[Dewdrop]

So the trouble is starting. I can't say I wasn't warned. I have to many aggressive species in a 55g. tank.

I just found one of the 2 female albino autatus dead. I think the male killed her. He's acting pretty crazy & mean and chasing almost all the fish so I pulled him out tonight. I really liked the looks of these fish and was hoping to keep them in a bigger tank and even kinda wanting to breed them. Now I don't know what to do but he's out of the main tank until I decide. I just measured her & she's 3.75" a real beauty.

I have to admit I'm kinda upset about loosing her but just as upset at the male going crazy. I knew this could happen and so I was prepared for it somewhat mentally lol. Our Kim has said she's tried auraus before and they just aren't worth the trouble but I was really hoping that I'd get lucky with the albino ones. Even my regular auratus isn't that bad. I had 3 of them also and they all turned out to be males. I thought I got lucky with the albinos being one male and 2 females. Was thinking it was a pretty good M.-F. ratio considering I only bought 3. When the reg. auratus turned male color, one picked on another and nipped his tail pretty bad so I took the nipped one out and returned it to the LFS. The 2 remaining males are getting along ok now even without any females. This is probably temporary though lol. I have 3 new tiny reg. ones in a 10g. grow out tank hoping for females. With my luck on them I should have got a dozen lol.

I'm even wandering now about keeping any auratus.

Oh well, time to get a bigger tank and do some rearranging of fish. I've really enjoyed this tank of fish. The mixture is beautiful and all in all it's been pretty peaceful until now. It's so true that just because an unlikely grouping of fish are getting along for some time doesn't mean they will in the long run. When they mature they change. My tank is about a year old.

Hope this is of help to someone that's pushing their luck like I did lol. If I decide to try to keep albino auratus for breeding it will probably be in a 40g. species only tank with plenty of females. If not I think I will keep my sole female albino maybe in an all female tank. I've been considering one of those. With the fish I have like the auratus the females are prettier than the males. Has anyone else ever tried this? All female tank.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Dewdrop, if you try putting auratus in a 40G tank to breed, you can kiss the female goodbye.

With some male auratus, you can't buy enough females...

My husband loved them, had to have them, and for 2 or 3 years, we kept them. I had plenty of tanks and moved them around I don't know how many times, trying to find a "happy place". There wasn't one.

I started out with a male and two females. One female was killed about a month in. The other female was so stressed that I had to remove her for awhile.

I finally had the bright idea to put them in a single species tank with more females...A 55G, 4 ft tank. Got up on a Saturday morning in the dead of winter with a really bad snowstorm going on and drove 45 minutes to pick up adult female auratus...We brought 4 home for him, and put the 6 of them in the 55G with tons of caves and fake plants. He killed every one of the new females within a week, leaving the original girl we got with him as our only female.

I then threw some more equally aggressive species in the tank with them and told my husband that once he killed that last female, it was over with auratus.

He killed my favourite male interruptus (lesson number one on NOT housing two Melanochromis in a 4 ft tank :lol: ) and he wouldn't let any other species in the tank spawn, but for two years, he spawned with that single female auratus once a month...THEN he killed her. :roll:

Honestly, I think she spawned with him just so we'd take her out of the tank and put her in a 10G of her own...She literally got to the point where she'd swim right into the net.

 

[Cardiff]

interesting read, sorry to hear about that but like you said we all can learn from it

 

[Afishionado]

Dewdrop, sorry for your troubles, but it's good of you to share your experience for others' sake. Some people would be more concerned about admitting to a mistake than about helping others learn from it. :thumb: No matter how long we're in the hobby we'll always be learning.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Dewdrop, sorry for your troubles, but it's good of you to share your experience for others' sake. Some people would be more concerned about admitting to a mistake than about helping others learn from it. :thumb: No matter how long we're in the hobby we'll always be learning.

I agree 100%.

 

[rosemerry]

I had an auratus but I just sold it to the lfs for store credit. It didn't seem to be picking on my other fish which was a salvini and a arowana (also sold back to the lfs for store credit). I have a firemouth cichlid and my salvini.

With these stories I'm glad I don't have the auratus anymore.

 

[Dewdrop]

Awww thanks y'all for understanding where I'm coming from telling this and for not just saying "I told ya so" lol. It really has been a learning experience, and for me, experience is a good teacher. I won't say the best teacher lol I could have listened to the advice I got here but now I "KNOW" instead of "believe". Maybe others aren't as hard headed as I am and can learn from others mistakes lol.

Kim, what was I thinking when I said if I decide to keep autatus it will be in a 40g. breeder tank???? I know better than that! Real aggressive species shouldn't be kept in anything less than a 75g. tank. Guess I was a little upset and NOT thinking. I knew you had kept auratus before because they were your hubby's fav. (same with me, although my hubby is starting to really like the big male red zebra...he says it's an %#@** like him :roll: ). Anyway thank you for telling the story and sharing your experience with them. That helps alot and is greatly appreciated.

Another note.... I watch my fish a good bit because I knew trouble could start and thought I could catch it. I've learned that unless you don't take your eyes off them, that's not good enough in a high risk tank. I have caught a couple potential problems and nipped it in the bud but this happened so fast and out of the blue.

 

[cichlidaholic]

Kim, what was I thinking when I said if I decide to keep autatus it will be in a 40g. breeder tank????

Come on, now...I have a hard enough time covering my own thoughts, I can't take on yours, too. :lol:

We can all be stubborn at times. As long as we're aware of what we're up against and ready to make the necessary changes, it's not always a bad thing. It's always possible to run up on a fish that has different behaviour from the norm. IME, it's more likely with cichlids to run across one that's worse than you've been warned! :roll:

But, I think we can all really appreciate it when someone comes on here and says "oops"! :thumb:

I may be doing the same thing soon with my Cynotilapia/Msobo mix! :lol: