Kribs

[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.