Cichlid Fish Forum banner

Male Auratus in hiding this morning

2K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  pom-in-nz 
#1 ·
Just feeding my guys and noticed that my male auratus is in hiding this morning....he is hanging out at the top of the tank behind the hob filter flow. Yesterday I saw him behind the big rock that I have in the tank and was wondering why he was back there.

Sitting and watching I saw one of the females swim up to him and then he and she doing the circle dance pretty aggressively. As they moved across the tank another of the females joined in and they all circled and shimmied around for quite some time.

I currently have a 1M/4F ratio in this tank as I've been waiting to rehome some of my other fish to make room for a few more auratus (wanting to up the ratio to 1M/7F).

Oh and he did not eat this morning as when he came out he was immediately chased by one of the females. He is approximately the same size if not a little larger than the females but I do notice that all my females now have a slight orange cast to the top of their bodies under the dorsal fin. Its quite beautiful really.

My question is this...I thought that the male was supposed to wear the females out not the other way around. Could this indicate that my male is not well or not as fit as he should be since he seems to be the one that is getting worn out but the mating rituals? Or could the females aggression towards him be something other than mating related...possibly indicating that they sense something is wrong with him?
 
See less See more
#2 ·
also water parameters are 0 on ammonia, 0 on nitrites and 0 on nitrates...and he does not look or appear to be bloated
 
#3 ·
I've never kept auratus but fish not eating is not a good sign. I'd recommend removing him if possible and seeing if he will eat on his own. If he won't I'd suggest a bloat treatment.

Posting the tank dimensions and other tank mates would help people who have kept these answer the questions about the aggression.
 
#4 ·
75G, 30% water change on saturday, my tanks post has the other fish counts those being

5 Melanochromis auratus
7 Labs (hybrids)
2 Metriaclima estherae (Red)
2 Jewel Cichlids
1 Red tailed shark
1 plecostomus
 
#5 ·
I can remove him to my 20G and see how he does
 
#8 ·
I do have plants in the tank...not a lot but a few...and I just did the tests this morning...tank has been up and running at my house for over a month now...came to me with all old filtration and fish in it...was set up with them in it and then we rehomed those fish (angels and silver dollar and crawfish)...and put some of our guys in it

I can try the nitrate test with another test kit...we have a saltwater test kit...is it the same test stuff as for the freshwater?

Have netted him and put him in the 20G...he seems fine...a little stressed...swimming up and down on tank...took a rest when he first went into the tank...but doing fine seems

pic below of removed male...not the best but you can see he is a male and I'm pretty certain the other 4 are females...they have never ever showed signs of being anything but that...all have dorsal, thin color line, then black stripe, then wider color stripe, then black again, then wide belly color...but like I said their color this morning in that top wider color stripe seems a little more orange today than I've seen before



Would you recommend I leave him in the 20G for a bit?
 
#9 ·
a little better pic

 
#11 ·
used my API test strips...it reads around 20 on the nitrates
 
#13 ·
Auratus is one of the more aggressive sprecies and breed well with much competition between male and female because of their morphing capability. Most likely what you have is a strong female getting ready to take your males place as the new alpha male. Most likely the old male will be killed. If this is the case the strong female will morph regardless of what you do she has already paved the road.
 
#14 ·
thanks everyone for your replies and input...

I have a API freshwater master test kit also but it read 0 while the strips read 20ppm...gonna get some new test material for that kit. Did a water change just to make sure that there was nothing I was missing in the water parameters

I was going to give my guy the day to rest and then return him to the tank maybe later today or this evening after lights out...then see how things are in the morning

And Moneycycle...there is one female that is just a little larger than him and she is showing some dark on her where there was no dark before...just showing a "darkening" on her face and belly..looks kinda grey on the yellow or like she ran through some soot...so your observations my be correct...but I would hate to lose this male as he's been such a pleasure to watch growing up...geez...these fish (shaking my head)
 
#16 ·
:thumb: and I'm going to try to do some more reading on them as I obviously did not understand this from my readings already ... thanks again :)
 
#17 ·
If you dont shake bottle number 2 for at least 10 seconds before adding to the sample vile you will get a reading of zero...I know I've done it :oops:
 
#18 ·
fishmagnet said:
If you dont shake bottle number 2 for at least 10 seconds before adding to the sample vile you will get a reading of zero...I know I've done it :oops:
:thumb:
 
#19 ·
Well...I let everyone sit with the big boy in timeout for a bit and yesterday I put him back in the mix in the 75G tank. At this time, out of the 5 auratus (big boy included)...I now seem to have 3 males as 2 (that's TWO) of the original females have changed color...they went through a short brown period and now are showing the darker blue/black colors...

I did add new rock to the tank and mixed things up a bit .. for now my big boy is hanging out in the back of the tank...he blends so well you can hardly see him but he is venturing out every once and a while..and the other two newbie males(???) have taken up residence at opposite ends of the tank laying claim to a couple of caves

Not sure what will be the end result here but really don't want to see anyone killed so think I'm going to see if my rehoming can happen now instead of later...hate to let the auratus go too but maybe that is for the best as my current setup seems to be heading for doom and gloom...

Will be looking for some other species to restock with...possibly some that are less aggressive (although I really liked my auratus) or should I consider a species only tank for them in this 75G??? Any input or suggestions???
 
#20 ·
I really like the look of auratus, especially a full grown male. I wish I could have stocked them in my 125, but didn't want to go down that road, due to aggression. A species tank would be cool, or paired with another aggressive mbuna. Just make sure your ratios are right with these guys, from everything I've read.
 
#21 ·
I was told that if I wanted to do a species only tank then overstocking was the key thing and to really pack them in...and maybe someone can clarify for me. From what I have read, auratus can not really CHANGE sex although they can display as the opposite sex so is it possible that I have had all females all along but one of them morphed to the male coloring earlier than the others and now the remaining are throwing their hats in the pot so to speak. I'm just confused as like I said, I've gone from what I thought were 1M/4F to what now appears to be 3M/2F. So what do I really have at this point - is it 3 morphed females or 1 male/2 morphed females? Or do any of us even know :lol:
 
#22 ·
We used to have a Mod here who kept them in a species tank, but they still killed each other fairly often. She eventually gave them up as too much trouble.

Males will mimic females to avoid attack. If you want to know the gender of all your fish, you could remove the dominant male and see who else colors up. Repeat until no one colors up.
 
#23 ·
Its like hide and go seek... LOL ... and after much thought I think I'll move on from my thoughts of having these in a species tank. Being new to the hobby and cichlids I still have a lot to learn. This is just one step ... in which direction I'm not quite sure but at least I'm still moving along :thumb:
 
#24 ·
I've found that the males always dominate so it could be that you had a sub male who now thinks its his time to shine and is taking on his male colouring and driving the old male out of his new territory. If this is happening then the older males days are numbered. Moving him on is his only chance
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top