# kribs as an community fish



## BigPaul (Jul 16, 2007)

I had a pair of kribs in my 55 gallon about 2 weeks ago...I only had them in there for a week because they terrorized my other fish and each other. They bit scales off and nipped the fins on my angelfish, my three german rams, and my 2 bolivian rams. The fact that they were 4 times smaller than the other fish didn't seem to slow them down at all. The kribs did not bother my otos or my boesemani rainbows though. Maybe I just had some excessively aggressive kribs, but that will probably be my first and last time keeping them.


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## kzr750r1 (Jun 8, 2004)

Might be a bit much to expect them to be happy sharing 20g. The neons will probably school like no tomorrow though.


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## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

I had Kribs that paired off in a 29 gallon community tank a million years ago. They got aggressive after they spawned the first time, so they ended up getting their own tank.

<";;;>< Tommy <9))>>{


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## Spacefly (Jun 25, 2007)

I own a pair of kribs in a 25 gallon community, tankmates are a pair of angels, some neons,gold pristella tetras,a SAE,and some ottos.

The kribs pretty much own the bottom portion of the tank(this is a 25g hexagon tank, so there is plenty of room for the fish to stay away from the bottom), and will chase away any other fish who would attempt to go to the bottom to search for scraps, so dont plan on having any bottom dwellers if you are getting kribs.

As for getting along with my other tankmates, the kribs never actually nip any fins off any other fish in it, they just chase them away from what they consider their territory. They never actually attack anything, they just try and scare them off by either shaking side to side, or darting after them, but thats as far as they go in my setup. They do however like to attack my hand,and gravel vac when I am doing weekly cleaning and pruning.

They are very easy to breed in a community setup. All I did was cut a clay pot in half and lay it on top of the gravel, what came as a surprise to me was what they did next.
I found them to be great builders,the kribs went ahead with my make shift cave and actually dug out all the gravel underneath, they would take individual pieces of gravel in their mouths and spit them out front of the makeshift cave to create a mound to shorten the entrance while making the inside larger, I was quite impressed and spent many hours just watching them do this. 
You should definatly add some caves If you add kribs to a setup, not only for spawning, but for keeping them feeling secure, and atleast for claiming a spot in the tank, not the whole entire tank.

I had First started with 1 female krib to see if it got along in my community, a week later I had added a male to the tank and she was very excited to see him, she did a little dance for him, swaying side to side trying to Impress him into breeding I'm guessing. Like in this video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQGJhIaH-hI
a little after that they conscructed the cave I had mentioned, and had a clutch of eggs in less than 2 weeks, It didnt take very long for them to hatch around 6 days or, atleast when I noticed the eggs in the tank. 

Kribs also make excellent parents. they take turns guarding their offspring 24/7 while the other searches for food and chases away any fish who gets too close to it.
Some people will take out the female and let the Male take guard over the fry,there are cases where the male would kill the female for whatever reason, but my pair have been great parents working as a team.

Well, thats my view of kribs, only way to find out how they will react is to give it a try. Just be sure that you have some dither fish, and no bottom dwellers. There is plenty of info all over the net on tankmates, so I will leave that for you to decide, If you wind up getting Kribs then good for you, they are a great fish to keep.


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