Help me sex this Krib!

[Chris]

Hello all, title really says it all. I have a single krib that I'd like to get a mate for, but I'm really not sure if it's male or female. From research, I think it's female because the fins are a bit rounded at the tips, but I'm not sure. 

If I wanted to buy a male (or female, if I'm wrong and this is a male), should I just have a store order a bunch and hope they're mature enough to show dimorphism? Or should I buy a small group, add them all to this tank (20 long with several caves), and let them pair off naturally? 

[Fish Folk]

I vote >> Female

Kribs are always stunning in good health!

My son bred some a few years ago...

 

Once the fry matured, we got to see a few in pretty colors...

 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I vote female as well. 

[Chris]

Good to know!

Should I go to stores until I find a group and try my hand at sexing them in a store tank (I assume I'd just look for pointy fins and overall larger fish, right?), or should I buy 3-4 and wait until they pair off? I've heard females will kill eachother - will that happen even in a group while waiting for a pair?

[The endler guy]

using the vent is one of the best/ only way to effectively sex bolivian rams, is it the same with kribs 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Me personally, I would try to sex a male in the store. The only way I would do a group is if the LFS will take back the extras. 
 

Kribs were some of the first fish I ever bred. Started with a group of 5, got a pair, and then they bred like rabbits. So much so that I got stuck with like 50 Kribs for close to two years as I flooded the market and had to wait for the LFS to sell what I traded them before they would take more from me. 
 

In my opinion, you need to be willing to control the population or it gets out of hand quickly. At least that was my experience. 
 

When I finally got rid of all my Kribs I was so relieved. Jokes on me though, they left one more spawn right before I traded them off and I still have 10 juveniles I need to trade.

[Chris]

On 3/10/2023 at 11:05 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Me personally, I would try to sex a male in the store. The only way I would do a group is if the LFS will take back the extras. 
 

Kribs were some of the first fish I ever bred. Started with a group of 5, got a pair, and then they bred like rabbits. So much so that I got stuck with like 50 Kribs for close to two years as I flooded the market and had to wait for the LFS to sell what I traded them before they would take more from me. 
 

In my opinion, you need to be willing to control the population or it gets out of hand quickly. At least that was my experience. 
 

When I finally got rid of all my Kribs I was so relieved. Jokes on me though, they left one more spawn right before I traded them off and I still have 10 juveniles I need to trade.

Thanks for the tips! 

Yeah, I'm not really necessarily wanting to raise fry for profit or anything at the moment. It's more that I've never bred any dwarf cichlid, and I feel like standard Kribs are a decent place to start. 

I don't think I'd purposefully raise a full spawn - although I will note that the stores in my area rarely, if ever, carry Kribs or Apistos, so I'd either sell colored up juveniles like crazy or not at all. Obviously, selling like crazy is ideal, but I'm really doing this for experiences and funsies. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Chris For sure. I don’t necessarily “breed for profit”. Instead, I keep the fish that I like and if they breed I like to try to raise the fry. The bonus is that the LFS will take them once raised and helps fund new projects. It’s a win win!

In my opinion, you just have to have somewhere to offload the fish or have other fish that will eat the fry. Since Kribs spawn in caves, it’s hard to dispose of eggs to help with population control. All of the sudden you have 50-75 fry that pop out of the cave and those have to go somewhere, one way or another. 

[Chris]

On 3/10/2023 at 11:45 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@Chris For sure. I don’t necessarily “breed for profit”. Instead, I keep the fish that I like and if they breed I like to try to raise the fry. The bonus is that the LFS will take them once raised and helps fund new projects. It’s a win win!

In my opinion, you just have to have somewhere to offload the fish or have other fish that will eat the fry. Since Kribs spawn in caves, it’s hard to dispose of eggs to help with population control. All of the sudden you have 50-75 fry that pop out of the cave and those have to go somewhere, one way or another. 

What would be a good dither to add to A) Draw the pair out into the open while not spawning and B) eat some of the fry to thin the herd, but not all of them AND not be a disturbance while breeding? 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Chris That’s a great question. Being the naive new fish keeper I was at the time, I had a species only tank as I intended to breed them. 
 

While I can’t give you first hand experience I would suggest something that A) isn’t bottom dwelling like the Kribs are B) Is fast and can hold up to the cichlid mentality, especially when they’re spawning and get territorial, and C) Something that can/will eat decent sized fry. 
 

Kribs are some of the best parents in the fish world and parade their fry around the tank and protect them very well. You’ll need something that can stand up to them to even have a chance of eating the fry. 
 

With my Kribs: The first spawn I moved all the fry to another tank once they were young juveniles so they’d spawn again. The second spawn, I left them all in the same tank in the hopes the parents would not spawn again as I saw I was going to be overrun. This plan worked for a long time, and then eventually the parents spawned again and were fighting off their whole previous spawn to protect the new one. That’s when I made the decision that I was moving on from the Kribs. Pairs are relentless!

[Chris]

On 3/10/2023 at 1:02 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@Chris That’s a great question. Being the naive new fish keeper I was at the time, I had a species only tank as I intended to breed them. 
 

While I can’t give you first hand experience I would suggest something that A) isn’t bottom dwelling like the Kribs are B) Is fast and can hold up to the cichlid mentality, especially when they’re spawning and get territorial, and C) Something that can/will eat decent sized fry. 
 

Kribs are some of the best parents in the fish world and parade their fry around the tank and protect them very well. You’ll need something that can stand up to them to even have a chance of eating the fry. 
 

With my Kribs: The first spawn I moved all the fry to another tank once they were young juveniles so they’d spawn again. The second spawn, I left them all in the same tank in the hopes the parents would not spawn again as I saw I was going to be overrun. This plan worked for a long time, and then eventually the parents spawned again and were fighting off their whole previous spawn to protect the new one. That’s when I made the decision that I was moving on from the Kribs. Pairs are relentless!

Maybe a medium-sized tetra would be good. Tank is a 20 long, so nothing too big. A group of Black Skirt Tetras, or something similar in size and temperament, maybe. 

[knee]

On 3/10/2023 at 5:37 AM, Chris said:

Good to know!

Should I go to stores until I find a group and try my hand at sexing them in a store tank (I assume I'd just look for pointy fins and overall larger fish, right?), or should I buy 3-4 and wait until they pair off? I've heard females will kill eachother - will that happen even in a group while waiting for a pair?

I've bought just a pair before and they eventually paired up. If your LFS has a tank full of kribs, try to find a pair that's already formed or at least two fish that seem like they're going to pair up. The male will always be bigger. If they only have juvies, getting a few and growing them out to find a male will be the better option.