Melanochromis Auratus breeding pair?

[Cassius.]

I just set up my first african tank - 92 gallon corner. i've stocked the tank with giant danios, tiger barbs and some random africans.

I selected 3 africans from a tank labeled "assorted african cichlids" - one pastel blue ob, one yellow with black stripes, and a black with blue stripes. I chose them because their colors were the most striking to me. within the first 24 hours, the pastel blue ob was dead.

this whole time, I'm worried about cycling the tank (still am actually - but thats another story). so, i was surprised to wake up the 2nd morning and see these two africans dancing around each other. to my untrained eye it looked like a mating ritual. a quick google search showed that these guys are the same fish, melanochromis auratus, male and female.

this is crazy to me. Does anybody have any experience with this? Advice?

 

[joe jaskot]

Auratus are mouthbrooders. The female will hold eggs in her mouth for a little over three weeks. The eggs will develop into fry while in her mouth. She will eventually release them into the tank. Good luck.

 

[Rafini]

i had the same thing happen. 3 females and one male.
The male killed one female very quickly. Then when he bred with one female he killed the other female. eventually he killed all his females and some other fish too. they are one of the most aggressive africans i have kept. Although no all are like this. if they have a lot of other fish in the tank they spread their aggression out. much like tiger barbs. i think with all the movement you have going on in there you should be fine.

anyway, the female gets a lump under her mouth, like shes holding something in there., those are the fertilised eggs. they will hatch into fry inside her mouth and she will keep them in there. I moved mine into a small 5g tank on her own. when i could see the fully developed large fish in her mouth I modified a paperclip to push into her lips to keep them open. this allows the babies to just swim straigh out of her mouth. when she was empty i put her backj in the tank with the others.

The babies are easy to raise, feed them 3 times a day with crushed up flakes or crushed up pellets. live food such as baby brine shrimp works well too. they grow very fast and before they hit 1" its already clear who is turning into males.


hope that helps!

 

[Cassius.]

That was super helpful rafini, thank you.

Unfortunately, I wussed out and returned them to my LFS. I just chose three random Africans to cycle the tank. I had no desire to establish the meanest little bastards. The knowledgable guy at the LFS was pretty amused by my dumb luck. I picked the fish with one of the guys working there that didn't have a clue about fish (he admitted that to me when I purchased them, not a bad guy).

I miss the coloring of that male, but enough of the reports I read told metro watch out. I'm pretty sure I was a more chill tank



Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app