WHO IS EATING MY BABIES?!!!!

Okay. So I have a 40 Breeder. I have 7 Kribensis, born 12/28, whom I’ve raised from fry.

5 females
1 very very betta male (weaker—not sure betta is correct term?) who is somewhat runty
1 super alpha Male. Usually Kribensis mate for life or a while at least.
The Alpha male (I’ll call him Elvis) isn’t doing the norms.
End of May—Elvis mates with female # 1. Fry are alive for a week. Elvis is like a Kribensis father and protects the babies well. Then boom babies gone on day 8.

Elvis ditches female 1 and immediately mates with female 2. Fry are born 10 days ago. Went from 100 fry to 14 in eight days with the male being perfect father. Yet then last few days, only 1 baby left and Elvis isn’t helping defend at all. HOWEVER, he is still mated with female 2 and doesn’t chase her away like the others.
My own idea—Elvis wants to show his alpha status and not give betta a chance to father babies. Thus Elvis can’t stick with any fry for too long. I can’t see the other fishies in the tank (2 small Angels that stick to the other side of the tank and 13 red eye tetras that I can’t see getting close enough) eating the babies. I think it has to be the father yet why is he letting 1 survive?

Also the second female has started to shimmy towards him again & look gravid already. Just super curious about what’s happening.

 

I think the terms you are looking for are 'dominant' and 'subdominant'.

Dwarf cichlids often eat fry on their first few go's. Is Elvis a new parent?

Regarding switching up mates, the only other time I've heard that happen is with Feohw 's rams. Maybe he has an inkling on why they switch up.

 

Based on what's in your tank if could be any of the other inhabitants. It could also be the parents, but that would be odd, given their usual predilection to be close guarding. If the fry are free swimming are you feeding them? if so what?
out of curiosity, do you have another tank you could set your matting pair up in?

 

As far as I'm aware, kribensis are polygamous which would explain why he is moving on to another mate once the fry are gone. As mentioned, my male Bolivian ram does the exact same thing. And I agree, dwarf cichlids do tend to eat their fry for the first few spawns, if that is the case here. I believe they will also eat them so that they can go on to breed again.

 

FinalFins SilverLake Feohw
Thank you! I have def heard early spawns don’t work well and that parents often eat the eggs or fry. I guess I am not used to seeing it. I’ve only seen one spawn prior to these two—The parent’s of the 7 (the ones now mating) only had the one spawn ever and the babies all lived—even though the parent’s very weirdly passed away a few weeks in (still don’t know why and have posted about it) and I moved the parent’s and babies when the babies were only a week or two old. So conditions were likely for the babies to die and they did not. One baby even was missed for days and survived with other fishies in the show tank!! I then moved him yet wonder now if he could be the runt bc he wasn’t with his parent’s early? Or if that’s silly.
I am more surprised by Elvis switching mates—I did think it could be because 5 females are ready to go and aggressively trying to mate with him—so now I see perhaps that isn’t why and I’m excited to look back and follow your rams stories, Feohw.
I have been feeding frozen brine shrimp every few days along with regular flakes daily and small NLS Thera A+. I see the babies (or baby) eating the algae off the wood often. And actually the baby that is left is LARGE! Considering he was born on 6/20–or I saw them freeswimming then.
Okay—so as for the mated pair having their own space. After this tank’s second spawn, I ordered a divider off of Amazon. I wanted to actually protect the other fishies in the tank. However, I wound up canceling the order bc I didn’t want to inadvertently save all the babies as well. Which is the same reason I haven’t moved the parent’s into their own mated tank. I did it before so I have done it. However, I was hesitant to do so this time because then I have a new tank with parent’s and babies. After a few weeks I have to remove the parent’s or they will kill the babies. Then I move the parent’s into their own tank, keeping a separate tank for the babies, and then repeat repeat repeat. so i was going to let nature take its course. If I do decide to move the mated pair, which female do I choose? The one Elvis is swimming with for a few days? I want to make sure I bring the correct female and catch them before she goes to lay. At this time I likely will let nature take its course. However, I am interested in whether the father ate them or if he simply stopped protecting them and they were easily eaten. I think I’ll learn a lot from following the rams! I also suppose this tank’s baby adventures are more common than the one time spawn of the last parents that had an amazing protective father and surviving babies. Here’s a pic of the mother and baby if you can spot him.

 

O! Also my sponge on the end of my AC 70 ripped because the filter end is so large. I even broke the end off the filter bottom trying to cover it up so the babies weren’t sucked up bc that has happened before with a loose sponge. This time I had to put a hair tie around two ripped sponges to cover the intake. However I checked inside the filter and saw no babies and it seems fully covered. Any suggestions on best intake sponge covers? I had a great one for my AC 30 and 50 yet they are so much smaller than the 70.

 

My kribs in my 55 gallon tank have spawned a few times.
1st time they ate the babies or someone did.
2nd time they breed 50+ babies and 1 survived.
3rd time they had 50+babies and 8 survived. They have breed 2 more time since and none have survived past a few days.
I think mom has spawned again this week, but am unsure. In my case I really think it is the other fish eating them or the female or even dad if he is super stressed. She and her mate will guard for a few days and then all of a sudden she is across the tank and there are less babies and the male is guarding to a point. The other fish long finned rosy red tetras, red eyes and breeding hearts tend to distract him and then they have lunch. This is ok as in my tanks it is survival of the fittest. Thou I have found that all the fry that survived are male.
I have another male in the tank and he is the same size as the other, only difference is that my lone female picked the other male for a mate.
Good luck with your Kribs, they are interesting to watch and breed.

 

My kribs in my 55 gallon tank have spawned a few times.
1st time they ate the babies or someone did.
2nd time they breed 50+ babies and 1 survived.
3rd time they had 50+babies and 8 survived. They have breed 2 more time since and none have survived past a few days.
I think mom has spawned again this week, but am unsure. In my case I really think it is the other fish eating them or the female or even dad if he is super stressed. She and her mate will guard for a few days and then all of a sudden she is across the tank and there are less babies and the male is guarding to a point. The other fish long finned rosy red tetras, red eyes and breeding hearts tend to distract him and then they have lunch. This is ok as in my tanks it is survival of the fittest. Thou I have found that all the fry that survived are male.
I have another male in the tank and he is the same size as the other, only difference is that my lone female picked the other male for a mate.
Good luck with your Kribs, they are interesting to watch and breed.

Thank you. Totally. This time I had 80–100 on 6/20, 40 on 6/23, and 14 by 6/26. Now I have one.