Kribensis Female Vibrating!

I today noticed that my male and female kribensis are virtually inseperable, which is totally strange because he is normally VERY territorial, always chasing her away when she comes near... I don't want too get to excited but perhaps they are going to pair up at last! she has the brightest "cranberry belly" that I've ever seen today and every time the male comes close to her she vibrates like she's having a minI seizure! I've never seen her do this before and it's so unexpected expecially since the last couple weeks or so they've totally hated eachother. Since I've been home they havn't seperated for more than a minute, there always together and she's done the "minI seizure" thing to him about 10 times... can anyone tell me what this means? I've never heard about female kribs vibrating like this to attract males, but she looks totally smitten and so does he! They don't look stressed at all so what's going on?

after looking around for a bit on this vibrating thing I found this:

The female will start to "vibrate" in and around her chosen nesting cave to try and attract her mate. When the male is ready to breed he to can be seen "vibrating" around the cave.

I'm excited! ... but I havn't seen the male return her "vibes" so I'll have to keep observing them more closely

 

Yup she's starting to flirt...hopefully it won't take as long as male did, for your male to get in tuned. lol

 

update: MALE VIBES!!!

I spent an hour constructing the perfect little flowerpot cave for my kribs today. I put it in the kribensis-territory area of the tank and both male and female spent about an hour exploring it. Okay, so suddenly the male goes in it and when the female comes by he pokes his head out the top and starts vibrating like crazy to her!!! Then she does it back to him! This has happened several times now.... eek so excited! There following eachother around like crazy, my female is looking GORGEOUS. I can't help it, I'm excited... I'm going to try and get some video of it since they keep doing it. Until then here's a pic of the little flowerpot condo I made for them (Allie I took inspiration from your kribs and added a sky-roof )

 

I got that pot with my female...the guy said they like two openings in the pot.
Cool it begins. Yay! You sound as excited as I am, and was when mine started to flirt. I am curious to see how long it'll take for yours to breed.

 

that's great! we just got our first cichlids (Julidochromis marlieri) saturday and love them! Can't wait to see vids & pics of your kribs! ;D

 

You'll be COCichlidCouple soon enough.

 

Well unfortunetly it's really hard to get video of my regular kribensis pair since their tank is dark due to lots of plants and hides (not to mention black substrate), but I did manage to get some good video of my wild kribensis pair! I've been watching them more closely lately and I think they might spawn as well! there is lots of flirting going on in their tank, and what's intresting about these pair is that the female in particular will go black and yellow, she still has the red belly but the ventral fins will go almost blackish red while she holds them against her belly (to make it evidently look bigger)... she looks pretty hardcore! Most of the time they are noramly a more pale color, until they start to show off. When I move this pair to the 50 gallon I hope to bring out these darker colors more, but until then I 've got two tanks of vibrating kribs to keep me busy!

 

lol.. well, if the Julies will give us a breeding pair so we can bring the tank down to just 2 of them and maybe get a blushing blue angel (not sure on that yet).. we'll see if we can get a happy 29 gallon cichlid tank.

You'll be COCichlidCouple soon enough.

they're a beautiful pair!

Well unfortunetly it's really hard to get video of my regular kribensis pair since their tank is dark due to lots of plants and hides (not to mention black substrate), but I did manage to get some good video of my wild kribensis pair! I've been watching them more closely lately and I think they might spawn as well! there is lots of flirting going on in their tank, and what's intresting about these pair is that the female in particular will go black and yellow, she still has the red belly but the ventral fins will go almost blackish red while she holds them against her belly (to make it evidently look bigger)... she looks pretty hardcore! Most of the time they are noramly a more pale color, until they start to show off. When I move this pair to the 50 gallon I hope to bring out these darker colors more, but until then I 've got two tanks of vibrating kribs to keep me busy!

