maingano

796 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by bentech, Jan 4, 2011

bentech

Discussion Starter · Jan 4, 2011

hi!! i just bought 6 maingano (baby) to put in my 55 gallons. i ask for 1 male and 5 femeles but the guy theres make a mistake and gave me 3 males and 3 femeles :x . i have alot of rock in my tank so its almost impossible to catch 2 males and return for a exchange. So, should i let 3 males and 3 femeles together in my tank or should i take all the rock out to catch the fish and return it so i can have a 1:5 ratio ?? In the futur, i'd like them to breed. So what is the best solution ??

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Rhinox

· #2 · Jan 4, 2011

bentech said:
hi!! i just bought 6 maingano (baby) to put in my 55 gallons. i ask for 1 male and 5 femeles but the guy theres make a mistake and gave me 3 males and 3 femeles :x . i have alot of rock in my tank so its almost impossible to catch 2 males and return for a exchange. So, should i let 3 males and 3 femeles together in my tank or should i take all the rock out to catch the fish and return it so i can have a 1:5 ratio ?? In the futur, i'd like them to breed. So what is the best solution ??

If they are babies, how do you know they are 3 males and 3 females?? :-?

Maingano males and females look the same, the only way to know sex for sure is to vent them, and they need to get bigger and more mature before that can be done with any reliability. (If they're big enough to be vented, you could have done that before putting them in the tank :thumb: ) What I've found with them is that its easy to identify a dominant male, but hard to tell the difference between subdominant males and females.

Since they are in the tank, I would leave them for a while, observe them, watch for spawning, dominance, fights, stress, etc. And then only remove excess males if (when) they become a problem. If they are small babies, they could live together for about 9-12 months before a big problem occurs. Maybe pick up 6 more juvies to start with, so when all is said and done, you'll hopefully end up with at least 6, maybe 7 females, to go with 1m in a 55g.

Is there anything else in the tank or planned to go in the tank with them? I know of 1 user here a while back that posted pictures of a wild caught breeding group of mainganos that were 8m and 8f, in a single species tank. Don't remember the tank size though, may have been a 75g or a 90g.

Good luck! mainganos are feisty little fish that can go either way. :fish:

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redtop72

· #3 · Jan 4, 2011

They can be nasty little bugers when wanting to spawn. I would definatley pull the males out if breeding is your goal. The more females you have the lower the agression level per female you will have.

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Rhinox

· #4 · Jan 4, 2011

Oh, also forgot to mention. You mentioned your goal is breeding. In order to save fry, you better get used to tearing out all the rockwork and draining half the tank to catch holding females. If you have to catch males to return them, that will probably have to be the process as well.

Just think of it as part of the fun of fishkeeping - a slightly different aquascape each time :thumb:

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bentech

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 4, 2011

Rhinox said:
bentech said:

hi!! i just bought 6 maingano (baby) to put in my 55 gallons. i ask for 1 male and 5 femeles but the guy theres make a mistake and gave me 3 males and 3 femeles :x . i have alot of rock in my tank so its almost impossible to catch 2 males and return for a exchange. So, should i let 3 males and 3 femeles together in my tank or should i take all the rock out to catch the fish and return it so i can have a 1:5 ratio ?? In the futur, i'd like them to breed. So what is the best solution ??

Click to expand...

If they are babies, how do you know they are 3 males and 3 females?? :-?

Maingano males and females look the same, the only way to know sex for sure is to vent them, and they need to get bigger and more mature before that can be done with any reliability. (If they're big enough to be vented, you could have done that before putting them in the tank :thumb: ) What I've found with them is that its easy to identify a dominant male, but hard to tell the difference between subdominant males and females.

Since they are in the tank, I would leave them for a while, observe them, watch for spawning, dominance, fights, stress, etc. And then only remove excess males if (when) they become a problem. If they are small babies, they could live together for about 9-12 months before a big problem occurs. Maybe pick up 6 more juvies to start with, so when all is said and done, you'll hopefully end up with at least 6, maybe 7 females, to go with 1m in a 55g.

Is there anything else in the tank or planned to go in the tank with them? I know of 1 user here a while back that posted pictures of a wild caught breeding group of mainganos that were 8m and 8f, in a single species tank. Don't remember the tank size though, may have been a 75g or a 90g.

Good luck! mainganos are feisty little fish that can go either way. :fish:

femeles have light blue belly and males have a darker blue belly with black stripes. its very easy to see even when their baby.

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bentech

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 4, 2011

i forgot to said that i also have 3 red zebra (baby), 6 yellow lab (baby) and 1 aldult maingano in this tank. the adult maingano is chasing the littles maingano that i bought yesterday. but no sings of injurys for now.

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Kanorin

· #7 · Jan 4, 2011

femeles have light blue belly and males have a darker blue belly with black stripes. its very easy to see even when their baby.

I kept and bred maingano for 2 years and in my experience, this characterization will be correct about 70% of the time. Females can absolutely have a dark belly like males and subdominant males can have lighter bellies.

How large are they right now? Unless they are already over 2 inches, I'd probably add about 6 more that are likely females. Then in a few months I'd vent them and keep 1 male and all of your females.

Edit: I'd also remove the adult maingano. If it's a female adult, she'll likely boss around your young male until he surpasses her in size (which could take a long time). The male is likely to not breed in this scenario. If it's a male adult you could keep him, but your young ones will be chased a lot and possibly stressed.

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bentech

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jan 4, 2011

ok, thank !! vent them ??? what is that ? Also, if i have 4 males and 2 femeles (for exemple), i should keep only 1 male but where i put the 3 others one ??

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