Kribs

[perfectjukebox]

Hello.

I bought a pair of Kribensis. 4 weeks, the female was chased around non-stop. Went back to buy another female, a lot smaller. Well in 2 days, she was dancing in front of him and the male allowed her to swim around.

So I removed the original female and since they do swim together and that she really dances like crazy at any chance, I assume that nesting is imminent, the male has started to fend off the Harlequins. But the thing is, there is a lot of dancing and very little action going on...

As soon as she is moving him closer to the coconut shell, one of the two looks at something and says "Is that food?" and goes to eat it.

Now as much as it is entertaining, the dancing seems to be quite energy consuming... How long is it supposed to last? Are they just inexperienced?

[steve p]

Hi, I have a breeding pair of kribs and from what you are saying yours are getting along fine. Mine tend to dance a fair bit its normal. As the female is getting ready to lay her colour will become more pronounced. You need to give them a little time and let nature take its course. As this is thier first time dont be surprised if the parents eat the fry it takes a couple of atempts for them to figure out what to do.:)

[jessicar613]

If they're anything like mine, once they start, they'll never stop! My kribs either have eggs, wigglers or fry all the time. Every few weeks like clockwork, they eat the old, produce the new.

I'd say it's only a matter of time. Once they start they're pretty obvious, disappearing into the cave for a few days, the next thing you know they have a little cloud of fry to herd around. :)

[Rbishop]

Totally normal.

[perfectjukebox]

thanks guys.

[perfectjukebox]

Man, are those things dits or what. They are never in the mood at the same time. And never in the coconut shell at the same time. I guess it is just a matter of time: the female looks like a fish version of the Michelin tire mascot. She is a fatso, the belly red and purple. The male is getting annoyed a bit and chases her a little, but all she has to do is flash her belly and swim a half circle around him: he starts to vibrate!

It is taking longer then I expected. I feel like dropping some Viagra in there... Where can I get some fish Viagra?

[pigeonblood]

Man, are those things dits or what. They are never in the mood at the same time. And never in the coconut shell at the same time. I guess it is just a matter of time: the female looks like a fish version of the Michelin tire mascot. She is a fatso, the belly red and purple. The male is getting annoyed a bit and chases her a little, but all she has to do is flash her belly and swim a half circle around him: he starts to vibrate!

It is taking longer then I expected. I feel like dropping some Viagra in there... Where can I get some fish Viagra?
Forget viagra just play some barry white for them and dim the lights that should do it lol.

[perfectjukebox]

hehehe.

Thanks! Barry White is the first thing I tried, but it freaked him out.

I'll try changing the background. How about a pic of Pamela Anderson, Baywatch swimsuit... That should do it for him... For her? Well I guess David Hasselhoff, same outfit. Hey, it worked for my brother-in-law.

[Psuedofire]

or a picture of dorry from finding nemo that might work. A picture of david hasselhoff work for your brother in law? Weird! lol

[perfectjukebox]

Well, who knows what's going on in there.

There has been major landscaping happening, gravel ended up thrown all over the place. I did not move the cave, but from what I could see, just by moving gravel around, the male was able to turn the inside of the coconut shell into a decent replica of a 70's Econoline van, with wall-to-wall carpet, black lights, and what appears to be a bong but I am not 100% sure about the bong...

The female is now slim, but both are going about their usual business, no one is garding the cave. They both go from time to time, but it is nothing like when my Cockatoos did spawn back then...

Either they do not know how to do it or they are not good parents. So I've left the Baywatch posters as a background (partial success with that), but on each side of the tank, I posted some readings, I am changing the page every day: The Kamasutra on the left side and Dr Spock's Baby and Child Care on the right.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Obviously, the natural next step would be a voodoo ceremony... Hopefully it won't be necessary as it is usually quite messy.

[perfectjukebox]

The Voodoo ceremony will not be necessary, all appears to be OK. It's cichlid time in there: female in the cave, male chasing everyone away, I assume the Econoline set-up did the trick with the lady. The male is even chasing the otos away... The otos are of course completely innocent, doing nothing at all, except you know, sucking on the glass completely motionless.