 

so just a little update on my krib pair... they are deffinately still very together, always flirting! I've been feeding them lots of live food lately, they seem to be getting bigger! however, still no eggs. it seems as tho one will try so hard to get the other one to come somewhere "private" with them (ie; their favorite flowerpot cave) and then the other one will just kind of stare at the vibrating dance for a time and then eventually shy away. I'm being patient tho, they are deffinately a pair with good intentions. I also finally named them; the female is Coresean (cory-see-an) and the male is Kiro (kee-ro)

as for my wild kribs, they still flirt too... right now however my female hasn't fattened up yet in the belly like my coresean has. so we'll see!

 

we'll be looking forward to pics of your krib fry!

 

we'll be looking forward to pics of your krib fry!

oh I hope so too! I'll take way too many pics, I know it! I wish there was something else I can do for my little lovebirds, but I'm pretty sure I've done everything! so now it's just gonna take time. They've been an official flirting couple now for 2 weeks +

I'll keep you updated

 

yea, we've setup the cichlid tank from what we've researched for our Julies to get the hint, pick one of the caves and give us a breeding pair so we can take the others out before they all get too big.

maybe some mood music?

oh I hope so too! I'll take way too many pics, I know it! I wish there was something else I can do for my little lovebirds, but I'm pretty sure I've done everything! so now it's just gonna take time. They've been an official flirting couple now for 2 weeks +

I'll keep you updated

 

hahaha I wonder? sometimes I talk to Coresean, I tell her to go get that pretty little male of hers and make me some babies! it sounds super lame, but she actually will sit there and stare at me the whole time I talk to her! she's my favorite fish and Kiro, well he's just darn handsome. There is no doubt in my mind that they will make some amazingly beautiful, yet highly intelligent fry when the time comes

Some more recent pics of my pair

Kiro:



Coresean:

 

lol, I like to sit & talk to the Julies too. They're starting to swim over to the glass now and just sort of sit there on whatever rock surface they're perched on & look at me while I talk.

your kribs are beauties!

hahaha I wonder? sometimes I talk to Coresean, I tell her to go get that pretty little male of hers and make me some babies! it sounds super lame, but she actually will sit there and stare at me the whole time I talk to her! she's my favorite fish and Kiro, well he's just darn handsome. There is no doubt in my mind that they will make some amazingly beautiful, yet highly intelligent fry when the time comes

 

talked to my fish dealer today (where I got my little female kribs from) he said that he thinks my fish still might be too young to breed my male is easily 2"+ now and my female is just shy of 2". they've been growing so fast!!! (Diet has been as follows; morning-red krill flakes, brunch-1/2 brine shrimp cube, afternoon-bloodworms/mosquito larvae, dinner-other 1/2 brineshrimp cube; the brine shrimp are deffinately their favorite!) If I look at pics of the male from a few weeks ago, his dorsal fin extension just barely reached his tail, now it's so long it flickers up and over! Anyways I'm sill being patient as ever, my fish only look more beautiful everyday so that means lovely fry when the time comes!

coresean when I first got her (less than 1")



kiro less than a month ago (note: his dorsal fin length)



kiro now:



my pair!

 

whoa, just noticed something new. see the above flowerpot cave? my female is in it digging out the bottom and spitting sand and rocks out the top and front door, she keeps doing it! she's making little piles everywhere... I've never seen her dig before! The male is sitting above the top hole watching her do it, she's been in there for about 10 mins now digging, she's probably gonna make a tunnel out of the bottom soon.

 

they're making a break for it!

i'm not real sure with kribs, but that sounds like she's preparing for laying eggs.. I could be wrong tho.

 

HI Melawii, she is definitely building a nest - congratulations you may have babies soon, but first time cichlid parents often get it wrong & the eggs may not survive-it can take a few tries for them to get it right, but you may be lucky!!

Once the eggs are laid both parents will take turns in staying over them & fanning the eggs with their fins.

Good Luck
fishiefriend

 

yuppers, your both right! she laid eggs tonight I started a new thread with all my new questions and concerns... I really hope these guys make it! My kribs are still quite young, so if these fry do survive I'd consider myself very lucky to have such an amazing pair. I read the small pit she dug in one half of the flower pot is where the fry will stay until they are free swimming, I should have known! I'll keep you posted in the other thread