How to breed kribs?

[supermazz9]

advice on how to continue. I have a half dozen kribs, with one spawning pair. I know this because I lift the coconut shell they used and the remenants of eggs are there. Next, I would like to see a successful spawn. What do I do?

Tankmates in my 29g include;
1 GBR, 3 glowlights (to be removed), 2 sarpes tetras (tbr), a pleco, 4 mollies, 4 boesmani rainbows, and 3 buenos aries tetras.

My tank is decently planted, I think well enough for anything to hide in there. (I'll post a full shot tomorow, all photos on my computer now are of individual fish, not my full set-up)

Should I remove the coconut shell after eggs are laid in it? Is there a particular resident that will consume babies?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BrianNY]

The best thing would be to remove the pair to their own tank. With all the activity in a community tank, kribs will likely eat the eggs or fry. Kribs will hide their brood so it's good to keep the coconut shell as a permanent feature.

 

[Mosaic]

They'll get the hang of it soon. It usually takes a couple of tries for them to hatch babies successfully. After they get that down, they can handle it on their own. They don't need too much encouragement.

Now, here's what I do.
Mine are in a 55g with snails, enormous pleco, and 4 Alestes tetras. They spawned and hatched fry just fine in the community tank. The first time I moved the young because I heard they'd get eaten if other fish were around, but it turns out the parents are better at raising the babies than I was, so the next time I just left them in the tank. You can keep them in with the parents for up to 3 weeks until they're ready to breed again (then they will disappear rapidly!). If you do want to raise the young on your own, you can remove them after they've been freeswimming for 3 days (I siphon them out).
However, I don't think all your inhabitants are as fast as my tetras or as armored as my pleco, so I don't disagree that they probably need their own tank. Especially because your tank is about half the size of mine. But the tricky part is that the kribs really do need dither fish, especially in a smaller tank. If they know they're totally alone, they just hide all the time and then you'll never get babies from them anyways. You'd want something that hangs out at the top and is fast (danios, perhaps). Once the fry hatch it may be a good idea to move the dither fish into the 29 while the parents have the fry, and move them back in when the babies are removed. Kribs are more aggressive when they have fry compared to just eggs.

 

[supermazz9]

what would be a good reccomendation for a good dither fish? If a danio, how well will it be in the community tank if I swap him in and out?

I'm getting a 30somethingish tank next week, so I'll hopefully be in full set-up in a couple of weeks.

 

[gheitman]

I kept some Congo tetras as dither fish in a 29 gallon tank with a pair of spawning kribs. They got along fine and they are good looking fish besides.

 

[doctorp]

I've got a pair of spawning Kribs that I can't stop from spawning... my dither fish are Rainbowfish...