P. Sacrimontis?

[Cowboy]

I just bought some kribs labeled F0 Nigerian Pelvicachromis sp. "yellow". Are is this a common name for Pel. Sacrimontis? Whatever the sub species is, they are quite beautiful. I tipically raise apistos and was wondering about a few things.
First, water paramaters. I set my tank up slightly acidic (6.8) and a Kh of about 4.
Second, I currently have them in a 20 gal long with crushed walnut gravel and a clay pot. Will this work, or is a 30 gal breeder necessary?

Any advise would be appreciated greatly.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Cowboy,

The 20 long should be all right, just make sure there are plenty of hiding places. If possible add a piece or two of driftwood for added shelter and its ability to release tannins into the water. The tannins will stain the water a weak tea color and also help to soften the hardness a little. If the fish does prove to be P. sacrimontis they may need a large tank in the future as this fish gets larger then P. pulcher and can be very aggressive for a krib.

Most likely the fish you have are wild Pelvicachromis pulcher. I see kribs listed as “yellow†frequently at an area wholesaler and they are almost always P. pulcher. On occasion there will be a handful of P. taeniatus mixed in. I have never seen P. sacrimontis as the by-catch fish in a box but they are occasionally a few P. pulcher mixed in with the P. sacraments.

The P. sacrimontis tend to come in on the larger size, 2 ½â€Â+ where the P. pulcher types seem to be shipped at a smaller size, 1 ½â€Â-2â€Â. The P. sacrimontis would also so very dark colors-females get a chocolate brown hew with the dark red belly and a nice gold stripe. I have never seen a P. pulcher with the same richness of color.

If you can try to get a good picture of both the male and female. That would make an I.D. much easier.

Jeff

 

[Cowboy]

thanks Jeff. I will post pics soon. My male is already about 3 1/2 inches TL.

 

[tjudy]

Cowboy.. you can compare your fish to my pictures of P. sacrimontis here:

www.tedsfishroom.com/westafrican.html

As Jeff mentioned, the import name 'yellow krib' usually denotes P. pulcher or a mix of P. pulcher and P. taeniatus, with an occasional P. sp. aff. subocellatus mixed in. If you have the P. taeniatus, especially the yellow variety... breed them!

 

[Cowboy]

I posted pics of the new pair in their quarantine tank. Thanks for helping me identify these nice looking fish.

http://thefishroom.blogspot.com/

 

[Cowboy]

Well, I guess the new pair likes eachother. Four days in the quarantine tank and there are already eggs!

 

[aquaticclarity]

Cowboy,

Sorry they are not P. sacrimontis, but a very nicely colored pair of P. pulcher. Congratulations on having them spawn already.

If you are looking for P. sacrimontis PM me. I've got F1 sexable pairs the red color form ready to go.

Jeff

 

[KevinB]

Cowboy,

Sorry they are not P. sacrimontis, but a very nicely colored pair of P. pulcher.
Jeff

I think he is referring to the second picture on his page and not the top one.

Kevin

 

[tjudy]

Both pictures of kribs are P. pulcher. Nice fish....

 

[Cowboy]

Thank you all for the help. I have a 75 gal that is sitting idle. If I put the pair in there, could I keep more than one male as I would with apistos? Say 2 males and 6 females? Perhaps with some dithers? I have CO2 and intense lighting for this tank, so planting heavily with many caves and driftwood would not be a problem. What do you think? If not, I still have the origional 20gal long "breeder" set up.

 

[aquaticclarity]

Cowboy,

All known Pelvicachromis are pair spawners not harem spawners like many of the Apistos. A 75 gallon tank heavily planted and containing lots of caves and other structure can easily house 2 pair of “kribsâ€Â. Adding extra females most likely won’t result in additional spawning. The surplus girls will just add some additional activity and interest to the tank and give the pairs something to chase around. I frequently will set up several pair or an uneven ratio of Pelvicachromis in order to help establish a better-bonded dominant pair of fish. Most often I end up needing to remove the other fish do to aggression. Although I’m not using a 75 gallon tank!

Jeff

 

[tjudy]

If you set up a 75 gallon tank with two pair or P. pulcher you will end up with a LOT of P. pulcher. This species is by far my favorite aquarium fish, but because they are rather common in the hobby they are not easy to find homes for once they are large enough to move out. Even stores will sometimes refuse them, and when they take them you will usually get nothing for them. If I had an idle 75 gallon tank to dedicate to a pair of kribs, I would get some of the larger, more aggressive species such as Pel. rubrolabiatus, P. humilis, P. signatus or P. sacrimontis. They are very cool fish, in demand, and need the larger space. If I were going to stick with smaller kribs I would go with a group of P. taeniatus or P. subocellatus. The smaller krib species, other than P. pulcher, also have an advantage of producing relatively small spawns... 25 - 40 rather than P. pulcher's 50 - 200 per spawn.

 

[Cowboy]

Thanks for all of the good tips. My female ate the eggs on Saturday. I assume this is pretty common for the first clutch. I did not get a good enought look at the eggs to determine if they were fertilized or not. I guess the fact that the pair seems to be bonded is the most important now.