breeding kribensis: tips and advice?

[haven_9]

I've tried everything to get my kribs to breed - 6 different spots to choose from, 5 caves and some mopani wood for them to spawn under, which I think is perfect.

Weekly water changes, plenty of plants, 3ft tank, cycled filter, 28c temp - all seems good. They're dancing and shimmying at each other, female's doing the usual chase and show-off, but the male just isn't interested, even goes for her at times. Female's not aggressive, she just wants to breed, so when he ignores her, she gives up for a bit, then the male chases her, nips her... no damage done, but it looks pretty aggressive.

Any ideas what's going on?

[sonicwave]

I'm curious, how long have your kribs been paired up, haven_9? Sometimes these things just need a bit of time to sort themselves out, but it sounds like you've got a great setup going on.

[haven_9]

They've been together for about 6-7 months now. Both are coloured up, roughly 2" long, and still not quite on the same page, it seems.

[FinFlip]

Kribs aren't exactly known for automatically pairing off just because there's a male and a female present. It's possible the male just doesn't find the female attractive - I mean, we've all seen those 'proven' pairs of kribs sell for more than a random duo, right?

[haven_9]

Initially I had 4 kribs in the tank, but I removed the other two as these two were constantly harassing them. I began with a group of four, and after a while, I ended up with two females and two males - these two seemed to have paired up and nearly killed the other two, forcing me to rehome them.

[FinFlip]

It sounds like they've paired up well, and the aggression towards other fish is pretty normal when they're in spawning season. You should keep an eye out for the female's belly turning deep red - that's usually a sign she's ready to lay eggs. To be honest, they might've already spawned a few times but eaten the eggs due to stress or lack of parental care. My first kribs took nearly a year to produce their first batch of fry, so you might just need to be patient.

[haven_9]

Kribs aren't exactly known for automatically pairing off just because there's a male and a female present. It's possible the male just doesn't find the female attractive - I mean, we've all seen those 'proven' pairs of kribs sell for more than a random duo, right?

She's going through the whole colour change, purple and black, and the male's responding by colouring up too. Both are about 2" long, and I've never seen them hide away for days on end. They're always out and about, only ducking into the caves for a few minutes before coming back out again. When the male's in a cave and the female joins him, they both colour up, but then he chases her out while she's trying to show off. I've got a quick video of this, I'll try to upload it.

[beamnut]

What's the pH of your tank water, mate?

[haven_9]

Managed to upload the video.

This is what's going on with them...

Uploaded via Photobucket, unfortunately.

The pH in the tank is 6.4.

[haven_9]

Here's an alternative for those who can't access Photobucket - I've uploaded the video to Youtube instead.

http://youtu.be/tIpG8vM-tk0