Kribs, Kribs and more Kribs.....

[snakeskinner]

I've been tossing around the idea of a pair of Kribs the last couple weeks and had my eye on a male and female that seem to have paired up at a LFS but the day I decided to pick them up, they wouldn't sell them because of an ich outbreak in that tank. They also have a pair of small (1-1.5") albino Kribs but they are more expensive and I didn't know much about them. Saturday I was at another LFS and she had several 3" or so Kribs. Some with orange tipped dorsal and some with Orange tips. Other than that they look pretty similar in coloring. The only one with a large "plum" patch on the belly had an eye missing so I don't want that one. She said she had 2 types of Kribs in this tank and would not be able to guarantee sex. She had one type and ordered another but when the employee on duty got them in, she added them in the same tank and now they can't tell what's what. She also has a pair of small albino's. My question is, what are the different types of Kribs. I've seen a fish called a rock Krib but they looked quite a bit different (if this fish was labeled right). These all appeared to be the typical Krib you see in photos with the brown/greenish/tan horizontal striped body and either orange or yellow tipped fins. What are the different types? where can I find info on them? How else can I tell Male or Female than the plum patch? Also, is there a way to sex albino's? Are they the same temperment and such as normal Kribs or are they different? thanks, KYle

[PumaWard]

Male kribs will appear elongated, and, unless there's been finnipping going on, the caudal (tail) fin should be almost diamond shaped. The plum coloration on the stomach is not a very good way to sex these fish, happy healthy males have it as well as females.

Males ventral fins will also be pointed.

The females caudal fin should be round, and her ventral fins should be more of a paddle shape, not pointed like the male's.

As for the different kinds, the albinos you see are just the albino version of the true Kribensis (P. pulcher).

Here's a link that has a couple "Krib" species of the same genus.
Look under "West African" types.
http://www.thekrib.com/Apisto/

HTH

[Tim Bo]

I have seen so many wrong id's of Pelvicachromis pulcher over the past years. I can understand it in part, since there are so many color variations. The many colors originate either from artificial crossbreeding or natural variation. A book published by TFH, 1994 lists five distinct Pelvicachromis species and up to 26 different color morphs in total among these species. The most common species is of course Pelvicachromis pulcher but apparently this species is one of the least represented in the genus. P. taeniatus rests up top with 12 color morphs in the wild - this is also one of the varieties that is most often confused with P. pulcher. Take a look here to get some more info :

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/intropage.htm

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to work with albinos so I can only help so much with this. I'll try and find an email I received a while back by a guy who had over 20 albinos. He should be able to help you out. I would not think that albino's would have any different temperamen than ordinary Kribs,

i got an email from Michael Meyer Date: 02 Oct 1998 where he stated the following :

"Albino kribs have been around for at least 20 years. An interesting thing about them is that males of either color prefer albino females, but females of either color prefer normal color males. The theory is that the red belly patch is powerfully attractive to a male looking for a mate, and it shows up much better on an albino female. I don't think anyone has determined which aspect of the male's appearance looks good to a female, but this suggests that it is something that is more visible in the normal coloration."

[Tim Bo]

Great link PumaWard, I haven't looked at that page for a long time :)