So I have a new goal: peace and harmony in the tank. There is no need for war. I have changed the posters, replacing Pamela and David with pictures of peace and reconciliation icons: Gandhi, Lady Di, Dr Phil and Freud, in case the male agression is linked to some kind of repression or who knows what...

I have also put some chamomile tisane in the filter to make sure everyone is a little more zen. I'll play them some John Tesh or Yanni later, you know, some new age stuff. But Tesh usually makes me angry and violent, and so does Yanni, so hopefully just a few songs will be enough.

But one needs to plan ahead. So should that fail, I have some nice lavander bubble bath with essential oil (got it in a crappy Christmas gift exchange, don't ask); a few drops of that in the tank will make everyone super calm, I am sure about that.

I have to say that breeding kribs is a little more challenging than expected.

[perfectjukebox]

Well, something bad happened. I think I put the pieces of the puzzle together.

1- Still in the mood for some good times, the little horny couple decided to go for one last wild hump ride in the van.

2- Even with the eggs lying right bove them in their love cave, the little naugthy couple overused the bong (I knew I should have taken it out of there), got the munchies and since everything in the fridge was already consumed, ate the eggs.

3- The next day, realizing what they have done and unable to cope with the horrifying act they had just commited, the shamefull little couple split up. The lady krib has actually moved out of the cave, the cave is not protected anymore, they don't even swim together... I think I heard her scream "Don't look at me, I'm horrible", but in all fairness, it could have been my neighbours...

Valuable lesson here: Drugs are bad. mkay?...

[Mert999]

i donno why but i actually enjoyed reading this....it was like a movie(or a story)...lol... :)

[beefsteak]

LMAO. Great story. :) Sorry it didn't work out, but fingers crossed for future attempts.

[perfectjukebox]

Well thank you guys for your support.

I had a little too much fun writing about the whole thing, didn't I?

Just a quick update: the female really took it more badly than me. She became depressed and shy, eating (maybe) sparringly. I just tought it was a bad hangover, but when I saw her spitting out the bloodworms, I realized something must be wrong.

We are talking here about a pretty lady, but with awful table manners. I mean, the male eats like a pig all the time, it is obviously the thing he likes best to do after working out. But as an agressive eater that dude is, the lady was worse. I mean she lookes like that lady Champion eater, Sonya Thomas, that beats out male when inhaling hotdog after hotdog. Except that she was eating at least 4 or 5 bloodworms at the same time. (the krib, not Sonya) It was completely disgusting to see. I could not look away.

So her spitting bloodworms bits was a major concerned. Did the big male call her fat, or was it more like the HIH thing that did take a few cichlids I had before?

Not taking any chance, I gave her baths of Metro (1 hour). The first day, she was just pissed. The second day, she went for the bloodworm bits that I gave her at the end of the bath. Since some Metro was not completely dissolved, she probably ate quite a bit of that while eating the worms.

Now, 4 baths later, she eats again, swims again, flirts again a little, and she has a 2 inch log hanging out, she is trying swim away from that. I was never so happy to see poo. A couple more days to rest, and I'll try to fatten her up again. Slowly.

Meanwhile, 2 shrimps are missing. I was not surprised, were are talking kribs here. And it is not the first time it happens. My cats ate a couple of them from the smaller tank, and I did find one remain on the floor, all dried up.

But this time, they did leave a note:

Dude, you are obsessed with your kribs and we hate John Tesh. You suck. We are out of here. We will get our revenge. It's on.

Signed Chico and Juanita.

PS: Send some cash. We'll tell you how on our blog.

[pigeonblood]

maybe your cats and fish have chosen sides and your stuck in the middle of one nasty love triangle. Good luck and i would prob. sleep with one eye open.ha ha

[perfectjukebox]

Actually, this is cat TV. They just stare at the 2 "big" tanks and are hypnotized. I guess they consider it fair game only if there is an escapee. Completely missing are 1 WC minnow and a couple of shrimps. Vanished.

Now the couple seems to be getting ready to go at it for another round. Either that male is really a sweet talker (you would not say that looking at him) or that is one easy female krib. I think it is the female. That belly dancing she is doing is quite unlady-like. I could probably help her by setting up a little stage with a pole.

