Killer Kribs!? WTH?

labont865

labont865

This is drako, a friend of a friend
Nov 26, 2004
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Hey guys been awhile since I have asked any questions outside GCC.

I relatively recently bought a pair of kribs, They were in a 20g tank with two Panchax three pepper cories, and 2 ottos. I recently found one dead panchax torn to shreds, then a few days later my large pnchax dis-appeared, I figured the first one got sick from being pestered by the larger one, then maybe the larger one managed to jump outta the tank, but today I just checked my tank to find one of my cories floating upsidedown in the middle of the tank missing its anal fins and one of its barbels. I was wondering what was going on when out of no where one of my cribs came flying up from the bottom and takes off half of a peck fin. So I figured maybe they kribs had spawned and were being protective but after a fairly thourough but none intrusive search i found no eggs and no nest site. I cant figure out what is going on with these little buggers, they have all been together in the tank for nearly 3 months with absolutely no problem and I recently added even more hiding places to the tank. I cant figure it out, so anybody with a little more experience with kribs got any ideas??
 
I recently had a very similiar experience with a pair of kribs I bought. The male was ballistic and killed a bunch of my other inhabitants including the female.


From my previous pair though, I found that my male not only was very protective of the eggs, but also the female. The female just likely to jump in and get a nip where she could.

It could be as simple as your kribs are getting ready to spawn and getting in a few preemptive strikes where they can.
 
I would guess the same thing. Look for spawning in the near future. With cichlids there is always the personality factor too. You can get an amazing diversity of aggresiveness within a species. Some can be mellow, others can be holy terrors. Some will let bottom dwellers live in peace (relative peace anyway), other will not tolerate anything that even resembles a catfish. Things can change as they get older too.

PS 20 tall or long? Either way cories and kribs will not usually get along in tanks that small.
 
Yeah it can happen, I successfully kept a pair in a 20 gal community tank with no deaths... but they were a very mellow pair. Its best with kribs to go over 30 gallons or keep a tank to themselves, or with fast moving fish like danios (who would eat the eggs tho).

Pack that tank FULL of hiding places like thick plants, caves, logs, rocks, pots, etc. If the male is that aggressive, he could very likely kill his female. Make sure she has places to go to get away from him.


-Diana
 
it was your Pit bull! JK! I had no idea Kribs had such a large territory or could be that aggressive....I am glad to know as I have been contemplating a pair...Thanks for the info.

Condolences to you for your fish! I hate it when someone decides to be agressive,,,
 
Hey thanks guys. And yeah I am moving them to a 55 soon, but I been busier with the new pups than I first expected to be and it has taken me a little longer to get to it than first planned. I was just surprised is all, I heard that kribs were usually pretty peaceful, comparable to a Ram. But these two have a little mean streak I guess. There are tons of hiding places in my tank too, so I figured if anything they would all be able to escape or at least get some refuge from eachother, but I guess not.
Anyways do kribs actually build "nests" like my rams and most other cichlids? or do they just spawn in caves? I have heard they do both but I am curious to which happens more often. Also I dont know of they are going to spwan or not, there havent been any breeding behaviour between the two, no bright colours, no courting "dances" nothing, they are bright but nothin outta the ordinary. The only thing that gave me a hint to maybe spawning is the aggression.
 
While I have a new discovery in the situation. I think the large panchax killed the small one by pestering it to death, then a few day later jumped from the tank and was half eaten by my cat(found half the body today) which I mentioned earlier that that was what I figured. BUT the new discovery leads me to believe that my Kribs may not be the killing machines I thought. Though they did attack the nearly dead Cory I dont think they did the initial damage. What leads em to believe this is... ready? wait for it..... My other two cories have spawned this morning, and have since gone absolutely bananas, attacking ever other fish in the tank that comes near their cave including the ottos. So my thoughts are now that the male attacked and did some pretty serious damage to the other cory and that the kribs just finished the job.

P.S. My cat may have removed the last panchax instead of it jumping out, My lid broke and thus was open.
 
I have also had that experience with kribs aswell, i had 2, male and a female. In the tank at the time i had 3 electric yellows, 3 electric blues, 2 severums, 2 bristlenose and 2 hatchet fish.

unfortunately i started to loose my electric yellows 1 by 1, i first thought that it was the severums since they were about 15 cm in length, but then after i lost all the electric yellows i decided to watch the fish for about 1 hour.

After about 30 mins or so, i saw my krib come out of its pot and start harassing 1 of the blues, i thought maybe it was just coinsidence but then it grabed hold of its cadaul fin and tore it to shreads, so bye bye electric blue.

I moved the kribs to a 20 gal tank with some of my baby fuelebornis, as soon as i put them in there, all 20 or so babies (about 4-5cm) started nipping it's fins, so i thought what should i do risk the kribs with electric blues and others. Or i could risk the kribs with fuelebornis so i decided to put them in with the fuelebornis and hope they wouldn't die.

Thankfully they didn't and i sold them when the male and female started to show signs of getting ready to breed.
 
i decided to watch the fish for about 1 hour.
Click to expand...

Excellent move. I don't think we realize sometimes how much our presence affects the behavior of our fish (cichlids in particular). You really need to settle down and watch them for awhile before they display more natural behavior.
 
Kribs can be anything from mild to wild!

I have quite a few breeding pairs right now and they each show different behaviors. My first thought is that in a small tank like the 20, you should not have any other 'bottom' dwelling fish. If the Kribs spawn, there will be carnage to anything that gets close, even plecos IME.

As far as spawning locations, it has been my experience that Kribs definitely prefer to build "nests" rather than spawn in caves. I had several caves in my 40 gallon with a pair of breeding Kribs and after a week or so I only had one Krib... my male! Or so I thought! After searching for the female for 2 days and never finding a corpse or anything, I decide to sit and wait and watch. Sure enough, after about 10 minutes, the female shows up, just like that! When I approached, she quickly disappeared behind a small Anubuis plant. Actually when I went and looked, it turns out that they had burrowed under the Anubius roots. Hardly noticable onless you are REALLY looking for it! Two days later, they were parading a decent shoal of fry around! And despite allthe other hiding places in the tank, they have repeatedly spawned in the same place for the last 6 times.

In my 75 gallon, I have two breeding pairs from the first offspring of the pair talked about above. They started getting pretty aggressive about the same time, so I put several of the terracotta plant pot bases turned upside down in the tank, one at each end. I have cut a small opening in the side of each about 1 inch tall and about 3/8" wide. Both pairs immediately took over these new additions and made them homes. It appears they dug some of the sand/gravel out of each as there are small mounds of gravel in front of each 'door'. It also appears that after spawning, the female will build up the mound in order to make the opening too small for the male to fit into. She will then keep him away until the fry are born and able to be free-swimming enough to leave the 'cave'. Only then will the female allow the male to return to the 'family' to help guard the small fry. It is actually pretty cool to watch the whole process. The fact that Kribs will breed about every 30 days will provide you plenty of observation time once a breeding pair is established. I will caution you though... once they get going, they won't stop!!! And caring for that many fry can sometimes be a PITA! I have had 3 generations of fry in a grow out 55 gallon tank with a set of new fry in the parents tank! All within about 3 months time frame and waiting for the fry to get big enough to sell!!

Best of luck,
 
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