Will my female Krib accept a new mate...?

[fishorama]

Well, look at those long pointed dorsal & anal fins & the 3 spots in the tail, that says male to me in the last pic especially. The belly doesn't look pink except a bit in the last pic. In some pics the belly looks pretty rounded, some much slimmer & not pink. Could it just be fat after big meals?

The newer "male" doesn't have any tail spots, p.pulcher females usually have 1 at most, sometimes just some color, not really a spot. I really think your newest fish is a p. taeniatus, it doesn't have "nose stripes" like pulcher...or the dorsal spot or blotch like pulcher females...waffling, lol. There's also something about the head shape that seems different & the more muted coloring...

Did you look at lots different regional taeniatus? I did not. There also may be regional varieties of pulcher nowadays or even hybrids between the 2, sorry I don't know...

Are they fighting? How about sizes? Females are noticeably smaller, think short & stout, 2 inches vs 3 in adults.

You might try posting on a dwarf cichlid or even a pelvicachromis board if there is 1, there are likely more ways to tell or at least offer a better guess. If you do I'd like to hear what you find out.

 

[azaahp2]

Well I'm baffled too... LOL! 'She' definitely has a much more rounded tummy than he does, which is about the only thing that points me to her being a female. As well as the fact that I bought her and her mate as a breeding pair, and the one that died was much slenderer than her so I assumed she was the female. She's about 8cm (just over 3") long, seems quite a bit bigger than Tiger who is about 7cm (2 3/4") but I did purchase her as a fully grown adult, and don't know the age of him.

Colour-wise they both seem to come and go about the same, get a bit of pink on their tummy maybe when they chill out a bit and lose it again every now and then. Yellow up a bit overall, but the pink is only on their tummies. I've read that the males get pink on their throats as well as tummies but neither of mine ever have...

" Did you look at lots different regional taeniatus? " - yes I did do some research and every image I could find really didn't look like my fish at all, they looked much more like the pulcher variety... so no more light there.

Anyhow another breeding pair came available so I got tempted... I'm going to try them in the tank with my peaceful 'male' and see how things go... if they bully him then I'll probably move Tiger and Truffle on...

Not one to give up but I only have two tanks and impatience and opportunity got the better of me...

 

[azaahp2]

Help - my breeding pair just arrived and the female is tiny! Only about 5cm (2")?? I've done some googling and read they can breed from as little as 6-8 months but can't find what size they'd be at that age... would they really be at least 'bonded' or 'breeding' at that size...?

 

[fishorama]

You'd be surprised at how young female cichlids of many species are ready to breed! Is her tummy very pink & rounded? If you can separate her, feed her up with good foods. Then add a likely male, probably the biggest or with the most developed fins. Don't add her to the tank with 3? males, all heck may (likely) break out.

Do you have pics of your latest kribs?

 

[azaahp2]

Ha ha thanks that's helpful. So I put my new 'breeding pair' into the tank with my 'peaceful male' - tiger. It didn't last five minutes both males chased each other viciously and tiger chased the female too. After a day of travelling I wasn't prepared to let them battle it out - plus I don't need any dead fish! So I moved him into Truffles tank and put him in a breeder net... there they remain for the time being!

My new female is happy sifting through the sand finding food but every time the male sees her he chases her. There are plenty of hiding spots and he doesn't seem to chase her too often so hopefully she'll be ok until she's ready. I'll try to get her plenty of decent food...

Will get some pics, but she has gold stripes on her nose, my other 3 all have grey stripes... she's a pretty little thing.

As for colour it comes and goes on both of them but he gets red from him tummy right up to his mouth which none of my others do (even looks like he has a bleeding mouth sometimes it's so red!). Yes she has the rounded red belly, comes and goes as mentioned. She has quite a lot of gold on her though.

 

[fishorama]

I don't know I understand all the color things going but if you post some pics I'll try...I don't remember bleeding red mouths ever...

 

[azaahp2]

The newbies (named by my 5yo )... Miss Cutie

 

[azaahp2]

And Mr Big... (who spends most of his time in the pot so couldn't get too good a pic...)

 

[fishorama]

OK, I bet Miss Cutie is a girl & Mr. Big is a male. I have no doubt they are both p. pulcher, they look just like I remember our kribs looking back in the long ago. Now it's baby making time! Isolate them in their own tank & with a couple caves & some good foods. She might need a few extra days of higher protein food (like frozen blood worms). Then you need some finer foods after the fry hatch & grow a bit. The parents will take care of them for at least several days...the male will lose interest first, remove him when he does, he'll likely eat fry. The female is a better caretaker...for a while..until she gets the breeding urge again.

I think you & your kids'll be entertained by their behaviors...but not all fry will survive, circle of life & all that. Think of a gentle way to explain that...I don't have kids...

 

[azaahp2]

Sooo, and update on my Kribs! I've got the other two (Tiger and Truffle) in my other tank, taking turns in a breeding net so they can't hurt each other...!

Mr Big only ever comes out of the pot he's claimed to chase Miss Cute - and it's a fairly aggressive kind of chase. Or to spit out sand of course... he's always cleaning out his cave!

In the last 2 or 3 days she's started flirting - doing the vibrating dance in front of him every chance she can - but he still just carries on butting her. As soon as she's in his line of sight he comes out, hackles raised - she'll dance in front of him and he'll butt until he gives in and dives back to his cave. She doesn't really give in and retreat any more, just really keeps trying - but this has been going on for more than a couple of days now and I think her sides are starting to show from the butting (no fins nipped or anything).

I'm wondering how long do I leave them at it? Is he likely to change his mind any time soon... or just keep bashing her?

I could try one of my others in there - be interesting to see how she'd get with truffle (maybe she's actually a male...!) or my peaceful tiger... but I don't want to muck anything up if he's just going through stages... I'll try to upload a link to a vid...

Should be able to see a vid here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvmkaswd64e1xdl/20201101_204915.mp4?dl=0