# Kribensis live eggs :)



## igor.kanshyn

Hi, 

I've found that pair of my kribebsises spawned and laid eggs on a side of a glass cave. It was two days ago.
Today I see that a female move all eggs to other cave and fan them.

But the most interesting thing that this eggs are shaking by themselves 
I was looking closely and saw small tails stick out from the eggs. They are like white tadpoles now.


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## AquariAM

You have wrigglers. The fry have hatched. This is the first stage. They will not be able to swim freely until they absorb their yolk sack which makes them round and look like eggs. Once they do that they start to swim around and look for food.

There are lots of ways to feed them. You can even crush normal fish food into powder. Me and people I know personally have had good success with Hikari's First bites which is specifically formulated powdered food for baby fish. You can also easily hatch your own brine shrimp with a plastic bottle, an airpump, and salt. Even frozen baby brine shrimp are available now in some places. 
The easiest thing though is to take a high quality pellet, put it in a jar with marbles, and shake. This gives you absolute dust. Next best is to wrap it in something and take a hammer to it. Whatever it takes. Just powder it . Feeding fry is quite wasteful... You can try sucking the powdered food up with a syringe and squirting little bits at the fry to reduce waste.


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## igor.kanshyn

Thank you

How long they will be in a wrigglers stage?

I have _Hikari's First Bites_ food in powder. I think I can mix it with water and pour into the cave somehow. 
Unfortunately, this is a community tank, my serpae tetras and a dwarf gourami can reduce about of the fry.


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## AquariAM

First bites sinks. No need to pour with water. Get yourself a tube like rigid tubing from big als, and pour a bit of dry food down it into the cave or squirt the food into the cave with a syringe with some water.


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## bae

Depending on temperature, the fry should be free-swimming in 4 or 5 more days. When they are ready to eat, the parents will bring them out of the cave and shepherd them around the tank. I like to have a wad of dirty java moss in a fry tank. The fry will pick all kinds of tiny edibles off it. The parents can defend them quite well without injuring the rest of your fish, so you may have quite a few fry survive.

Krib fry are easy to feed. They don't need live food, although they appreciate it. Their mouths are fairly large too. They'll eat frozen baby brine shrimp eagerly, as well as fine dry food. If you want a starter culture of microworms, I can give you one.


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## Riceburner

I use a turkey baster.


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## igor.kanshyn

Thank you guys.

That wrigglers are moving more today. Some of them might have already fall off from the cave.
I'm not sure, but it looks like some of them have small heads now. The heads stick out from that big eggs.

Look at the photo I made yesterday.


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## AquariAM

Yup. What' you're seeing is basically a gigantic inflated gut with a tiny fish on the back of it. At this point, the yolk sack is a bit bigger than the rest of the fish's body, so it looks weird. The fish will grow slightly as they absorb that yolk sack and then they'll start to swim around and actually look like little fish.


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## igor.kanshyn

*Video*

I've made a VIDEO: Kribensis cichlid pair guards their eggs if anyone interested.
and posted several pictures.


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## igor.kanshyn

They look like fishes with big belly for now. Some of them start moving in a normal position, not upside down 

Do I need to try feeding them now?

I read that female would lead them to feeding. Should I prepare a feeding area for them or something?


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## ShrimpieLove

Love the video!! Cool how they go in and out of the glass caves... The fry are so neat!!


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## igor.kanshyn

GuppyLove said:


> Love the video!! Cool how they go in and out of the glass caves... The fry are so neat!!


Thanks, they are bigger today, but still can't swim purposefully.


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## igor.kanshyn

I've tried to feed them right inside their cave. I stirred fish fry food in a water and injected this mixture into a cave by a turkey buster. 
I hope they will pick up several percents of the food


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## bae

Igor, they won't start eating until the yolk sac is completely absorbed. The parents will know when that is, and lead them out to forage. Be patient!  

