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Unexpected kribensis eggs!

Fish4Life

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Romania
So... About 5 days ago I went shopping for some aquarium stuff and finally (after a bloody year of searching for these fish) I got my hands on the last 3 they had , thing is... This 500iq fish store had em' labeled as "only males" so I kinda got bummed out as I really wanted to breed these fish.

Anyways decided to buy em ! Better than nothing at all and knowing that store... About 5% of the info they give may be right.

Went home placed em' in a quarantine tank and not even a hour after that 2 of them started chasing nipping the third one so I had to move him/her to my second qtank , the 2 left in the first tank started doing weird dances showing her belly to the other/vibrating then after like 3 days they started excavating sand like mad , didn't bother watching them further , just left them to their own devices.

Aaaand today booom I was looking around as I didn't see them anywhere then I look at the filter intake and see a crater under it , I look closer and see a bunch of eggs on the damn sponge (they had a coconut but I guess they considered the sponge as quality real estate lol..)

Sorry for my rambling just excited.

Now I do have a few questions:

1: Do they pair for life?

2:How long do these eggs usually take to hatch?

3: Do they require really soft water to hatch ? (like ramirezi eggs for example)

4:And do they need to go through a few failed batches to succeed?(I want to let them raise the fry)

And a more strange thing I heard about , are they able to actually change sexes influenced by their enviroment ?

And here are some photos of them kinda hard to catch the eggs too , they won't sit still for 1 sec
IMAG1464~2.jpg
IMAG1463~2.jpg
IMAG1458~2.jpg
 

anewbie

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,366
For mine the pair was stable while i had them for 2 years - i'm not an expert so can't say if they mate for life - but they operated like a pair. As for eggs - mine dug a cave under some driftwood so i'm not sure how long it takes to hatch but what i can say is they took care of feeding the frys - and were such proficient breeders i had to get rid of them. The most interesting thing about them was when they made a pact with the pygmy cory and allowed the cory to to mix with their frys. The cory would follow them around to eat - and use them as 'armed' body guards ;) Was quite amusing. I don't recommend you try that experiment - it took a while for the understanding to be reached and until ti was a couple of my pygmy became tail-less - though the tails did grow back. When i had them i didn't understand the dynamics in play or what would happen - now that i know better not sure i would do it again - though once the understanding was reached it really was quite interesting. The behavior was stable across multiple batches of fry - and lasted till i removed the kribs (for my sanity).
 

Fish4Life

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Romania
For mine the pair was stable while i had them for 2 years - i'm not an expert so can't say if they mate for life - but they operated like a pair. As for eggs - mine dug a cave under some driftwood so i'm not sure how long it takes to hatch but what i can say is they took care of feeding the frys - and were such proficient breeders i had to get rid of them. The most interesting thing about them was when they made a pact with the pygmy cory and allowed the cory to to mix with their frys. The cory would follow them around to eat - and use them as 'armed' body guards ;) Was quite amusing. I don't recommend you try that experiment - it took a while for the understanding to be reached and until ti was a couple of my pygmy became tail-less - though the tails did grow back. When i had them i didn't understand the dynamics in play or what would happen - now that i know better not sure i would do it again - though once the understanding was reached it really was quite interesting. The behavior was stable across multiple batches of fry - and lasted till i removed the kribs (for my sanity).
Hehe , fascinating with the cory! But I usually prefer to keep these kind of protective fish alone when breeding to avoid any aggression especially towards bottom dwelling fish.
But thank you for sharing ur experience!
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
1: Do they pair for life?
No. I had pairs separate after few spawns to switch partners.
2:How long do these eggs usually take to hatch?
2-4 days depending on temperature.
3: Do they require really soft water to hatch ? (like ramirezi eggs for example)
For optimal hatching rates, yes. But unlike Mikrogeophagus the TDS can be up to 200.
4:And do they need to go through a few failed batches to succeed?(I want to let them raise the fry)
Some do, some not. Depends somewhat on the individual fish.
And a more strange thing I heard about , are they able to actually change sexes influenced by their enviroment ?
No. There are sex-changing cichlids, but I wouldn't know any Pelvicachromis are among these species. Usually the changes go f -> m, e.g. when a population has a lack in males.

Pelvicachromis are prolific breeders and in captivity they can reach almost as high reproduction rates as guppies. So... decide for yourself, but make sure you do not get too many surviving fry, at one point you might have problems getting rid of them. As long as there are no fry eating tankmates, the genus manages very well to get 75-90% of a spawn through to adulthood.
 

Fish4Life

New Member
Messages
8
Location
Romania
No. I had pairs separate after few spawns to switch partners.

2-4 days depending on temperature.

For optimal hatching rates, yes. But unlike Mikrogeophagus the TDS can be up to 200.

Some do, some not. Depends somewhat on the individual fish.

No. There are sex-changing cichlids, but I wouldn't know any Pelvicachromis are among these species. Usually the changes go f -> m, e.g. when a population has a lack in males.

Pelvicachromis are prolific breeders and in captivity they can reach almost as high reproduction rates as guppies. So... decide for yourself, but make sure you do not get too many surviving fry, at one point you might have problems getting rid of them. As long as there are no fry eating tankmates, the genus manages very well to get 75-90% of a spawn through to adulthood.
Amazing and exactly what I was looking for , thank you soo much for all the info ! :)
 

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