Krib behavior question

[Timmain42]

I've recently acquired a pair of wild-caught "yellow" kribs. They're now living in a heavily-planted 55G with a couple of cave-ish areas for their perusal. It's taken them a few days to get used to the new housing and the new owner, but they're now finally coming out of hiding for feeding and the like.

I'm pretty sure I have a male and female. I know for sure that I have a female, but the jury's still out on the larger fish (the guy at the LFS was having trouble sexing them as well). I've watched kribs make the mating behavior before, bend and vibrate... but would a female krib make the mating moves towards another female? The smaller of the two fish was shaking what her momma gave her towards the larger fish this morning, but the familiar markings of the kribensis aren't as prominent on these "yellows" as they are on the normal kribs, so I can't tell for sure is it's a male or not?

Again, am I watching a female krib hit on another female? :shrug:

 

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

That shaking gesture is not only used for mating, but sometimes to "challenge" a competitor and show that this is her territory. So it could be two females, but give it a few weeks. You should start to see some differences in the shapes of the fins if they are male and female... dont go by just the belly cus males will get a pink belly too sometimes.

-Diana

 

[NatakuTseng]

Does the female hold her ventral fins up on her pink stomach area? The females of many apistos and other dwarves will do this to make them look more plump and full of eggs to get the males in the mood. I've witnessed kribs doing it on many occasions.

 

[Timmain42]

Does the female hold her ventral fins up on her pink stomach area? The females of many apistos and other dwarves will do this to make them look more plump and full of eggs to get the males in the mood. I've witnessed kribs doing it on many occasions.

I don't know yet... they've just started to get comfortable just early this morning. I'll keep an eye out for that tho.

Thanks, folks. I appreciate it the advice. This is the first time I've really kept cichlids in about 10 years and it's like having aliens as pets (and I thought 14" shrimp were weird!).