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Old December 9th, 2008, 02:22 PM
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want4rain want4rain is offline
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BABY KRIBS!!! how cool!! did you do anythign to condition for spawning or was it just 'one of those things'?? how cool for you. thought about keeping them a few times myself but never got around to it. maybe one of these days!!

oh whatcha feeding them???


Quote:
Originally Posted by babymomma View Post
If you dont mind, I still have a few questions for you.

well... if i were to keep them-

1. How often do you have to clean the tank?

in a 20g with no other fish other than perhaps dither (you know, little tiny fish that school) you should probably siphon off roughly 25% the bottom weekly(get the poo up and stuff out)

2. What do you do with them when you do clean the tank?

the fish stay in there!! far more stressful to move them out than it is to chase them around with a siphon. also see my last link for why you dont want to ever really WASH your fish tank... there is a whole host of really good bacteria that help keep things running smoothly that grow over about a months time. to wipe that out subjects your fish to all sorts of nasty stuff until it establishes itself again. the two largest causes of fish loss are due to poor water quality (not doing enough water changes) and by damaging your nitrogen cycle (good bacteria)!!!

3. Can they coexist with sucker fish? ( AKA algae eaters)

WELL there are lots of sucker fish out there. for example-

http://www.otocinclus.com/
otocinclus get along great with almost ANY fish. they can be kept well at 1 for every 5 gallons, do a great job cleaning up.

maybe youre talking about Siamese Algae Eater??
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sae.php
not to be confused with CHINESE algae eaters... those are rather terrible fish really. SAE are really great algae eaters!! they eat the dreaded black beard algae, hair algae... all but that circular hard stuff. nothing really eats that. they could live with kribs in a 25g with dither fish or more if you made sure it was well oxygenated (they are from rivers naturally)and can be a touch aggressive if not given enough space.

OR maybe youre talking about the common pleco??
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...?species_id=88
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_C...Liposarcus.php
unfortunately these guys get really big needing minimum a 75g tank at maturity. its a real shame cause they are so easily found and so many people pick them up not knowing how big they get. they are super cool though!!! plecos in general are great for algae eating. lots of them are much prettier (or uglier, depends on how you judge these things) than the common one.

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_...39&pcatid=1039
the bushy nose is a great alternative though! and one would fit well say a 30g with a pair of kribs. provide drift wood for grazing though.

cory cats are not good algae eaters but are great scavengers. they should be kept in schools of 6 or more.... they could live (again) in a 30g or so with the reasonable stocking of any of the algae eaters and perhaps a few dithers (and by that i mean 6-8 neon tetras or threadfin rainbows or other similar schooling fish.)

there are other creatures that graze on algae but your little kribs would probably eat them. fish think shrimp are tasty too!!


4. How do you check ph levels an stuff like that?

you get yourself a Master Water Test Kit and play with some vials. my 9yo thinks its great fun to work with the different chemicals to tell what the values are. she is strange like that. pH is important but you asked above how often to do clean the tank, the OTHER things you can test for (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) help you decide when to do that. check out how the nitrogen cycle manafests in your aquarium before starting one up. in not understanding this, you will likely face fish loss due to ammonia burns or the stress of swimming in their own waste/poo.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebI...estcycling.htm



lol.. I really likee these fish and want to get some!
me too!! keeping some spawning type plants in there would help reduce baby loss with other fish in the tank. maybe some Java Moss??

to also say, as with any other living creature... there are very few sure right ways....and only a few really wrong ways. many of these things can be done with a only a bit of harm to your fish and everyone is a little different on how they do things.

-ashley
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