Should I breed my Kribensis??

[JoeyGeeze]

Hi all.... I'm having trouble making a decision here on what to do. I have a male albino krib in a 46 gallon, have had him for almost 8 months. My LFS has a female regular (non albino) krib and she's so pretty! She's also smaller than my male. I'd really like to pick her up as a mate for my male, but I'm really nervous. I never bred fish before and i have read kribs can get nasty towards tank mates and even each other while breeding.

His tank mates are..

10 tiger barbs
9 penguin tetras
5 nerite snails
4 kuhli loaches (started with 7 but lost 3 for various reasons)

The krib currently runs the tank, the bottom is basically his area, since I have no other bottom dwellers.

I know there's several people on here that have experience keeping a pair of kribs so I would like to hear your experience, and definitely opinions. Would i be in way over my head? He is definitely my favorite fish so I dont wanna lose him or cause any problems. The tank is planted, with rocks and caves etc. for hiding. If anybody has any suggestions for me it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Cichlid Kid]

If you like him the way he is dont intro him to the girly. Ime most solitary male cichlids have a whole new persona and additude once introduced to a female of the same species.
Ya never know tho yours could be that 1 in a million.
Goodluck with whichever you decide.

 

[Borderlesscott]

I agree with the other comment, you will probably find a massive change in his persona once he gets a female, you might like it better, you might hate it. I had a GBR male who turned super nasty once he got paired up, even when not breeding and I ended up setting up a new tank just for the pair. For this reason I'm not pairing up my Bolivian male as he is great the way he is.

 

[JoeyGeeze]

This is very true. I do like his personality right now, he keeps to his self and does his own thing on the bottom of the tank. But, during feeding time he comes right to the surface and competes with the barbs, and actually gets pretty tough with them!

My main reason for wanting the female I guess is just for company for him. He's a single fish in the tank, with barbs and tetras who school together. I feel like he is lonely but he seems to be happy as can be. Hmmm.

 

[JoeyGeeze]

So does anybody else have an opinion on this? Maybe some experience keeping kribs in a community tank? Thanks!

 

[Tetra1990]

It's really up to you. You could try introducing the female, but be sure to have a Plan B. Either return her or set up another tank.

 

[alLexX]

i would do it,theres nothing better than watching parents defend there fry from predators

 

[JoeyGeeze]

Well I have a QT... She would go there first... My plan be would be either keep her in the QT permanently or return her. I honesty feel my barbs are hardy enough to hang with a breeding pair of kribs, but I don't have experience to back up my idea. I do think it would be nice to have a pair rather than just the male