I mean what else could I possibly do to help them figure it out what to do? A demonstration? Well I could always ask my brother in law. Like I said, he did experience a similar problem back then, but he never told me one thing. He bought a krib costume and a giant size female krib inflatable replica (his first wife didn't want to play the part, she said it was stupid) and he used pingpong balls to represent the eggs, but he did not tell me how he managed to stick these things to the ceiling...

[Lonx]

lol...

I introduced a male krib to a pair of girls I had, ended up having to remove one of the girls because the other one was harassing her too much (trying to stop her stealing her new man I imagine).

About 3 or 4 days later she disappeared, then another 2 days and around 20-25 fry... they lasted about a week and something ate them (**** first time parents). I think she's putting on a bit of weight again now, about 3 weeks later so hopefully they'll give it another shot again soon.

One thing I found interesting was the female krib being a bit less than 2" long, chasing off and nipping at my growing Afra Cobue... for those who aren't familiar with Afra's, he's only around 3" at the moment but probably 3 times her size overall with big serrated teeth.

[perfectjukebox]

WELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME..

My lovely couple have improved their landscaping skills, doing some neat mounds of rocks instead of throwing them all over the place like their first time, but that is their biggest improvement.

Until this last week, they have had a couple of half-arse attemps, but this week, it looks serious, with a lot of this kind of thing going on:

- I will wag my tail right in your face, dude.

- Oh baby, I want you so muc.. hey is that food?

(male krib getting a tail in the face)

- Oh no you didn't!

And then he goes at her, she does that slutty "look at my stomach" arch and eventually, they retreat to the van. She stays in more than usual, but she still gets out..

I AM really getting annoyed. And so is the other female krib in the 15 gal, bigger, fatter, more opinionated. Her red belly dot almost joins at her back!! This girl wants it so bad..

I am thinking of trying some kind of switcheroo if this current dance aborts again.

Mind you, the male krib really rejected her, he was pretty much chasing her all the time. Not in the "I will give it to you kinky, baby" way, more in the "I'm gonna f-ing kill you, baby" way. She was always hiding somewhere.

So how would that go??

[perfectjukebox]

Well, here is one thing I learned about that male krib: he lacks traditional family values. And he is now a wife-swapper..

So I made some re-lansdcaping in all tanks. The krib tank wsa divided in 2 sections, since I was planning to reintroduce the first rejected female to see if the male had second thoughts..

While I was doing that, the 3 kribs were floating in seperate bags, but in the same bucket. When realease time came, I let the male go first, then, the rejected female.

Now remember, that female was so big and so red and well fed. She was the boss of the gourami tank. Well as soon as she swam out of the bag, she went straight in front of the male and jiggled. And she was not going to take no for an answer. One might say horny, or some kind of a nympho spell that took her over for some time.

Hopefully, they'll start seriously to think about getting, you know,it on..

[angelianmickie]

omg I was laughing so hard reading this thread I had tears going down my cheeks

[perfectjukebox]

OK, so correct me if I am wrong, but a missing female is a very good sign, is it not?

Hehehe..

Better to keep my hopes down a little, this is a first attempt for this female. But she looks a lot more talented than the other. Allright, she is not missing, I can see head coming out of the cave.

The rest of the tank is acting as if it does not know what to do.

Most affected is the male, who is really having a hard time coping with the situation. He looks in a post-partum depression state. For a while, he went to hide in the other cave, he never did that. He mainly stays in front of the main cave and tries to sneak a peak inside. I know 'cause I'm doing the same.. But while I look goofy and proud, he looks pensive and anxious, as if he now just realises that while sex is fun, sucessfull sex leads to adult responsibilities, even if you are still a teenager..

The remaining shrimps are now braver for that and lie around in mid-level; that used to be no-shrimp-land.. And the Harlequins? They are collectively perplexed by the krib's new state, and are having little breaks from the quiet herd behaviour they usually display. I think they should enjoy it while it lasts, since they are about to get cornered for a little while if all goes well..

Hum.. Breeder for the second time in one week. I know they are just kribs and dwarf gouramis, but still, this is not bad at all. :)

[perfectjukebox]

Well, it did not go well.

The female is out swimming again. Pretty hungry after a 4 day retreat. So much that she was swimming an inch out of the water to eat the bloodworms hanging from the pipette. It truly feels like feeding a free Free Willy.

