), is buy a smaller tank for just the happy lovers, and keep them in there. It's awesome to watch the parents with their babies, but anything else in the tank will instantly become the enemy, and get chased and bullied.
After losing a few fish to these beauties, i eventually took the father out and after awhile the mother will let the fry go where they want more freely and then you are okay to put in whatever you want, but in the first few weeks at least, any other fish are going to go through ****.

Hope this helps a bit.


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## Mikey13 (Apr 1, 2008)

LOL.........whoa, put the brakes on things for a second. I can only assume that with hinting at that many females, you are wanting to breed them, so let me start off with a very general warning. In my humble opinion.....all you would need is one handsome, robust looking male, and if you had room to keep another female in another tank, 2 females. The reason for the low numbers is simple. These little guy's are possibly the worlds best fish parents, and once they pair off....the other female will need to be removed soon, and once they have SPAWNED, all other fish with the exception of some type of armoured pleco, will also have to go, or they will be hunted and harassed relentlessly. If i were you, and wanted to raise some fry(i have some now), is buy a smaller tank for just the happy lovers, and keep them in there. It's awesome to watch the parents with their babies, but anything else in the tank will instantly become the enemy, and get chased and bullied.
After losing a few fish to these beauties, i eventually took the father out and after awhile the mother will let the fry go where they want more freely and then you are okay to put in whatever you want, but in the first few weeks at least, any other fish are going to go through ****.

Hope this helps a bit.


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## jbjack (Jul 10, 2005)

Thanks, and about breeding, well yes and no... I have mostly females because they are far more attractive and colourful then the males, and i wanted for this tank a small colourful cichlid species only tank. HOWEVER i do have 2 males because it would be a bonus to have babies, as my freind purposely breeds and sells several other cichlids, and it would help to add these to his list, but most imp. its fun to raise fry. Also i am only guessing, but its proving true in my tank, i read unpaired females compete with paired females for the male buy exagurating there colours, well in my tnk every female is so bright and deep purple covering a very large area that they look like they have internal bleeding  , so the assuming part is the 2 males in there will keep all th females at there best colours, always competeing?....... regardless this tank is 50 gallons, with massive amounts uf under gravel caves, massive amounts of rock work and a lot of fake plants, and some fake drift wood. do you really think bad things will be to come from breeding pair in that size of a tank, with that much cave/rock? im assuming no, but really appreciate a more educated answer then mine lol, so whatta ya think?


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

I really suggest you take in what Mikey is saying regarding how efficient and aggressive these fish can be. It may be a 50 but my _Pelvicachromis taeniatus _pair ruled the whole tank, even the 7" Rotkeil severum, and I do mean they *ruled* the whole tank.

I wouldn't recommend more than 1 male and two females, with the possibility of removing one of the females to another tank should things get out of hand. I've kept two males in a 55 with a few females and all that happens is that the sub-dominant male is constantly harassed and in poor condition, the other sub-dominant females rarely fare that much better. It doesn't matter how much cover you give, these fish are efficient and will relentlessly seek out everything in their territory, trust me. There was certainly no chance of any other pair bonding or breeding in a 55 with a dominant bonded pair. They may be colourful initially as they compete, but once a pair forms it will usually be the two dominant fish (naturally the strongest) and this sp. has a tendency to pair with one partner only, they are not like some other fish, the bond is particularly strong. What this means is that once your two strongest fish are paired and breeding, the others haven't got a hope. Other females may attempt to court the sub-dominant male but with a dominant pair in the tank such attempts will be futile as the dominant pair see to it that any courting is broken up.

If you put a single pair in your tank and condition them to breed, it will only be a matter of months before you will have a whole tank full of them, here are a couple of my 8 month old fry:

















So you see it really doesn't take long to have a new generation ready for breeding. IME by putting anything more than a pair in anything 90 gallons or less is just inviting problems between the dominant and sub-dominant fish, as well as the incredible stress on any other tank mates.

Inch per gallon is entirely obsolete, it's not even a rough guide; a 3" fish with a territory of 15"+ takes up a lot more tank space than just 3", perhaps not in mass, but certainly in terms of occupation and possession of that area.

