The Puffer Forum

I've seen varying reports if krib can be kept in brakish water so I'm just wondering if its possible on the water side? I know its hit or miss with how they will accept each other in the tank but my f8 hasnt bothered my marbled goby and they've been together for over a few months now.

Could work.

What's a krib?

Kribensis (Pelvicachromis pulcher), a nicely-colored dwarf cichlid.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/afric ... bensis.htm

While kribs certainly do occur in brackish water (the Niger delta, primarily, as I understand it) I personally don't consider them "brackish water fish" in the real sense. Their salinity tolerance is low, SG 1.005 is probably the tops, and ideally half that would be best. Moreover, when breeding, pH seems to be the absolute key to getting even numbers of male and female fry. At a pH above 7.0, you get mostly males, and below 7.0, mostly females (might be the other way around, but you get the point).

There are better brackish water cichlids. Orange chromides are ideal, preferably the greenish wild type if you want to see their DRAMATIC colour changes properly. In bigger tanks, the black-chin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron) is a fantastic species, good-looking and a paternal mouthbrooder. Most of the hard water "Cichlasoma" have some degree of salt tolerance, with several species naturally occuring in even marine environments where they live and breed on rocky reefs.

So basically, yes, kribs will do fine in low-end brackish, but not if you want to breed them. I'd go with chromides, to be honest. They are colourful, very peaceful, and from (roughly) the same part of the world as your puffers.

Cheers,

Neale

thanks for the help guys. Crazy loaches how long did you have your puffer and krib together? any problems?

No problems but they were only together for a few months. Had an ick outbreak with the introduction of another fish and lost the Krib abd bever replaced it since I was overstocked anyhow. My puffers are very mild mannered though, they have never attacked a tankmate, the only things they have attacked are snails and a feeder guppy which actually surprised me. I am planning on moving them in with BB Gobies soon so I hope they stay friendly.

m_e23 - did you try the F8 / Krib combination in the end? I too have been considering this but think I may be limited by my facilities to house the Kribs in freshwater whilst I raise the salinity.

nmonks wrote: Most of the hard water "Cichlasoma" have some degree of salt tolerance, with several species naturally occuring in even marine environments where they live and breed on rocky reefs.

That's very interesting are there any resources you recommend for me to look more into this. Sorry for hijacking this thread.

sstimac wrote:

nmonks wrote: Most of the hard water "Cichlasoma" have some degree of salt tolerance, with several species naturally occuring in even marine environments where they live and breed on rocky reefs.

That's very interesting are there any resources you recommend for me to look more into this. Sorry for hijacking this thread.

No worries, I'd be interested to know too.

In bigger tanks, the black-chin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron) is a fantastic species, good-looking and a paternal mouthbrooder.

In nature they rarely get bigger than 15 cm. In tanks they can reach 30 cm. But a very nice brackish water fish.

What about a smaller (15 cm) cichlid from the caribean? Nandopsis tetracanthus is sometimes traded.

Now I understand! Orange Chromide is Etroplus maculatus. I didn't know the vernacular name.

They are really great and probably the best mate for a T. biocellatus mentioned in this thread so far.

I've purchased two Kribs, one male and one female. They have been introduced into my brackish tank with my F8s after I lowered the SG to allow for them. All seems to be well. The kribs ignore the other fish but the male is very aggressive towards the female.

Will they settle down? Is this normal behaviour? If it continues I may have to separate them.

The tank is heavily planted with lots of places to hide so I didn't anticipate this sort of problem.

My male krib is only agressive to the female when he's guarding fry, otherwise she pushes him around. And even when he's acting agressive, she's teasing him into it, I think its a spawning thing.

Do they have some sort of caves or rockwork to go into? That's what they love. Flowerpots or some rocks piled up with spaces inbetween...