So the male is a little bummed out and hangs around the cave a lot, trying to lure her back in or trying to prevent her from getting back in, who knows..

Now after going to the store, I can tell you that my kribs are still pretty young, the male is not even 5.5 cm long.. Compared to what I saw in the store tanks, he is much hotter, but very small. And my big female is even smaller. So I have juvies. Time is on my side.

Thinking ahead, I ordered some of Stephen Colbert's Stephen Colbert's Formula 402 and I will be dropping a few drops in the tank as soon as it gets here. Now that will do the trick.

Success is imminent.

[Pirwhana]

LOL that was awesome!! I too have Kribs... mine ate their first batch o' fry.... hopefully soon they will do the "deed" again. I am rooting for your fish! You remember what it was like your first couple of times right? "Ok so this goes here.... and now I do this...." Imagine what they must be going through!!

[perfectjukebox]

Well, time is suspended in that tank, the main activity in there for the lady is waiting to be fed while looking like a cross between Britney Spears (bald version) and The Scream. The male still looks over the entrance of the cave. I really don't have the knack for kribs..

I still enjoy the tank very much and I while I find the female fun (well, not today), it is the male I think is the babe . He is one hunk of a krib, 6 eyes lined up under a white-red-orange stripe on his dorsal fin that goes almost to the end of his tail. Maybe he is a little too pretty if you know what I mean.. The mrs is always in breeding colours, so fingers crossed!!

I should really ask my brother in law, Ron. He has bred almost everything. You will not be surprised to learn he lives on the West Coast. Last time we talked, he was so proud to share his pics of shark fry, first time in years he attemped that. He claim it is Great White fry, but from the pics, they clearly looked Hammerhead to me. But he is the expert, so.. All the family is a little freaked out about that since the last time he got into shark breeding, an unfortunate accident happened to his first wife.

They had been arguing about the tanks taking all the basement for months, and when Ron brought up the idea of using the back yard pool ON A TEMPORARY BASIS to house his almost fully grown 5 GW, the wife selfishly said no way.

One day, Ron freaked out because the sharks really looked bored in their 90 gal, so he moved them to the pool anyway while the wife was at work. Seems like a lot of dedication to fish, but if you knew Ron, you would not be surprised. He once brought back bloodworms and an Anubia for a bi-polar gourami when his first wife, Debbie, sent him out to get baby formula for the triplets, they were almost out..

She was pissed, but like Ron pointed out, if Debbie had not given up on breastfeeding after 10 seconds, they would not be having this discussion, and that anyway, they had enough formula for 2 of the babies untill tomorow and since Joey, the smallest one with TB was not eating anyways and was already sleeping, what was the big deal, he'd go get the formula tomorow morning.. That was the first time she went back to live with her parents, but she came back 2 days later. Drama Queen.

But back to the pool thingy, to make a long story short, Debbie gets home, goes to take a dip, yadda yadda yadda, the docs could not reattache the limbs, back to her parents for a while.. You know, every familly has a story like that..

[perfectjukebox]

Eggs.

Yes, my kribs have finally laid eggs. It is not has joyfull, as I imagined. I was completely stunned when I discovered them. It could not have happened at a worse time. That tank that has been stable for months just strangely went way off.

Well, it has been a chain of events. First, the ditters switcheroo: I decided to put the Harlequins with the Gouramis and the Cherry Barbs with the Kribs. The H were getting pretty big and one big female looks pretty much like Jaws. (she is one tought looking dyke) The CB are little wooses when they get chased a little and they hide. It worked, the Kribs seemed to enjoy the quiet and they moved into the cave. Save for the male, the tank looked completely empty: the female mostly stayed in, but she got out everytime I approached, so I thought nothing was happening.

Then last Saturday, my little nephew, the one with TB, was visiting. He was looking at the tank, coughed, a giant ball of TB infected mucus lands in the tank. First, I punished the child by putting him in his thinking box for a little time out, then went on to take care of the tank situation and do a partial WC. By moving the cave for clean up, I touched the female on the nose. She was not going away from that coconut shell, but still hyper about the toxic mucus situation, I did not investigate further..

