Freaking Out!!! (kribs breeding) Help!!!

[Raven]

hola mes cheris
Last wednesday i purchased a pair of kribs in gatineau . i picked the ones with the best colors(duh) and both seemed in breeding colors . when i got them home and in their tank the female instantly colored up but the male was a bit washed out .almost a week later they are doing great . the female is still gorgeous and the male is doing much better. i was not conditioning them to breed so i was only feeding them tubifex cubes,spirulina flakes and norm basic flakes.today i was cooking spare ribs and i had the dumb idea to feed them a litte bit of uncooked meat .anyways .tonight as i do every night i spend a good 10 minutes lookin at my tanks and im noticing the female under a driftwood cave apparently cleaning the underside and the male guarding the entrances.for the last couple of days they hads been hanging out in the same spot so i had my suspicions. so i gently lift the piece and (yipee!!!) see a little batch of eggs on the underside of the driftwood. the eggs are opaque cream so im wonderring if they were not fertilised by the male.anyways as soon as i put everything bck i hurried to make this thread to see what advice you guys have for me. my question is if the eggs are opaque it means they are not viable? and should i remove the ac on there completely or should i put in a weak economy model whisper for a 10g? i have it going on a 10 o should i move the ac to the 10 and the whisper to the 20?anyways ill be googling my brain out but if anyone has a good site or article i really could it. thanks

p.s. sorry for the long post and the many mistakes

[Woody]

They are a wonderful fish, you'll love them and they will spawn for you regularly. I have one pair of albino and have hundreds of fry of various ages.
The best aspect of kribs is that they are wonderful parents, you will be able to enjoy the site of the parents guiding the fry around the tank in search of food. Just watch the male, sometimes he can become to bossy and want to take over caring for the fry and will attack the female.
If your eggs are fertile, it takes a spawn or two for the male to get it right, the eggs are an opaque colour though naturally, they'll turn milky white if infertile. They eggs will hatch in a couple of days and the wigglers will become free swimming in four to five days later.
The fry are large enough to take baby brine shrimp and crushed flake food right off the bat and grow slowly. The female will escort them around for a few days then the fry will start to venture out on their own. This is the point I usually remove the fry from the tankl and place them in a cycled tank of their own. The female becomes a little frazzled trying to keep her little herd in order, and they may start to be eaten.
Given good feeding and regular water changes they pair will spawn again in three to four weeks, and by then all the fry must be removed otherwise they will be attacked and eaten, since they can't be driven away like in their natural habitat.

Have fun and keep us posted

Woody

[FreeFloat]

Just another note, I have an AC 150 (the old number, not sure what teh new numbers are) on my Krib tank going "full blast" and it doesn't seem to bother the Kribs at all.

Also, the male and female in my tank will "tag team" watching the herd of babies and chasing the dither fish away.  In my tank they'll be escortnig the herd for up to 2 weeks or so, or until they lose interest in the babies and start getting ready to spawn again.

I feed the fry commercially crushed "baby fish food" - essentially just a powdered flake - since I found crushing my own rather time-consuming and I didn't end up with especially tiny flakes.

[gvv]

I didn't catch - what size of tank they are in? Who is also in the same tank?
Concerning the filter - never had a problem with AC150 on full flow in 15-20G tanks. They avoid the area where the fry maybe sucked.
Concerning the food. I found out that during first days you may feed them, but this is not essential if you have heavily planted tank. In my tank they were fine at least for a week collecting "something" from java moss and other plants. After that you may want to add some food for them (BBS, frozen daphnia, crushed flakes, etc).
If you have them for the first time and not planning to breed them "commercially" , leave them in the tank with parents - you will end with less juvies (if there is somebody else in the tank who may want to have a "snack"), but... From my point of view they are the greatest parents, who will take care of the young ones unless they will be ready to live on thier own.
Good luck!

P.S.  Only one problem with kribs - they are breeding like rabbits :? I switched to othe pelvicachromis species and they have the same tendancy - already have two tanks with taenatus fry and the female is once again locked herself in the cave... But the funnies thing is that maybe I have very specific pair, or maybe this is their normal behavior, but the female takes care of eggs untill the fry starts swimming. As soon as they start swimming on their own, male appears and takes care of them. Since than female is, let's say "enemy #1 one" - he does not let her come near the fry anymore and beat her.

[Raven]

they re alone in a 20g that im restocking.i was worrides about the fry getting sucked into the filter intake but i guess i got my answer. i might be moving the batch to a 10g when big eough to fend for themselves.any good articles?

[gvv]

Check this one:
http://hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/intropage.htm

[Raven]

wow. didnt come up on google .Thanks!!!really extensive

[Raven]

just bought some riccia fluitans from aquabid.com. they re supposed to be good nitrate eaters and infusoria producers.has anyone used it for this ?

[luvfishies]

Riccia is awesome. So is Java Moss as far as infusoria is concerned.

Don't worry too much about Mom and Dad krib, they know how to take care of the kriblets.

If you're worried about the filter, just cut a bit of AC sponge, then cut an "X" into one end and slide that over the intake of the 150.

[Raven]

good idea. ill do just that.oh and by the way the eggs hatched and now they are wriggling on the bottom absoring their egg sack i guess. cant wait for them to become free swimming.should take 3-5 days right?

[gvv]

cant wait for them to become free swimming.should take 3-5 days right?

Right. Usually from laying eggs to the free swimmers takes a little more than a week. Actually I never saw eggs, as females always locked them inside the caves closing the entrance with sand (that's why I like pool sand) and after a week or little more they got out with fry. Fry is big (in comparison with apistos or rams) and can start with BBS at the same day. But, as I mentioned I prefer to have  a lot of java moss in tanks for the first week.
Good luck!

[Raven]

got some bad news.tonight i checked the tanks to see if everything was all right.much to my dissapointment all the wrigglers were gone.i guess the mother or father might have eaten them . damn!!!!

[luvfishies]

Don't be so sure of that! Parent Kribs are really good at moving the Kriblets around and out of sight.

You may see the herd come out in a couple of days or so!

[Raven]

really?theen ill check all the corners and crannies and get back to you guys

[Raven]

checked everything and ends up they moved all the eggs into  a crack in the piece of driftwood.kinda funny. they are all lined up because the crack is so narrow.wish i had a cam to show you guys.

[luvfishies]

Now that you know things are fine, leave em be!

[Raven]

good idea