Pelvicachromis Pulcher/Taeniatus/Kribensis Cichlid Breeding

Hello,
Was just researching these west african cichlids. I heard that in the taeniatus kribs, they are a bit less aggressive than the pulchers. Is that true? I hear that both male and female take part in taking care of the fry, but while I was going through some of the threads on FL, I saw that some of your males had to be separated?

What are your experiences?
mbkemp coralbandit

 

I have not kept pulcher a so I don’t have a reference. I have kept a bunch of the moliwe color form of kribensis and I love them.

they are phenomenal parents. They are territorial but I don’t think aggressive unless they have fry

 

What size is your tank?

 

Its a 20 gallon tall-- i think it is too small for kribensis, so I have been researching and waiting until I get my hands on either a 40b, or a 55-- maybe a 75. Dunno.

 

Its a 20 gallon tall-- i think it is too small for kribensis, so I have been researching and waiting until I get my hands on either a 40b, or a 55-- maybe a 75. Dunno.

I THINK it’s okay for one mated pair alone. But not positive

 

Yeah, I have a community tank, yaknow, the typical neon and black skirt tetra and bolivian ram, etc. The rams and kribs will not get along haha

 

So are you asking about the taeniatus vs pulcher? I've only kept pulcher, I had my pair in a 33g (3ft) tank. I had to start another 33g though because of all the babies. And they breed A LOT. I mean they are really good parents so I had 120 juvie kribs in my 33g at one point. I had to sell the whole spawn to someone to make enough space. Eventually I rehomed my pair because they were crazy prolific and I couldn't keep up with them.

So if I do kribs again, it will be a 75g min with a bunch of kribs, like a small group and a good scavenger pleco like a syno or something to control the babies. They are just too good of parents.

I find them more robust, stronger and I guess more aggressive than SA dwarf cichlids like rams, but it's just their way and that's how they deal with eachother. I thought it was because they were indigenous to different continents and just rolled with their personalities. I didn't really find them all that aggressive tbh, but a breeding pair with eggs or babies will typically have all the other fish packed in a corner.

 

Awesome info, and yeh I was asking about P. Taeniatus vs Pulcher. I hear that taeniatus are much more peaceful than pulcher, and if that is true, I might go with them. Hopefully I can get a 75!! I loove their colors.

 

Yeh they are beautiful, all of them but I never saw the taeniatus. I do love kribs though so I hope to keep some again one day. I saw some different strains like purple and they are so pretty, but hard to source here so i'll prob end up with reg strain pulcher again. But that's ok! I'm curious if the taeniatus do end up being less aggressive, but I guess you won't know if you don't keep pulcher, so neither of us will know lol!

 

just got some kribs and boy oh boy are they aggressive when spawning... they devoured the neon tetra that got too close in front of my very own eyes... but for some reason they're fine with the other neon tetra lol. I have like, 5 coconut huts soo I have around 20 ish wigglers... the other male krib is hiding (check other threads to see why I have a third, long story short Im trying to get rid of it since I got 3 to ensure male/female) but is doing fine, the ram is actually pretty fine, theyre docile... might get a 40b soon for the fry grow out, or the pair in the 40 and fry in the 20... and give away the rest.

 

just got some kribs and boy oh boy are they aggressive when spawning... they devoured the neon tetra that got too close in front of my very own eyes... but for some reason they're fine with the other neon tetra lol. I have like, 5 coconut huts soo I have around 20 ish wigglers... the other male krib is hiding (check other threads to see why I have a third, long story short Im trying to get rid of it since I got 3 to ensure male/female) but is doing fine, the ram is actually pretty fine, theyre docile... might get a 40b soon for the fry grow out, or the pair in the 40 and fry in the 20... and give away the rest.

Pulchers?!! Also where do people get diff types of Kribs.

 

Pulchers?!! Also where do people get diff types of Kribs.

Yeah I have kribensis pulcher which are the kribs that you see in every store (aka, the common kribensis)
The other species I know is pretty uncommon but it is soooooo beautiful, pelvicachromis taeniatus, whereas the common, normal kribs are pelvicachromis pulcher.
Search up pelvicachromis taeniatus and you will love them.
I think some rare fish stores may have them. Wetspot had them before but I haven't seen them on the website in a while.
Aquaticarts also had them but they've been out of stock for a while.
Well, something wierd happened over night for sure. I get up from bed and go to the tank and the female is chasing the male away from their territory, aka she was chasing him away to the other side of the tank, but he did not swim away, rather they did this wierd cool circle thing, where they swam in quick zoomy circles around each other (or that's what it looked like) but then after a few of those she allowed him back to the territory.

 

Pelvicachromis is a Genus with a fascinating history. However, it is some of the most recent developments that are relevant to this conversation. It is currently limited to the group of species that we call "Kribs", from the old common name of Kribi Cichlid.

For a long time, P. taeniatus was thought to range from Nigeria all the way down the coast of Cameroon. A recent revision by Anton Lamboj has split that into different species. The true taeniatus is only found in Nigeria, along with P. pulcher and P. sacrimontis. While easy to keep, is difficult to breed long term due to sex ratio problems. The populations along the northern coastal regions of Cameroon have finally been returned to their original species - kribensis! Some populations, such as Moliwe, are just as easy to breed as P. pulcher, and likely to give decent sex ratios. The central coast of Cameroon is split by multiple large rivers, and once you get south of them, you can find P. drachenfelsi. This is a very rare species in the hobby, and very unique looking. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to breed, and sex ratios are extremely skewed if water chemistry is not perfect.

The American guru on Pelvicachromis is Ted Judy, and I understand a lot of his content is now on Youtube. He used to have a very nice website, but all it does now is direct you elsewhere. The world expert is Anton Lamboj, and he writes books. Using his name, you can probably find a lot of info online, as well.

 

Thanks chromedome for the awesome info!

Update: my female is still aggressive toward the male now... he keeps trying to come back to her side and to the cave but she doesnt let him, a little bit too close and she is at his throat, though he fights back sometimes also. I witnessed them lock jaws once too.
What should I do?
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Here are some more pics (ss because I ran out of space)

 

Just seeing this thread .
The taeniatus was a pretty aggressive fish when spawning for me .
Rather difficult to keep a pair past 2/3 spawns .
Most often the female killed the male ..
If the male was large enough he would win ..
My pulcher did best for me when there were other fish for them to bond against .
The taeniatus not so much ..
If one of the pair looks to be getting whipped you should remove one or both from the fry ..
This is how many 'dwarf cichlids' are ...

 

What do you think would happen if I leave the two together but take the fry?
As of now it seems that both have some rips in their fins, the male on his tail fin and the female has no tail fin Marks but her dorsal is pretty tattered.
Scratch that, she does have a split in the tail fin.

 

I think they will just look for fry and then breed again .
I do believe with the fry gone they will settle down on attacking each other but that is just my gut feeling .

 

Okay, I think I'll do that. Plus, the fry would probably grow up to be weaker since I'm dosing ich x.

 

Well, I couldnt take the fry out and the female started acting nicely toward the male, but the male started being the super aggressive one, and he was the one who started chasing *her* across the tank. I dont have a separate tank, so I dont know what to do. They had a huge scuffle inside a cave and she has some marks on her belly...

 

Is it normal for kribensis (male or female) to not eat when caring for the fry? My male won't eat right now, and he's taking care of the fry in the small cave.