The next day, after I let little Chad out, he wanted to apologize to the fish, I told him not to bring food in my bedroom, but since he has a major ear infections in both ears and that the mucus fusionned with wax almost completely blocks any sound, he did not ear me. He went next to the tank, dropped a banana peel, stepped on it, slipped, his egg benedict flew into the air and landed into the tank. I know these eggs are disgusting, but that is all the kid eats, he's allergic to everything else but bananas. As I run in the room, I see Chad putting himself in his thinking box, the Ghost Shrimps are already munching on the sauce. I decide to do a partial WC. I notice the female has a little white dot on her nose, but I can't see well, she is in the cave. As soon as it is done, I go to talk to little Chad to explain to him why he would stay in the box until the next day and that if he needed to drink, I would give him water even if his mom told me not to. Of course, he is in a box and his ears are still blocked, so I had to scream all that really loud, and it got quite tiring.

In the mean time, the kribs were now acting a little differently, but I blamed that on Chad's incidents and punished him preemptivly to prevent the next mishap. It did not work...

The next day, well the next evening, (warning, mature content ahead) after I put Chad to bed, a very special friend a mine came by, we went to my bedroom, and you know, proceeded to do what normal people do in a bedroom, in a bed with whipped cream, honey, ropes, Saran Wrap, elastic bands, a 9V battery, duct tape, a flathead screwdriver, safety pins, olive oil and a candle when that candle was somehow tipped over in all the action and started a fire in the curtains. I always sleep with a fire extinguisher under my pillow, so I put it out no problem, but all the noise woke up little Chad who ran into the room to see if the tank was OK. I was doing the same so the lid was open. I got surprised, turned around , tried to hide my Johnson with the fire extinghisher, but it slipped out (my hands were oily..), landed in the tank upside down, it hit a rock and fired up IN THE TANK.. Little Chad has to fish it out since my hands are still oily. The next WC was to be done the next day, so I went to bed after putting Chad to sleep again and untying Chris who had been good emotional support and a pretty good sport given the circumstances.

So the next day, I go to do the WC, I see the female out and about with that little white spot looking like a bruise, so the nurse in me says lets give her a little salt bath while we clean up (it helped before with another fish, so..) I fish her out, and the male is acting really like he cannot believe what is going on. I move the cave around, flip it and BOOM, there they are. Krib eggs. With the cave moved around , with the female bagged and salted and the male freaked out.

At that very moment, I realize that this first successful attempt at reproduction by this pair might not be happening in the best of situations..

This is now the day after and they are back at their antics of the last few days, the female comes out only to eat or when she thinks she is gonna be fed, and that is everytime anything or anyone gets close to the tank.

Will they hatch, these eggs??

[UCF-Planted]

Only if you can keep your nephew from eating them with hollandaise sauce.

[perfectjukebox]

Well, what a day.

Do not worry anymore about Rudy, my little nephew with TB, I shipped him back to the West coast to his parents. Turns out his thinking box is also how he travels: it is cheaper and little Rudy is used to being in it for long periods of time. We usually try to ship him at least priority mail, but not this time (I had to buy milk ) so it is regular mail. I love the little dude, but he is so gross..

Came home, saw something unusual in the tank.. what were those? Leftovers? Quiche leftovers? Darn.. Coming so close to seing baby kribs, I felt a huge disappointment. I sat on my bed to try to compose myself then I heard what should have been good news, Pfeiffer, my cat that was missing for a couple of days, purring.

Little note about Pfeiffer (please pronounce the P.. ;) ), I got him at the shelter, he was about to be put down. Almost perfectly healthy, but he is one of those hairless egyptian cats, so he is quite ugly to start with, but he is also albino had has a little bit of eczema on his legs that are permanentaly covered with tiny red spots. He has been gone the last couple of days, I thought he was in the box with little Rudy, but when I let him out to go #1 before I shipped him, but Pfeiffer was not in the box.. Where the heck was it??

Well, hearing purring right behind me answered that question: he is right there on my bed. Without looking, I reached back to pet it a little, and I felt .. what fur? No not fur, but.. I screamed and jumped, turned around and yelled: "Who are you and what did you do to my cat?"

Then I saw..

It was Pfeiffer allright. But something horrible has been done to him. The cat does not understand why I am not petting him, but I can't. He has reached a new phase of uglyness, He now sports a red mowhawk.. How can that be? He is also wearing a collar, so he was obviously drugged, and a little envelope is attached. I opened it and started reading:

"You were warned, so do not be surprised.

