I have P. Pulcher babies! Tips?

[Kaie]

My kribs apparently did indeed spawn

Any tips?

 

[tjudy]

All depends upon what your goal is. If you want to raise them up I would give the parents a couple days with them and then remove however many you want to grow out. If there are no other fish in the tank that might eat the fry, you can leave them in with the parents longer.

If you want the parents to become better parents, let them raise at least a few of the babies. Or all of them. The next time they spawn they will have a larger brood and protect them very well.

Feeding baby kribs is pretty easy since they are not picky. Live baby brine is great, but if you do not want to hatch it any small high protein food will do. I like frozen Cyclops-eze. You can also find frozen baby brine. Crushed flake and/or pellet food will suffice.

If you separate fry, start them in a small space with some cover on the bottom. THey will stick together for a while, but after a week or so they will spread out. Do frequent partial water changes for fast growth. I do 30-50% every day or every other day.

 

[Kaie]

Is there and advantage to not letting the parents raise them?

The gentlemen that i got them from owns a small time fish store and the pair he kept spawned a month or so before i picked my pair up for him. He let the parents raise them until they were ready to spawn again and then he took them out... Now they are in a grow out tank by them selves. The fish are about 3/4 of an inch in size now.

So they should be fine with crushed up hikari cichlid pellets? Should i worry that the parents rarely come out of their cave? I dont want the babies to starve.

EDIT: Also Ted i know you use R/O water i dont have access to that. I do use prime. They way i do changes is suck the water out. Put tap water back in with a water changer. Then i put the correct amount of prime for how big the tank is. So since its a 30 i put 3ml in it. Will that be fine for the babies?

 

[Rod]

I always let parents raise fry....win, lose or draw

Kribs are normally great parents....

I had a pair of kribs in with Cryptohero sajica and spilurus
all 3 pairs spawned and all raised a significant number of fry to maturity!!!

I loved that interaction.....

I have another pair with fry atm.....but they were so aggressive I had to move all other fish out of the tank....that was easy to do....they all collected in the top corners of the tank!!

 

[tjudy]

I do not use RO for P. pulcher.

The only reason I would not let the parents raise the fry is if there were predators in the tank and I wanted to save a lot of fry.

 

[gerald]

Kribensis tips

What temp and/or other parameters do you guys recommend that Kaie aim for to get an even sex ratio of P.pulcher offspring? And at what age or size are the young's sex determination most affected? I've found it's easy to get all or nearly all one sex with Pelvicachromis and Nanochromis if something ain't right.

One other tip I'd recommend: If you want to keep them going for multiple generations, raise up as many as you can to select the best fish for your next generation. Smaller "late-blooming" fish can often be the nicest (for color and pattern) even if they're not the largest.

 

[Kaie]

What temp and/or other parameters do you guys recommend that Kaie aim for to get an even sex ratio of P.pulcher offspring? And at what age or size are the young's sex determination most affected? I've found it's easy to get all or nearly all one sex with Pelvicachromis and Nanochromis if something ain't right.

One other tip I'd recommend: If you want to keep them going for multiple generations, raise up as many as you can to select the best fish for your next generation. Smaller "late-blooming" fish can often be the nicest (for color and pattern) even if they're not the largest.

So the sex isn't determined yet? I figured that happened in the egg. I obviously need to do some more reading up =P. The temp averages 80F and the pH in that tank is neutral.

Ted, i'm also curious on the connection between daily water changes and fast growth. Thats intriguing.

 

[Kaie]

I cant find our camera i suspect its in the ladies purse.

 

[Joe Gatchell]

So the sex isn't determined yet? I figured that happened in the egg. I obviously need to do some more reading up =P. The temp averages 80F and the pH in that tank is neutral.

Ted, i'm also curious on the connection between daily water changes and fast growth. Thats intriguing.

No I believe once they hatch the sex has already been determined, but the pH range can affect the turnout of your male:female ratio. It escapes me at the moment which is which, but you want to get as close to neutral (7.0) as possible to get a more even ratio.