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I am trying to combine some of the fish in my two 10 gallon tanks into my 38 gallon planted tank. The 38 gallon has 1 laetacara curviceps, 2 platies, 5 bloodfin tetras, 3 siamese algae eaters and 5 corydoras. I would like to add the kribensis from the 10 gallon into the larger tank. Does anyone have experience combining these 2 cichlids? I'm a little worried about the krib going after the curviceps. I had a keyhole cichlid in with the curviceps previously and they got along great.

Keyholes and small laetacara usually to get on fine,my dorsigeras live with keys, the krib though is a different matter, there will be communication issues and much percieved aggression, but kribs can sometimes be peaceful enough that is worth a shot.

No one can really tell you yay or nay because temperament varies so much in kribs, though personally I think theres about a 70% chance that the africans will persecute the americans, but you wont know till you try.

Its not a marriage made in heaven, but female kribs might be calm enough.A male will probably cause trouble. Its sounds like its borderline though, and while not really recommended, you might just pull it off with these species.

Give it a go under observation for a couple of hours and see how things go, be prepared to seperate and dont be taking down any aquaria you take the cichlids from just yet, it might not go well. Just make sure your aquaria are all the same temp so that it isnt too arduous to pop a fish back into its original aquarium without bagging if things dont work out.

Good luck Randy,

Good to hear keyholes and curviceps get along.
I have 3 keyholes in my 40g, getting a group of L dorsigera juvies (almost curviceps) in about a month off a local breeders first spawn). I'll probably be rehoming the keyholes but not entirely sure yet. I'm sure I have 2m and 3 f/m, all are colored up nice but no pairing up, it's like every fish for itself lol.

The Amazon Nut...

I can't comment on the issue of a krib getting on with a curviceps, but I would be nervous (from personal experience) of putting kribs in with cory's. It sounds like you have a pair of kribs (although I may have misunderstood) and if they're breeding they will probably beat the hell out of your poor cory's. As has been said above though, give it a try, and you can always move them back.

There's just the one krib, I think I'm going to try putting it in the 38 gallon tomorrow when I can be home to watch how they all get along. I'll let you all know how it goes.

How'd it go BTW, it was worth laying a bet on.lol.

The krib has been in the tank now for a few days and everything is going great. My curviceps is pretty lazy and likes to hang out in my forest of valisneria so the only incidents have happened when the krib wonders back there. This always ends with the krib tucking tail and running to the other side of the tank. Overall I'm happy with the move, the kribensis ignores all my other fish completely and I see no sign of nipped fins on anyone.

I have 2 kribs in with cories, apistos & discus & 1 male betta. The kribs aren't a pair, but siblings born in my tank around 1.5yrs ago. Though not sure, I think they are both males. Maybe mine are just placid or maybe because they've grown up in the community tank they've become used to the mixed company, but there are no compatability issues at all.

Hope it continues to work for you.

Cheers
TW