We told you we would get our revenge. This is how we did it. We kidnapped your cat and took it to an underground hair doctor/terrorist. He used to work for some communist european country. He implanted on your cat's skull genetically modified ginger hair that will grow its roots right through your cat's brain should you try to shave him. Now we are getting ready for the next act in our revenge, so please send more money, you know the drill.

It is still on.

Chico and Juanita"

[perfectjukebox]

These are pretty sad times.

The spots on my female's head have turnes into tiny little cavities. I was relieved first since it could not be HITH disease, since there are more than one. Otherwise, it would be called holeS in the head disease.

Then, I started to think.. What else could it be? So the five gallon that was supposed to be there as a nursery became a hospital tank. The female is enjoying some Clout time in there, and there seems to be some improvements in her condition. At first, I did not like the look of it all: where else did I see fish in blue water?

In the mean time, the little spare female was reintroduced to my huge 20gal krib tank. Needless to say that my male was a little confused for 30 seconds, but then accepted her with open fins. She was his first love after all.. My male krib is such a slut..

And be reassured, my TB infected nephew Tommy did make it allright back to his family. His mom had some questions about the fire incident, but appart from that, all is well. Ron advised me to place houseplants on both sides of the tank to gine the kribs the illusion of safety. Why not? He also gave me some very deep words of wisdom:

"To your fish, you are the river, part of a mini-male Gaïa. You're Gaïo."

I think Ron needs stronger medication.

[perfectjukebox]

It was a dark and stormy night..

No, it was a warm and humid day, actually, it is just freaking hot in here these days. I forgot to put on the AC the first day of that warm weather, and there were some casualties. In the krib tank, one barb; two honey and a peppered cory from that tank and some gourami fry. Do I need to mention the sick female krib. It was above, well above 95F and the change was probably brutal, my appartment faces south and around 10h30, it just gets like an oven, so I had left at 10 am. Showers were probable, so all windows were closed. Got home at 1 am and the wall were hot. I'm talking inside walls..

So the next day, I did maintenance, WC and I used my new scrubber to do a mighty fine job on the algea.

Of course, being a natural blond, my male krib then attacked his reflection non stop and tried to intimidate himself. Next to him, the female was (and still is) going strong, and she kept vibrating and vibrating like an a sexy fish version of the Energizer bunny. If she gets that male to procreate, she will deserve a medal or something special like a night out, a day at the spa or whatever.

But honestly, that male krib is so dumb, he is like those birds that fly in a living room window. When, he gets spooked, he sometimes run into the glass. I don't usually name fish, but this one is close to be baptised "Señor Dumbass".

I moved the caves in the center of the tank and tried to block as much reflective surface as I could with plants and rocks. They have ajusted pretty quickly, especially the female who went into vibrating mode as soon as my hand left the tank. When she does bot vibrate, she digs from the cave.

As always, success is imminent. If some of you could go to church or simply mention my kribs in your prayers at night, I am sure it would help.

I for one have stopped having sex untill these fish produce fry and I channel that energy to the tank using a blend of yoga, tai-chi and native-american techniques under the guidance of a Shaman from Togo. Chris is not amused..

[virgorn1]

Your Kribs are being normal...they don't sexually mature until about 3-4 inches long. My female and male did the exact thing you are describing...I was anticipating way too much. My female laid her eggs...the first time...and nothing happend. However, the second time...3 days after she laid them I had fry...about 100 of them. That was 8-9 weeks ago and have approximately 35 left. All are doing great. My point is that what is going on is completely normal. They will even barracade the opening to the coconut shell and skinny in and out. Just give it some more time and be prepared for the first brood...

[perfectjukebox]

Thank you for confirming that my kribs are acting like normal juvenile kribs. In order to help them a bit, I did return some of the cherry barbs to leave only 4 in there with them. It turns out the female is the actual digger in that couple. I really cannot imagine where she takes those pebbles, but she is now excavating a 3rd mount of pebbles, each would seem to be enough to fit in the cave, and yet, she still diggs and more pebbles are coming out of the cave. That is beginning to freak me out.

