Krobia

Since being moved to a new tank, the two remaining Krobia I have are gaining confidence, and don't shoot off in a panic every time I move now. They still hide if I walk in front of tank, but they're no where near as freaked out as they used to be. The larger two actually comes to the front of the tank if he sees me sitting in front of the tank, and has started waggling for food, very much as my female keyhole does ^^

At feeding time earlier I managed to get some photos of the larger of the two.






(Yay for me being hopeless at cleaning the glass)


His colouration can go from this, to really dark bars across "his" face and body in a second.





And the one below is literally the only clear photo I managed to get of the smaller of the two >.<



Behaviour wise, the larger has been a bit of a git for the past couple of days, although he hasn't done any damage so far. So I might do some re-scaping to try and get him to go back to being relatively peaceful. The smaller does try to follow him about, but quickly gets shooed off. But there are times when they do get on ok, and hang out together.

Watching them a moment ago, the larger of the two has normal colouration, and the smaller one developed black stripes, and then quickly went back to normal. There was no fighting or even showing off, but are these stress stripes? The larger one usually displays these at feeding time, hence why I'm not sure if they are stress related or not?

Hard tp tell from the pics, but my observations are that at this age, the male has a squarer look to his face, the female appears to have larger looking eyes because of the head shape, dorsal and anal fin length are no real indication, but if you look at the anal fin the very first ray the males is longer and "sharper" than the females, The larger of the two looks male, I would suspect as they get on the other is possibly a female.

I see what you mean about the shape of the head, I'll have to sit and watch them to see if I can spot differences in their anal fins

They get on most of the time, until the lights go out, and then the larger one becomes a right pain and does nothing but chase the smaller about. But he chills back out again once I have the lights on >.<

This has only been going on for the past few nights though, and the keyholes are getting ready to spawn again, so I don't know if that has just thrown everyone off like it did last time.

I really need to come up a name for the smaller Krobia. The larger has been dubbed Loki, as he's a pain in the bum :p

Hokay, after sitting and watching them, I think the larger is definitely male. He's really square, not just in the head but more blocky in the body too. The smaller has a more rounded face and body, and as you said, the eyes appear larger. The smaller is a lot shyer than the male, who is constantly out and about the tank now.

Its the same with sexing a lot of the "acara type" its the shape of the head, the metae are the same you cannot go on finnage length until they are adults. Saying that the females anal fin is shorter because the male will bite at it to encourage her to spawn, thats why most female cichlids have a shorter anal fin, without a male present they tend to get as long as the males

That's really interesting, and really quite a bizarre way for males to initiate breeding behaviour!

I know you said fins don't count, but Loki has much longer longer dorsal and anal fins already than the other. When I see him chase the other one next I'll watch and see if he goes for her (I say she, purely because I don't like calling animals it >.<) anal fin

On a side note, my little female keyhole looks like she's about to pop! And her breeding tube is down, so it shouldn't belong before they spawn again

its not that fins dont count they are not a 100% guarantee expecially with some species, most sites state severum males have longer fins than females, but you saw my rotkeil females fins they are huge!!. Name I will have to have a think, I have to name my two first lol

Fingers crossed on the keyholes, I hope you get fry this time I am after a male if you do lol lol lol

Oooh I see The rotkeil was absolutely stunning!

I'm thinking of staying along with Norse gods for their names, I might name "her" Sága (I'm a sucker for anything to do with the Norse!)

No sign of any eggs as of yet, but they have way more hiding spaces than in their previous tank. Female is still looking really round so I don't think they've spawned yet. If they do spawn, and any manage to survive, I'll keep you in mind

ooooooooooh yes I like that name

The new ones that turned up today have just been called "the gang" lol, I got 7 more clown loach today, someone wanted a good home, came and saw my tanks and left them here

I'm running out of Norse names that I like! So far, The Krobia are Loki and Saga, my female keyhole is Vár, and the male is Odin

And I've had Thor, Tyr, Freya and Eir (betta), and although I wasn't going to name the current male I have (I still don't know 100% if I can keep him yet), he's currently referred to as Heimdallr >.< Yay for cheesiness!


Lol, so much for no more rescues! That's fantastic though, shows how obviously good your tanks are, and clown loach are so lovely ^^

Our group of corys are collectively known as "the mob"

I know, but the chap had been looking for a home for them for just about a year!!! he told me, he got offers, but once he came and had a look at my lot he went and got them. I cant wait to sort out the weather loach fry now so I can use the 400 and put all the clown loach together, only trouble is they cant live with chops anymore as 4 of the new ones are tiny.

Poor bloke But a group that big together is going to look fantastic!
Where will you be putting the baby weather loach once you've moved them?

It depends on how many I find, if there is 5 or 6 they can go in with their parents and Dudley can either come downstairs into the 180 (if the boys allow it) or the other tank with the baby apisto's in (which may be moved downstairs yet anyway), if there are more than 5 or 6, dunno cross that bridge when I come to it lol lol lol if push comes to shove I do have the 260 in the conservatory, it would take a day to clean up, but it could be used.

Hehehe, at least there is somewhere you can put them
It's amused me to no end that your lads love Dudley so much

So happy about the Krobia, even the smaller is starting to gain way more confidence and is coming out at feeding time even if I'm still in front of the tank

Oh, and whilst I remember to ask, I'm assuming fin extensions will grow back? My male keyhole had amazingly long extensions, but he lost the ends either fighting with Nosferatu (the gourami ), or Loki.

Yes they do grow back eventually

Yup, it seems like they're growing back already ^^

Just thought I'd update on my two quickly too. They've grown, especially the larger, and they're both much more out going now. They wiggle at the front of the tank with the keyholes for food now

The larger was getting worse for bullying, so I re-scaped the tank and they are now displaying to each other. The larger even had a breeding tube lowered- it was long and pointed, so I'm guessing he's male? No idea who he was trying to get jiggy with though, as the smaller one wasn't paying him any attention

The females do seem to play hard to get, my old one did. Unlike other cichlids the females tube did not decend until she was actually really about to drop the eggs, some cichlids the tubes are down upto 24 hours before spawning. The santanopercia daemons are the fastest, its tubes out, eggs out tubes up, blink and you miss it!!

The smaller one is no where near as out going as the larger, but "she" has started to flare back at him when he comes close, and they'll circle a few times. He's not chasing her as aggressively as he was either, and definitely aims for her anal fin. So ya never know

I'm pretty sure he's not showing a tube any more. Hahaha, I was sat watching him really intently the other to see if it was a breeding tube or if it was just poo. Bryn comes in and says "What are you doing?" so I told him and the (very mature) reply was "Ewwww so you're looking for a fish penis!!!?!?!!?!" >.< He does love to wind me up!

Sounds typical courting behaviour.

Bryn! PMSL!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's good to know! Do they twitch like keyholes do? It's all they ever do, they catch sight of each other an they start shimmying and flaring like mad Bless them, I think they like each other a little bit!

And yup! That's Bryn for you! XD

I cant actually remember!!!! I think they shimmy & twich I know a lot of flaring goes on.

So nothing came of it, but a couple of nights ago they went nuts! They both had really dark bars, breeding tubes on both, and were doing lots of flaring, shimmying, dancing, circling each other, etc. They took over the keyholes corner of the tank spent the entire time cleaning one of the flat rocks and shooing everyone away from that area (very gently thankfully, they didn't do any damage to anyone).

Has left me feeling a lot more confident that I have a male and a female too, and that they actually like each other. My only concern is that they are siblings. I know that their offspring would be fine, but how the hell would I sell on F2's knowing that it would start to get messy if F2's started breeding? o.O