Auratus

1307 Views 21 Replies 7 Participants Last post by Nina_b, Apr 20, 2011

monisaab

Discussion Starter · Feb 28, 2011

I had bought a few auratus juveniles in the beginning of January. They were somewhere between 1/2 to 1 inch in size at that time.

Within these 2 months or so they've grown to between 11/2 to 2 inch size. One of them has changed to male color recently. The others have retained their original coloring. Does this mean he is the only male in the lot?

1 - 20 of 22 Posts

Myrock

· #2 · Feb 28, 2011

He may be the most dominant. Give it more time another may change too.

roofeo24

· #3 · Mar 1, 2011

could be, but i would wait it out and see. i have a few in my tank that i have had for close to a year, thought that they were all females and out of the blue one changed to the male coloring. so i guess im saying you never know at that size. they may surprise you!

Kanorin

· #4 · Mar 1, 2011

monisaab said:
I had bought a few auratus juveniles in the beginning of January. They were somewhere between 1/2 to 1 inch in size at that time.

Within these 2 months or so they've grown to between 11/2 to 2 inch size. One of them has changed to male color recently. The others have retained their original coloring. Does this mean he is the only male in the lot?

Not at all. Subdominant males often retain female coloration.

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 1, 2011

Thanks everyone for the inputs.

Will keep an eye on them but will hope no one else turns out to be a male...

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 5, 2011

Can I move my colored-up male to my turtle tank for a few days & see if any of the other juveniles colors up???

Will the Turtle and Auratus bear with each other for a few days or will I be left with just 1 of the two???

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 12, 2011

Ok so i have noticed another one of them to have started looking a bit dirty...

Frenzy

· #8 · Mar 12, 2011

monisaab said:
Ok so i have noticed another one of them to have started looking a bit dirty...

So you're not entertaining the turtle tank idea anymore?

Probably a good thing if you are.

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 12, 2011

LoL. No I am not. Just using the mirror experiment...

Nina_b

· #10 · Mar 13, 2011

How are the mirrors working out?

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 13, 2011

so far so good Nina_b and its a mirror not mirrors...

BTW talking about color change etc one of my Kenyis has kind of lost it dark barring. Its still blue not yellow but the bars have dimmed a lot. Does this mean it is a sub-dominant male?

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #12 · Mar 25, 2011

the other male auratus has started showing a little more color now... both of them keep to their own caves though ignoring each other...

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 26, 2011

can anyone tell me how long after getting the male coloration do the auratus males mature??? just wanted to know when to expect them to spawn???

Nina_b

· #14 · Mar 28, 2011

That's probably a question as popular as "what sex is my fish". They can spawn from 1 1/2 inch, people say. If they have a whole harem of females that may be sooner, may be later. Spawning is not guaranteed either way.
As to when auratus males mature, well, that's another debate. Are they all females that then switch to males? Are they able to breed even in female colouration? Who knows?
In general, I'd say from 1 1/2 inches. Does that mean they're mature? Nope.

Let us know how the agression pans out. The recieved wisdom will have us believe mass death will ensue in your tank shortly.

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #15 · Mar 28, 2011

aawww so thats why nobody bothered to reply to my question... I was wondering may be my question was kind of invisible or something...

as for aggression, so far so good Nina_b... Not much... just an odd chase or two.

Will keep you posted...

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #16 · Apr 19, 2011

Nina_b said:
Let us know how the agression pans out. The recieved wisdom will have us believe mass death will ensue in your tank shortly.

No aggression so far Nina_b...

I noticed that my male auratus which previously had only a single egg-spot now has two of them... Do the egg-spots increase as they mature???

Kanorin

· #17 · Apr 19, 2011

I noticed that my male auratus which previously had only a single egg-spot now has two of them... Do the egg-spots increase as they mature???

Typically yes. I think it has more to do with dominance. As your male auratus matures, he will probably become more dominant. Thus, more egg spots.[/code]

monisaab

Discussion Starter · #18 · Apr 19, 2011

he was the tank boss initially when I got all my Mbuna as juveniles but my lombardoi is now the Boss and he has only 1 large egg-spot...

Nina_b

· #19 · Apr 19, 2011

I saved little Stumpy from an aquaintance who insisted he could keep them in pairs. It turned out one was a male. Eventually, she had no tailfin, so he tried to spread the agression by adding two juveniles. One was dead within a few minutes. This lead to a tank rampage, he lost an angelfish and a pleco soon after. The other little stripey he added he hasn't seen since, no idea where that one is hiding in his tank. I took her in, she healed up in the hospital tank (that she shared for a time with a beaten up yellow lab). That's her below, now in the main tank with my labs and cobalt blues.

I'm glad my original two went back to the LFS. I'm also very, very glad that you're not having agression troubles. They're such beautiful fishies, I'm hoping to keep Stumpy as a single in there with my others. If not, at least she'll go back to the LFS healthy.
You still haven't posted any tank pics

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gatorbaiter

· #20 · Apr 19, 2011

wow kenyi and auratus you got some heavyweights there as far as aggression. Curious are they in the same tank?

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