Ahhhhh!! Super excited! Help please!!

[erin14]

So, tonight i'm sitting infront of my 50g. watching the fish, making sure everyone is still alive and healthy. Then i noticed something unusual with my kribs. The female was hanging around this little cave like thing in one of my ornaments. She would swim in and out of it, and when she came out she'd arch her body and show off her insanely pink belly. The male would look but that was it. I thought well, she must be trying to get his attention, shes been doing this since the second day i got her which was 2 weeks ago. I walked away to go feed my other tank and that was about 10-15 minutes. I came back and watched the kribs again. This time the male was swimming in and out of the cave too, following the female in everytime she went in. He'd come back out, check things out, do a circle around the cave and swim back in, the female only came out a few times though, a lot less then she had been. I also noticed he'd chase any fish that came more then half way across the tank away. Then it dawned on me that THEY MUST BE SPAWNING!!! If they're not spawning they're getting ready too! I'm suuuupper excited as i have never had any babies before. I've never even seen any of my female platie's babies (they all get eaten i guess). So what do i do? Wait for the babies to hatch? I know kribs are supposed to be good parents even though it could take them a few tries. If I see any babies should i take them from the mother and put them in a breeder net?? If i try to catch them with a net, will they follow the mother back into the cave (or a safe spot) and make it 10x harder for me to catch them? Do i leave them with her?? How long do they look after them? Any help is appreciated a lot! Oh, my gold nugget pleco hangs out and the top of this ornament while the kribs' cave is at the bottom, will the GN eat the eggs? Probably hey? He doesn't have to go out the cave part to get out, he can get out other ways, so do you think there is a possibility that he may not even notice them and won't eat them?? Sorry for the long post, i'm sure i will think of more questions when i get off of here haha. Oh well, this is a start! Thanks again!!

[Lady Ns]

Sounds like they're spawning to me. Congratulations!!! Don't worry about removing the fry, not all will survive, but the better ones usually do. Plus, their a bit hard to rear sometimes. Kribs make good parents (as far as fish go) so shouldn't have to worry too much about the babies.
Good luck with the fry :)

[Carp37]

I used to use a home-made tank divider whenever fish spawned in the community tank, if I didn't have another tank to move fry to. I seem to remember kribs being among the easiest egg-layers to rear after the first few days, but it's much nicer to see them being reared for the first few weeks by their parents...

Congratulations by the way

[Brian Bivens]

yeah, I agree, let the Kribs do their thing for a few weeks, and then you could move them out to a tank if you want to. If not, feed the tank as normal (just finely crushed up flakes) and the ones that make it, will be hardy little fishies. There will be many that don't and there isn't much you can do about it.

[duke33]

Allright mom/dad..I agree with the above. good luck!

[irishspy]

Congratulations, you're soon to be a godmother. :thud:
The kribs will probably bee good parents, but I suspect the fry will be in danger from the tiger barbs (assuming those are in this tank). But, look at it this way: you now have a perfect excuse to buy another tank to raise the fry in!

:headbang2:

(Oh, and post pictures...)

[erin14]

Congratulations, you're soon to be a godmother.
The kribs will probably bee good parents, but I suspect the fry will be in danger from the tiger barbs (assuming those are in this tank).

Aren't kribs supposed to be protective of the babies? I realize that they can't keep track of every single one but the should be able to keep the tiger barbs away for the most part right? I won't be upset if they dont all make it, i have no where to keep them and no room for another tank but to have 1 or 2 survive would be nice. There is actually only 2 tiger barbs left now, they're pretty old (going on 3 years), and laid back. They don't bother any of my fish and they very rarely bug each other. My gourami is the most aggressive and i worry the most about him eating the babies.

While laying in bed last night, i thought of some more questions (told ya!):

- How long before they hatch?
- How long before they start coming out with mom and dad to explore?
- Do they swim out on their own to explore or stay relatively close?
- I read that they return to the same cave they were born in every night, is this true?
- I have tried to find that "____ Blue" (cant remember the name) that you're supposed to use to prevent fungused eggs, but can't get it around here (no major pet stores, just locally owned). If there are any eggs that didn't get fertilized, will it affect the ones that did? Any preventative measures I should take? A lot of water changes is hard right now (only do one a week) but I could try to do an extra one or 2. I have no way of knowing how the eggs are doing because they spawned inside an ornament and i can't see the eggs, its dark in there.
- Last but not least, if i lift the ornament up to see the eggs, will it upset the parents and cause them to "reject" the eggs in any way? I don't want that to happen, but am interested to see the eggs as I've never had babies before!

If someone could answer some or even all of these i'd be really happy!!! Thanks once again!!

[irishspy]

There's a thread about breeding kribs at (appropriately enough) The Krib (http://www.thekrib.com/Apisto/P-pulcher.html).