In the mean time, still no baby kribs.. Some of you may understand why some part of my anatomy have turned blue. As I was discussing that with Chris, the gourami breeding project my temp-tanks have produced a 3rd litter, (litter #2 was used as food for litter #3 parents) and we actually witnessed hatching too. That was good enough to make the blue go away. But starting now, no you-know-what untill baby kribs are a reality, no matter what shade of blue they get.

[perfectjukebox]

Before I forget:
(and it seems that could very well happen sooner then expected)

Something pretty scary just happened in a subject completely unrelated.. or so I thought.

I was just in the hospital. I got an operation. I left with 5 prescriptions, when I get home, I took a closer look at what was actually prescribed. Pill#4: Metronidazol.

Hum.. Fish medecine. I did notice it on one my IV bags yesterday, but I blamed that as an hallucination due to the morphine. (Too bad that stuff is illegal btw, no pain and I said a lot of things that made no sense at all, but I disgress..)

So is it worse than I thought? Am I being treated for HIH disease?
And if I were, would I notice?

[perfectjukebox]

Yeah well...

Señor Dumbass has been a little bit jumpy recently, and many times he ran straight into the walls. Loud enough that I hear it.

The upper lip got a little whitish, then a little more. It is still located just on the lip, but he sure looks like he could use some collagen up there. He eats and sleeps fine, so I assumed it was just a bruise.

I won't play God, if his time comes sooner than later, then that will be the end of the krib experience. The female will go back to the 15 gal, and the 20 will be used for the gouramis.

I mean I don't know what I am doing wrong with these fish. Their water is the best of the 3 tanks, they have the fewer mates in there. They get pellets, flakes and worms. . .

Must be a curse. It is not the shrimps. (I made that stuff up)

Well, he's not dead yet , so there is still hope, but I have a bad feeling about it...

[perfectjukebox]

Señor Dumbass, you will be missed.

He was lying upside down, breathing with lots of difficulties this morning. He did not fight the net. I knocked him out.

So my home-bred dwarf gouramis get the tank. Either that, or I go get a mature fully grown couple and give the krib experience one last chance.

Untill my mind is made up, I will try to deal with my post-partum depression state with strong doses of frozen yogurt, canned mandarins and narcotics, wearing my leather pants, listening to NIN's Downward Spiral on repeat. That usually cheers me up.

Thanks for all your support and kind words.

[perfectjukebox]

The 20 gal was looking a little empty with only the cherry barbs and one female krib in there.. So I went shopping.

Got back with a trio of Cockatoos, the type that has orange black on the tail and dorsal fins. All the male kribs looked pretty bland to me, since Señor Dumbass was such a studmuffin. Put the trio in there.. For 2 days, the tank was completely empty. The Cherry Barbs, instead of inciting the cockatoos to come out were incited to hide with them. Not a big fan of empty ghost town tanks, I went shopping again. And I hit the jackpot, I could not be happier.

Pencilfish. Got 10 of them to replace the Cherry Barbs. Now the store was not sure about the species, so I looked it up. There is a lot of red going on, so they naturally appear to be Golden Pencilfish.

They are a riot. After taking a few hours to scout the surroundings as a tight school, they have since been chasing each other at high speed and doing some kind of dance, involving 2 or 3 individuals. That dance consists mainly of being side to side and doing an impression of bacon strips cooking in a frying pan. They are most active at night, and they go after any kind of food, but with a twist. Flakes will get little bit marks taken off. Cichlid mini granules, way too big for their mouths, they just go and grab it and swim around with it. All of them with a granule, each time I put that in there.

Not only do they give a good show, they also made the Cockatoos come out of hiding. Almost instantly. Now they actually come up to eat flakes from the surface at first, then they wait for the flakes to be shipped down with the current from the filter. Pretty cool eating action there. with the male CD swimming as if he was stuttering. When not eating, he is starting to displayfor the females, wagging his tail and so on..

So that is the new situation. Of course, I am hoping for eggs and fry. I was about to start a new topic with an abbrievated version of the word Cockatoos (something like C*cks), but I had second thoughts since this is a G website and not a NC-17..

If anyone thinks I should go for it (maybe with a more appropriate title) and would like some updates on this new venture, please do let me know.