[150EH]

My Kribs (Pelvicachromis sacrimontis) had their first batch of fry about 2 weeks ago, to say the least I was dissappointed with only 5 to 7 fry in or near their breeding cave. I was reading this article about kH and fry (within this species), it seems my parents may have better luck in a higher kH, how should I go about this in a 150 gallon tank with a kH of 3 degrees or 50 ppm.

The article: http://www.aquabotanic.com/?p=862

The related paragraph; Water chemistry is not important for keeping this species so long as the extremes are avoided. The pH is important for the sex ratio of the fry, however, so close to neutral is better is you want both males and females. Cooler temperatures in the range of 72 – 76 are preferred over hotter water. If the tap water has a KH > 10, there is a chance that fertilization rates of the eggs will be reduced. My KH out of my tap is 15, so I use 50/50 RO and tap when I do water changes. When I am vey sure that a spawn in eminent, I will do some changes with pure R/O water so that the pH will come down to as close to neutral as possible.

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My water is pretty close with my pH at 7.2 and diving to 6.8 with CO2 being added during the day and my water temp is 78 but I can't get it any lower until winter, plus it's close enough, but my kH is 3 degrees do I need to get it up to 10 degrees or close to 10 or will 3 degrees be ok, mom & pop are eyeing the spawning cave as we speak.

 

[150EH]

I think I may be reading this wrong, if my kH is 3 I should be ok with softwater and low alkalinity, right.

 

[VeeSe]

I think I may be reading this wrong, if my kH is 3 I should be ok with softwater and low alkalinity, right.

Yeah, I just read that paragraph that you highlighted, and it doesn't really mention what they mean by "extreme" even though they said >10 was worse (didn't mention about the low end). If I had to guess, KH 3 is low but maybe not "extreme". I'm just going by what the paragraph says though; I know nothing about breeding fish other than that.

 

[2in10]

I think you should be OK. I have read, but not seen scientific evidence, that 2 dKH and below does not support aquatic like well. It would be interesting to find out if this is a tale wagging us.

 

[150EH]

I think you are both right, I was also reading it wrong at first thinking I needed a kH greater than 10 degrees, so 3 degrees should be soft without being extreme hopefully. I think their first batch of fry was small just because it was the first attempt and nothing more.