Hi would like to know if the Krib is a male or female, want to get a mate for him or her, thanx again Vez know he/she will be happy.
Ja, its definitely a male. Pity you are not in Cape Town as I have a bunch of really nice kribs at the moment.
Thanks Skye will have to see when I can pop in there. What do you look out for when they are smaller to ID the female? That is is a pity Andre, maybe we can arrange a package up from Cpt with a Krib and some some of those nice plecs of Trevor.
The best way to ID the little ones is to look out for the more rounded caudal and anal fins as Skye mentioned. The females are also more likely to have spots on the dorsal and caudal fins
As Andre mentioned, they will have more rounded fins but a dead give away is the fact that the females will have a more rounded body shape and will have a nice ruby red tummy. Unfortunately you can't go strictly on the spots because both my male and female have spots on their fins... I'm just so suprised that this male doesn't have as I'm sure that this is one that I gave to Vez a while ago...
I have found that most of the kribs in petshops are a bit stressed and do not show the correct colouring. The spotting on the male kribs do occur, especially in the more domesticated variants. I have yet to see a wild caught or descendent male with the spotting on the caudal fin though. I will post a few pictures of smaller females vs males a bit later today.
Thanxs Andre and Kim. Its on of those fish that the pictures do not do it justice, I must admit I never liked it much, propably because I have only seen juveniles before at a LFS. The more I look at the 1 I got the more I like them!
Here are some (bad) pictures for reference: Female: Male: Female front, Male background: Note the difference in the fin shapes as this is your best bet for sexing them. It might be a bit tricky introducing a small female to this guy, perhaps if you have another tank you can move him and let her stake her territory before moving him back.
Oh yes, I have about 40 of the little buggers in a 1.2m tank, so that is the reason for the torn fins on the male.
I do have another tank so I will do that, do not want to get them breeding in my main display tank, thank you for the advice and time with the pictures that is really helpfull!
Hi Rob I think I gave some kribs to Gert at some point, but I think that was before I left for Cameroon when I gave all my wild caughts to prof Bellstedt. This is a different wild caught strain.
An interesting fact about kribs is that the pH of your water affects the sex ratio of your fry. The higher the pH, the more males you have. http://www.thekrib.com/Apisto/P-pulcher.html#4 Here's a link to the article they mention, unfortunately it's only the first page for non members: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1444818?uid=3739368&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=47699034690717 I'd love to be able to read the rest.
Hi Andre I would be interested in 2 males and a couple of females if you are going to be selling some off regards Rob