Kribs Excavating

[KnaveTO]

I have this rather interesting piece of wood that is sorta hollowed out. Well tonight I galnced at the tank and notied that the plantlet nearest to it is sorta getting buried is some moved rock... and the female has taken up residence in the wood cave.... is this standard prespawing behaviour?

[_Aaron_]

Sounds very much like it.

[KnaveTO]

Figures they do this... just ordered some caves for all the tanks and was going to reaquascape them... well guess I can't do that tank for a while then... LOL

[KnaveTO]

Uh.... check that... they spawned! Now I need to figure out how I can attempt to safe the fry

[ellner357]

Well thats pretty cool. Good for you. Hope you can save afew of them.

[KnaveTO]

Yeah... so do I. Since it is a community tank there are a fair number of species in there. Just need to find out when I can move them to another tank... safely

[PPulcher]

Hey Ross, kribs are pretty good parents and should protect the fry to some degree. They will 'herd' them around the tank. You'll see a little cloud of fry around the parents. The parents can be come extremely aggressive to other fish while they are doing this.

The fry are pretty big at first and will graze microfauna from surfaces like plants, wood and sponge filters. They are also able to take baby brine shrimp if you can provide them. Feeding them in a large tank with bbs can be a little tricky. The best approach I found was to load up a syringe with the bbs and attach a length of tubing to the end. This way I could squirt the bbs close to the fry. It helps to have the filter turned off for a little while when doing this.

Good luck!

[DaFishMan]

Gratz on the fry :)

I've seen kribs parent a school of fry in a large community tank that had clown loaches and plecos in it, they were fine. Make sponge pre-filters for your filter intake though.

[Melody]

is this standard prespawing behaviour?


Absolutely, in fact, they'll spawn before the day is out.


Uh.... check that... they spawned!


Am I good or what? :laugh:

Congrat's!

[KnaveTO]

I got worried a couple of days ago... as I looked and the eggs could no longer be seen. However they parents stayed in there acting like there were still eggs so I thought they must have more... well they did as I looked in there at a spot where there is a small crack and I saw wigglers! Don't know how many and the like but I definately saw one moving in the cave. figures too... I just ordered food from Rick on Aquabid and I didn't get the new fry stuff... ah well I understand they are fairly large in comparison to most other fry when they start eating.

[CACAdmin]

I'm out of my realm here but I assume the parents will keep the wigglers in the cave for a bit before they let them out. How long will the parents look after them before they're on their own? (My knowledge is only with livebearers where there is no parental care... just the opposite, newborns are viewed as lunch.:wideeyed: )

[Melody]

I got worried a couple of days ago... as I looked and the eggs could no longer be seen. However they parents stayed in there acting like there were still eggs so I thought they must have more... well they did as I looked in there at a spot where there is a small crack and I saw wigglers! Don't know how many and the like but I definately saw one moving in the cave. figures too... I just ordered food from Rick on Aquabid and I didn't get the new fry stuff... ah well I understand they are fairly large in comparison to most other fry when they start eating.


You can buy frozen BBS & egger food at the local stores quite often, so if you think you're losing them to that before you receive your food, that's an option.

However, there are a zillion things in a tank for fry to feed on, especially in planted tanks. The adult food you feed will also distribute very soft & fine particles everywhere as it breaks down. I really don't think you'll have an issue. Egg is always an option too, but it can be a dangerous one.

That is the opinion of someone who doesn't raise Cichlids though. :nah:

Nice work!

[KnaveTO]

Nice work!

LOL... I think the congratulations goes to the fish as I didn't do anything...

[CACAdmin]

LOL... I think the congratulations goes to the fish as I didn't do anything...
Sure you did, if they weren't happy with the home you provided for them they probably wouldn't be breeding. So you did have a hand in it. :yes:

[KnaveTO]

Well thank you for the compliments then.

Just a quick update... I still have fry! The haven't strolled out of the cave yet as they are still with egg sack (although they look to be almost gone from what I can tell) I can count at least 7 pairs of eyes from where I can look through the underside of the cave. Feeding will begin in the next day or so with baby brine and first bites dry food

[KnaveTO]

Actually the egg sacks look used up and the little guys are moving around in their cave. Kinda neat watching the parents keeping them herded in there as there is one or two a little more braver than the others and keep heading towards one of the 2 entrances (the mother made the second entrance herself by digging out some of the rock). The parents are doing a great job of raising the fry and keeping the other fish away... however I was worried about the agression... but they are fine as long as no one comes withing 10-15cm of the cave entrance, and even them it is a simple threatning dash and that is it. The BBS is currently in the hatcher... hatching... so things should be fine for when the little ones need to start eating. I think that I may move them to the 10gal tank this weekend or later next week. I do want some of these fry to grow up... I have already had requests for some of the fry... LOL

[KnaveTO]

Well success! The parents and their babies went out for a swim today! I must have over 20 babies in there! The parents ahve become more of a terror as the Val has become their home for now... guess that is because of it being a food source I guess.

[ChrissyFishy]

congratulatiions!:notworthy:

[CACAdmin]

So they've ventured out. 20? That's great! It must be cool to watch them swim among the Val.

[KnaveTO]

I am trying to get pics but they are soooooo tiny. There is definately well more than 20...

BTW got the 10gal set up finally to receive them when I can move them to the tank. I took out 60 RCS from the 10gal and placed them in the 5.5gal that I am dedicating to shrimps, and there is still quite a few more in there... guess it is time to think about offloading some RCS. Oh well there will be a bag of them at the next TWAS meet I get to.

[Melody]

That's great! Are the parents beating everyone up?

[KnaveTO]

There has been some definate agression there... but nothing major.

[DaFishMan]

Gratz on the spawn :)

It must be cool seeing the parents leading the fry around and teaching them.
*and over HERE is the filter, don't swim near THAT !!*

[ellner357]

Glad things are going well! What other fish do you have in there?