depressed male kribensis?vn

Hi,
I'm new to this forum so please bare with me lol

I have a mature male Kribensis, his name is Brad. I have had him
For about 8months now. He was originally part of what we thought
Was a pair, but 'Jen' turned out to be another male and died as a
Result of their fighting.
I purchased 2 small females in the hope that Brad would take to one
Of them and pair up, this worked better than expected as he seemed
Quite fond of them both! We now had a love triangle of Brad, Jen and
Angellina lol. Brad and Jen were soon in the family way and we had
Approx 30 fry. Unfortunately, we lost many and only 8 survived.
Due to a case of 'popeye' Jen died, and after treating the tank, Brad
And Angellina were soon parents. Again only few survived, and soon
After her fry were able to survive alone, Angellina died. We don't know
How or why she died as everything with the tank was ok.
We now have 12 lovely and lively Kribensis, a mixture of male and
Female, and poor old Brad, looking like a tired old single dad :-(
He has taken himself into his cave and has built himself a wall of sand
In the entrance. He rarely comes out, except late at night for food.
Will the introduction of a new female perk him up, or will he be better
Off going to the fish shop??

Many thanks
Carrie

 

You say that he is "old." The life expectancy of kribensis is 5 years. How old is yours? I would think that the response to your questions depends on how close he is to 5 years old.

 

He is just over a year old and roughly 2 to 3 inches in size

 

Welcome to Fishlore.

I went through the same exact thing with my old male krib. He more or less went through a mourning phase but quickly rebounded. Hopefully the same will be true of yours.

According to your profile you have a 20G tank that also holds silver sharks, catfish, armoured cat and a single tiger barb. This tank is overstocked with all these heavy waste producers. What are your current water parameters? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. The change in behavior sounds like there may be an issue with water quality.

Good luck.

 

According to your profile you have a 20G tank that also holds silver sharks, catfish, armoured cat and a single tiger barb.

This is a recipe for disaster.