I think you'll really enjoy watching the parents look after the fry. They will keep them in a group, and the female makes special movements of her pelvic fins to signal them to drop to the bottom. The parents defend a volume about 20cm in diameter with the fry in the center, and move this virtual sphere around the tank. They will either lead them back to their 'cave' for the night, or bed them down in a depression in the substrate. If you leave a dim light on in the room when the tanks lights are off, it will give the parents a better chance to get the fry settled for the night and protect them from nocturnal fish like catfish.


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## igor.kanshyn

*Feeding time*

They went to a feeding today. They kept a group, female shepherded the fry and the male kept off all the other fishes and shrimp from that area. 
Fry is small and almost white.

They was hanging all day in the back side of a tank between pots and plants. I was not able to make pictures, I'm sorry.

They are in the cave now.


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## PACMAN

igor.kanshyn said:


> They went to a feeding today. They kept a group, female shepherded the fry and the male kept off all the other fishes and shrimp from that area.
> Fry is small and almost white.
> 
> They was hanging all day in the back side of a tank between pots and plants. I was not able to make pictures, I'm sorry.
> 
> They are in the cave now.


I was going to say, pictures! more pictures!

This makes me want to get some Kribs, but i think my malawi cichlids will be too aggressive towards new tankmates!


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## Riceburner

I've got Malawis in with my Kribs......then again they are fry and less than a third the size of most of the Kribs. lol


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## igor.kanshyn

There is a picture here: http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?p=113006#post113006

The video is on its way to youtube 

It's very funny to see parents sucking babies in and then spiting them out in another (safe) place.


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## KhuliLoachFan

Let me know if you find a perfect food for baby Kribs. I have had little success with any powdered flake food, or with frozen daphnia and frozen baby brine shrimp (nauplii). So far it seems that the only thing that the Krib babies go for without fail is whatever grows on my plants.

W


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## igor.kanshyn

KhuliLoachFan said:


> Let me know if you find a perfect food for baby Kribs. I have had little success with any powdered flake food, or with frozen daphnia and frozen baby brine shrimp (nauplii). So far it seems that the only thing that the Krib babies go for without fail is whatever grows on my plants.
> 
> W


I'm feeding them with _Hikari First Bites_ food mixed into a water. But I'm not doing this often. They are usually pick up something from plants or from glass.

I see that I have not more than 10 little ones for now


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## KhuliLoachFan

Not bad. Only 4 of my first batch of krib babies made it to juvenile 2" size, and I started with more than I could count. More than 20.

W


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## igor.kanshyn

*They did it again!*

I has been noticing that female belly was bigger and more red. Finally they placed a new clutch of eggs today.

Eggs in a cave:








Parents:








I found only one fry from a previous bunch. I'm sure that several days ago it was at least five small fishes.
It looks like kribensises stoped considering them as their fry earlier than I thought


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## bae

igor.kanshyn said:


> I has been noticing that female belly was bigger and more red. Finally they placed a new clutch of eggs today.
> I found only one fry from a previous bunch. I'm sure that several days ago it was at least five small fishes.
> It looks like kribensises stoped considering them as their fry earlier than I thought


The parents 'decided' that the remaining few fry of that batch weren't worth the effort of guarding, and that it would be more productive to start again from scratch. This is normal behaviour for cichlids. Of course, they don't really think this out, but are programmed to use this strategy (instinct).

If you really want to raise the fry, you'll have to either identify and remove the fry predators or else give the kribs their own tank. Providing a dim light at night may help the kribs guard the fry against catfish and other nocturnal predators. I once had a pair of kribs that raised many batches of fry in a 30 gallon community tank. I can't remember what I had in the tank other than pearl gouramis and kuhli loaches -- probably some small tetras and/or barbs. Your fish may get better with age/experience. Giving them a cave with only a small opening to defend will help, too. You can make two such caves out of one coconut.


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## igor.kanshyn

I have kribensis fry again.
I will try not to lose them this time


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## Riceburner

Congrats. I've got a few small ones too, so someone must have spawned when I didn't notice. The rest may have been taken by the loaches or other inhabitants.


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