krib questions

I had a hell of a time keeping kribs in a 55 gallon community tank in years past. I have recently gotten back into the hobby as the result of inheriting a single male betta. Now I'm looking at a 15 or 20 gallon tank that I'm planning to use solely for a breeding pair of Kribs. I consider Kribs my favorite aquarium fish, but they can be extremely aggressive. I have seen them beat faster, larger dither fish to death. I used to read that it would be better to have two females to one male, but never had luck with that setup as one female would get beaten to death. Though it is fun to see the females compete for attention. I have been getting my confidence up by reading more information on the breeding of Kribs. I will most definitely have my tank planted with a lot more plants than my other attempts. I did get one of my pairs to lay eggs on a couple of occasions, but every time they were eaten by either the Kribs or their tankmates, I never knew who. Why I had so much trouble in a large tank that was lightly stocked in the past (if I recall I had 3 or 4 2+" danios of some variety, 3 otos, and the kribs), I don't know, but I have a lot more knowledge now.
 
I have never seen my kribs behave like this - I currently have 2 pair in 2 different tanks. even when I had 2 males and 1 female in my 75 gal, along with everything else, the aggression level was always low.
I have a pair of Kribs that permanently live in a 10 gal with all of their babies(until they lay another batch of eggs) and the male and female never ever fight - they will put on quite a display when they are getting ready to breed, but no violence. they can be extremely rough on their babies from the previous hatching once they have laid a new batch though - I have to remove all of their young from the tank whenever they start a new brood or they would kill off the juveniles.

in short - your kribs and yoyos should be ok as long both have territories to claim, and plenty of places to hide - you will need several caves in particular. and as far as Oto's are concerned - the only time I have ever seen Kribs bother one is if it were actually on top of or right next to the cave they were prepping/using to raise their young.
 
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I guess I'll go ahead with my original plan. If things start to go wrong I could always move the kribs to my 10 gallon and move its inhabitants (4 zebra danios and 1 giant danio...he apparently snuck into the z. danio tank and I guess the doe doe lfs person doesn't know the difference between the two :duh: ) to the 30 gallon.
 
Its funny I ran across this thread. I've got a 33 gallon with 6 male guppies in it at the moment. And a leech problem *shudder* that I'm trying to fix. When I finally get that done and my tanks back up to snuff I was thinking about a pair of Kribs. I've heard that they don't get along well with guppies and that they consider them a 'delicacy'. lol Is this true? Because guppies were the fish I was thinking about keeping with them. Kribs are more lower level and the guppies are mid to upper right? So in theory... it should work...

Anyone have any experience with this combo?
 
I wouldnt recommend flashy fin slow moving fish with kribs. I've seen mine slowly pick apart a betta.

Kribs do not seem to like fish that are flashier than they are and will punish them for it.
 
Yeah, I've scratched the betta from my list. Someone suggested a betta because my stock of fish was lacking a top-level dwelling fish, but I'm pretty sure my tetras will cover the middle and top levels just fine.
 
Long post, lol. I was going to say to scratch the Betta, b/c the other fish you want will pick on him. If you decide to get cherry barbs instead of tetras realize they are not schooling fish, they tend to be loners. i would only get a few of them. I would also be weary of getting loaches with the kribs. I think you should pick one or the other. Everything I have read says they get very territorial when breeding and they will pick on those loaches. If you had a bigger tank, say at least a 55 I would say go for it. personally I think keeping a breeding pair of Kribs in a 10 gallon is a bit unfair to them, but thats my opinion. I just set up a 40 gallon high (which is the length of a 30) for my Angel who cant be kept in my community b/c she chases anything the size of a tetra around trying to eat them. I also have a stragler dwarf gourami in there and in a week will be adding my pair of Kribs which are now in a QT tank. I have decided not to put any bottom dwellers in and am going to see how the 3 get along to see if i can even put in anything else. I would recommend doing the same with your Kribs and see how they behave before you add the other stuff. (or just wait to get them till you get a bigger tank which we all know eventually happens ;) ). But, that's just my opinion.
 
I agree, ten is somewhat small for kribs, but I had moved them there to try and allow for at least one pair of my kribs to be able to successfully breed without having to fend off/harass everything in the big community tank. right now I have so many babies with kribs and rainbow cichlids that I may have to make the 10 a dedicated baby tank and move the kribs into the 75 and hope that they can agree to stay on opposite sides of the tank....
 
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