OMG IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP NEEDED ASAP!!!!

[Guest]

OMG YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS! There are 3 kribenesis (small cichlids) in the tank. All with red bellies. They all have to be female because they all have red bellies right?
So anyways one of the female was swiming for a couple of weeks with a belly full of eggs. And then 2 days ago I noticed she wasn't as round so I thought she released the eggs and ate them (because I never saw them). So today I look at the tank and there are some kind of bugs with eyes that blend in with the gravel OMG OMG I SEE BABIES!!!! I am totally shocked and I still can't believe it as I write this!!!!!

I saw the big fish swim up to them and eat them so I took out the lesbian parents (lol but seriously how can there be babies with no males in the tank?) I counted there to be about only 40 babies & they have formed themselves into two groups. They all kind of cruise on top of the gravel and some just stay still wiggling their tails. They have yellow bellies (yolk sac?) with red dots on their bellies in the same place on all of them.

My question is WHAT DO I DO??? I don't know how to raise fish & was definetely not expecting this. I read about breeding bettas though and I recall that when the babies are born you have to feed them with some product called LiquiFry? All the babies are in my 90 gallon right now. HELP!

 

[brendan]

I'm not an expert by any means but here's my advice. If you can safely catch the fry I would put them in a floating cage inside the main tank, this way they'll still be in the same water but out of the way of the other (bigger) fish. Maybe put some of the gravel in the floating trap to replicate the bottom of your tank.

Post pics if you have a camera!!

 

[Corty]

Congrats on your new fry!

You can feed them newly hatched brine shrimp or crushed flakes. You do not need LiquiFry.

Calm down, you aren't going to accidentally abort all your fry :]

Congrats again!

 

[cdawson]

Obviously one of them is a male because someone had to fertilize the spawn. I would either figure out which one is the mother and let her raise them, because she'll do a heck of a lot better job than you ever could. Kribs are awesome parents and the amount of effort they put in cannot be duplicated. Once the fry are safe and out of the tank, put the three back together and find out properly which is the male (males can have red bellies too).
The male will have a longer and more point dorsal fin and tail.

 

[Corty]

Obviously one of them is a male because someone had to fertilize the spawn. I would either figure out which one is the mother and let her raise them, because she'll do a heck of a lot better job than you ever could. Kribs are awesome parents and the amount of effort they put in cannot be duplicated. Once the fry are safe and out of the tank, put the three back together and find out properly which is the male (males can have red bellies too).
The male will have a longer and more point dorsal fin and tail.

That's another thing, the parents should help feed the fry by spitting out some of the food at them.

Really fsh, you don't have to worry. :]

 

[Guest]

Yes one of them is male. I thought only females had red bellies. So do I put the parents back in the tank even though they were eating the fry? Because I took them out. (oops). Oh and Any type of flakes? I am just so excited seeing fry for the first time in my life in my tank. lol.

 

[Corty]

I'm not sure, but don't Kribs move their eggs/fry around with their mouths? They might not have been eating them (though I can certainly understand your reaction.. that can't be a pleasant sight. I'd have likely done the same).

 

[Guest]

But why would they do that? Oh and I saw the male "chew" on the fry or whatever he was doing and then he spit it out. I thought the fry was dead because it didn't appear to be moving. I didn't see the female spit it out though.

 

[Guest]

Oh and one more thing...would the parents still remember that the fry is THEIRS if I put them back? Or will they look at the fry as someone elses babies = food ?

 

[Guest]

I put the parents back. The mom put all the babies in her mouth and spit them out in one place. (They were all scattered across the tank) She wasn't eating them after all. The babies were all happy to see her back too. *Slaps herself in the face" .

 

[Corty]

Glad to hear it all worked out.

I'll be looking forward to pictures.

*hint hint*

 

[Guest]

Well it didn't work out yet but I hope everything will work out I will try to take some pics but I am not sure how they will turn out with my camera not being able to focus so well and the fry being so small and now that the mother is trying to hide the fry away from me hehe. But I will try

 

[gheitman]

What you are seeing with your kribs is their standard parenting behavior. Kribs are very protective parents and should be left in the tank with the fry. The parents will zealously guard their fry against all other fish in the tank. They will carefully escort the fry around the tank and any time one gets away from the school it wll be caught and brought back to the others. Any time the parents move away from the school of fry the babies will settle down into the substrate and not move until a parent returns.

I have raised many Kribs and have found that Liquifry followed by Fry Bites works although finely ground up flakes should also work until the fry are big enough for norrmal food. You can leave the fry in the tank with their parents until the adults are ready to spawn again.

Here is a link to a picture of a pair of Kribs. You can clearly see that the male is more slender than the female and he has a more pointed tail fin.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=5861&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

 

[cdawson]

fsh, I didn't see you mention it but I sure hope you removed the 2nd female. If you don't the pair will surely kill her.

 

[pkremer]

I promise I am not trying to hijack this thread, but I had a question. A friend of mine said that he had a pair of mating cichlids that had fry. He said they were great parents, that they would transport them around in their mouths, etc. But at some point, he said that the male cichlid killed the female and raised the fry by himself. And then once the cichlid fry got to be close to adult size, he killed all of them too, leaving him with one male cichlid.

Is this normal behavior or just a freak experience?

Paul

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info...yes I know how to distinguish males from females now. I have "Nutrafin" comeplete flake food for all tropical fish. Would that work for the fry or do I have to get fry bites? I also don't know how to hatch brine shrimp

 

[Guest]

fsh, I didn't see you mention it but I sure hope you removed the 2nd female. If you don't the pair will surely kill her.

What do you mean? The other krib wasn't a female, it was a smaller male and both the male and the female always chased and bit him. (even before the babies). So I seperated him.

 

[patryuji]

I put the parents back. The mom put all the babies in her mouth and spit them out in one place. (They were all scattered across the tank) She wasn't eating them after all. The babies were all happy to see her back too. *Slaps herself in the face" .

Its the easiest way for a fish to move a whole bunch of little baby fish without them squirming away.

 

[FishLover14]

Krinbenses breeding is very common and they will breed easily in a community tank.
Just watch them keep your water stable!

Congrats
Dan

 

[Guest]

oH and does anyone know the ingredient difference of Liquifry #1 & Liquifry #2? The pet store only had liquifry # 2 for livebeareres so I was wondering if it would still work for cichlid fry?