Female kribensis behavior

In one of my tanks I have 5 female kribensis cichlids. There is almost no aggression besides the occasional chase. The two most dominant females have had very strange behavior. It’s almost like they have paired up and are finding a place to spawn. They do the exact same thing a breeding pair of Kribs I have now do before preparing to spawn and pairs I have had in the past. The first thing I noticed was a few days ago one would vibrate and make an S or L shape, they usually do this to other females but without vibrating. They did that for a few days and today they are swimming around together going in and out of caves, the larger one goes in the cave and vibrates and then the slightly smaller one stays outside of it and vibrates. One cave they are highly interested in and won’t let any other females come near. This behavior is very odd, and I would like to know what could be the reasoning behind this?

Here is a picture


These females both spawned with the same male a week apart, the male ate both of their eggs, now he’s with another female with his first successful batch of fry in a separate 10 gallon.

 

Sounds to me like they are both holding a grudge against your male that ate their eggs and have now formed a pack to conspire in a way to get back at your male.

 

To actually try and help though it sounds like they may have actually paired up? If they are defending an area or cave they may think they have eggs in there? Or maybe they do have eggs in there? Or maybe one is misidentified as a female and is really a male? You did say they both already spawned with one of your males so this might not be likely but I'm really out of ideas on this one. I guess as long as they seem happy and get along with each other at least nothing bad will come of them pairing up XD

 

To actually try and help though it sounds like they may have actually paired up? If they are defending an area or cave they may think they have eggs in there? Or maybe they do have eggs in there? Or maybe one is misidentified as a female and is really a male? You did say they both already spawned with one of your males so this might not be likely but I'm really out of ideas on this one. I guess as long as they seem happy and get along with each other at least nothing bad will come of them pairing up XD

I don’t think they have eggs in it, they aren’t in the cave a lot, but they always stay near it. Kribs are easy to sex, so they are both 100 percent females. Very strange behavior, i know some Kribs create harems, so could they possibly be setting up a territory and if a male were to come in it they would all spawn together? I don’t know if that makes any sense.

 

I did not know they created harems so that could definitely be it! Especially if they have both already spawned with the same male. That does sound like it would make alot of sense. That is pretty cool! If thats the case I would just keep an eye on them and make sure they dont start showing and signs of stress or anything. Otherwise they look great from the picture!

 

I did not know they created harems so that could definitely be it! Especially if they have both already spawned with the same male. That does sound like it would make alot of sense. That is pretty cool! If thats the case I would just keep an eye on them and make sure they dont start showing and signs of stress or anything. Otherwise they look great from the picture!

Only a few spawn harems and most go in pairs, very interesting.

 

Harems don't involve multiple females at one spawning site. Each female will have her own cave. From what I've been told by experts about Pelvicachromis, females are normally extremely intolerant of other females, and would not tolerate a harem situation. The behavior of your fish could be due to the number of females crowded together.

 

Harems don't involve multiple females at one spawning site. Each female will have her own cave. From what I've been told by experts about Pelvicachromis, females are normally extremely intolerant of other females, and would not tolerate a harem situation. The behavior of your fish could be due to the number of females crowded together.

All my females have their own cave, however these two always swim together and they make the S shape and vibrate which they would normally do to males.

 

I have bred Pelvicachromis for a number of yrs. and have never at least in tank under 30 gl., have not been able to have more than one female in with a male without the dominant female killing the other female, but I do have a pair of female [no male] apistogramma Borelli together that lay eggs about once a month.