male kribs holding fry in mouth?

[PeteAce]

I have two pairs of breeding kribs in the same tank and I sometimes see the males holding their fry in mouth for a long time, like 5 minutes or more without spitting them out. Whenever that happens, the male would wander around, turn red, most of the time crossing into the other pair's territory, looking for something. One time I saw a change in fry count, from 7 to 14. I'm suspecting they were giving their fry away.

I have never seen the females do that. What do you think they could be trying to do?

[crazy72]

I've never kept 2 pairs with fry in the same tank so I can't really help you here. Many species of Apistos (yes, I know that kribs are not Apistos ) kept in trios or harems (1M + xF) have been reported to steal fry from each other (the females, in that case). But I've never read or heard about fish giving away fry to another pair.

One thing that I've seen on a couple of occasions with kribs is the male eating the fry after a few weeks. Only when the female was still in the same tank. Rightly or wrongly, I've attributed it to the male wanting to have the female's attention again (read: lay eggs again ). And in one case the female got really mad at the male for doing this and she chased him around forever after. Never laid eggs again. But to assume that in your case the male might be giving fry away for the same reason would be speculative. That would be very surprising to me. But who knows. It could be interesting to keep only one of your pairs in this tank, and see if the male eats the fry after a few weeks.

[PeteAce]

I find this strange that it is not a known behaviour. Not only once, but both times when the pairs spawned (they're having their 2nd batch now ), and both males did the same.

I'm sure they did not steal because I saw the male gobbled up their own fry and went to the other side looking for something, going up and down into the glass as if they were waiting for the right moment to release the fry.

I should do a video next time... I want to know so badly but I don't think they were meant to hurt/eat the fry. The pairs are always together looking after the fry. Even after the light is off, they would circle the area repeatedly for an hour looking for any stray and lost fry... they're so smart and caring.

[crazy72]

I find this strange that it is not a known behaviour.

All I'm saying is that it's not known by me!

Maybe it is a known and reported behaviour. I guess you've tried to google around?

[PeteAce]

Nope, nothing close in Google. I think I have the special pairs.

[crazy72]

If nobody here knows, you could always try to e-mail this Lee Newman (Anyone knows Lee Newman?). Him saying that he doesn't know would have a bit more weight than me saying that I don't know . And he might be interested if it is indeed unusual behaviour.

[PeteAce]

Today I can finally confirm that the males were really trying to give some of their fry to the other group. I know because one male was doing it again and at the end I could see a visible increase in fry number and obvious size difference (the pairs spawned at least 1.5 week apart) in the receiving end. Maybe they like to do "fry exchange", but the exchange appears to be permanent.

I'm still surprised no one else has similar experience here, any type of breeding cichlids.

[crazy72]

I still find this amazing. I too would be very curious to know if it's known behaviour in other cichlids. Anyone has seen this before?