I have two Kribs in a 20 gallon tank. I have been trying to get them to breed for some time now. I've been doing water changes, params are within the acceptable limits and have been feeding a varitity of foods. My problem is that for a few the past two weeks both have been colored up great. Showing for each other. Coconut cave opening was made smaller both would go in and out. The this morning they began to fight. They would go at each other and bounce off the bottom and just have some serious domestic violence going on. Right before this all started the male would not go into the cave. The female would come out show for him and go back in. Instead he would chase away the Tiger barbs. Now the male is hiding in on cave and won't come out when he does the female will go after him and they will go at it again. I've checked both caves and no eggs and when I checked the male his tail fin is getting pretty ragged. This has happened before. I've changed the setup of the tank added new caves and I just moved. I also took the female out when I changed the tank so that they male could establish domanice. All seemed to be going very well. Up until it seems the male who is larger is not interested in spawning gets attacked by the female. I was really hoping to get them to breed but they don't seem to going to do it. I want to breed kribs so my only thoughts are that I should either take one of them back and get another of the opposite sex or I should take them both back and get a few of each sex. Only problem I see is that with the first option, the kribs at the store are all much smaller then the two I have. Would that be an issue with spawning? I'm at a loss for what to do now. I've been trying to get kribs to breed for a while now and i'm starting to get frustrated with them not breeding and them supposedly being easy to breed fish. I've read up on what to do and have tried it but it just doesn't seem to be working. I guess I just have to get others or swap out one. Any suggestions or advice from someone who has had a problem like this would be very welcomed.

get more in the tank, spread the aggression...

Only problem with adding more is that the ones at the store are all about half the size of mine. Plus I have 5 Tiger barbs in the tank with them to be the dither fish.

more of the same specy will lower agression, if needs be see about ordering in from the supplier through the LFS fish of an appropriate size for your tank. only having 2 is asking for one to beat up on the other, i had this problem with my juvie frontosa, got a 3rd in the tank and 2 clown loach to keep stuff clean and the bigger one isnt mauling the smaller one as much now.