:thumb:


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

Blairo1, i trust what you say because you are often right, until the comment about keeping more than one pair in a 90 gallon. A 90 is 3 inches taller than a 75, and a 75 is a few inches taller than a 55. The only difference in the tanks is the height. I assume jbjack's 50 gallon wide is at least four feet wide, so there isnt much of a difference. Why wouldnt jbjack be able to keep two pairs in a 50 wide if he may be able to in a 90. do these fish chase eachother _up_ more so than _across_?


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## jbjack (Jul 10, 2005)

Hey all, thanks for all your input, very interesting. I have some comments and updates for all of you.

first off almost all of my kribs are near or at full grown and holy smokes they are the nice fish, I have 2 males and 8 females. They all very quickly picked and settled into there own little caves. and again I have more then one specific cave for each fish, plus many other spots that double natuarlly for caves, or shelter. They are very active , colourful, eat well and seem very happy. with in 2 days a couple paired off and now have eggs, no one bugs them, and they dont bug any one. I have a 55g cycled tank waiting to move the babys into. the thing is, so far ABOLUTLY no aggression what so ever in this tank, i hope it stays this way, i will keep you updated. I mean no disrespect blairo but the 90g comment is a little extreme in my opinion. but we will see. thanks agin


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

thats good to hear about the pairing off already, good luck


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## ukipounda (Jul 12, 2008)

are kribs compatible with malawi cichlids?


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## jbjack (Jul 10, 2005)

with labs, i would say yes, all female would be i would think very colorfull, and easy in a well caved/rockes/planted tank. any thing else would get to agressive to the kribs.


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

I hope it stays calm for you too bro! If it does you'll have loads of fry in no time!

If it doesn't you'll see that my comment was far from extreme, perhaps the common Krib is a little different (although IME with them they were worse) but my taeniatus are one of the most dominating and aggressive species I've had the pleasure of keeping, on the other hand they can at the same time be the gentlest and most docile of fish. Just telling you what every single pair I've ever had has done in my 55!

It may work entirely differently for you due to having specifically the Kribs and no other Cichlids - in terms of raising large numbers of them they are very tolerant of their own kin for quite substantial periods of time, it is more the amount of stress they create for _other_ fish in the tank that concerns me, in these instances my comments are not extreme, a spawning pair will hunt out all potential predators (most of which are actually just docile SA Cichlids cruising around) and chase them relentlessly, a 55 is certainly not big enough when this starts happening, I'm not saying it's not possible, just that it is incredibly stressful for all the other fish in there with them. It starts off not so bad, but as they gradually learn the ropes they become increasingly efficient and aggressive about the area they defend, it's part of the fun of watching them develop, but I would be irresponsible not to try and illustrate to you the potential that these fish have to dominate a whole 55.

I'm not worried about Kribs and Kribs, they can handle each other long enough for you to make changes if need be.

My comments about a 90 being better was simply to illustrate that bigger is better, I'm afraid that I don't know much in standard aquarium dimensions seeing as pretty much every one I've looked at has been slightly different. The 90 gallon I've been looking at is probably a _long_ tank by your description. Either way, it was simply to illustrate a point, not to be technically accurate  .

Enjoy your new fish and I honestly wish you all the best, having a large family of _Pelvicachromis_ is really cool. :thumb:

Some pics to give you a taste of what is ahead!














































See how the females fl!cking at me as I agitate her causes the fry to stop motionless, if nearer the substrate they drop right onto it and stay dead still, clever little instincts.
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/ ... 3weeks.flv

They are such personable little fish at the young and tender age, unlike others raised from fry the Pelvicachromis seem to go back more to their natural instinct as they age, regardless of interaction with them (why I like them so much!)
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/ ... NOFRYD.flv

First vid on this page, one batch ready to go off to the fish store:
http://blairo.moonfruit.com/#/videospg3/4528876320


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## jbjack (Jul 10, 2005)

hey thanks thatwas great, ya i undestand what your saying, i would never stick any other fish in my tank, cause no doubt your bang on, it would be a disaster, however keeping these guys alone, kribs only (not even a cat or plec) seems to be keeping the peace just nicely. the personality of these guys are awesome. and i fully agree and understand the different agression etc of the same fish one could have no problems at all some one else could find big problems, just like raising kids eh?


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