Breeding Auratus

[JohnRossDele]

Although extremely colorful and widely available, M. auratus is not a good choice for the novice at keeping Malawi cichlids. Males are extremely aggressive and the dominant one will try to kill any other males of its species, as well as females if they are not in spawning condition or are not provided with adequate hiding places. Only one male should be kept per aquarium, and at least three or, preferably, four or five females provided.
To be kept successfully, at least a 55 gallon aquarium well provided with rocks or other cover is advisable



Quote from a cichlid forum article on the fish. Do some research JRD!

Name: Melanochromis auratus Size Tank pH Temp
10cm 100 L 8.1 27°C
Origin: Lake Malawi (Africa)

this was from http/www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_auratus.php

 

[The young one]

Are you just naming every cichlid in your shop now? All of those cichlids require different things. Pleeeeaaaassseee do some research.

 

[Curiosity101]

They are very agressive and take on much larger fish than themselves. I had a male with 4 females in my tank and after about 2 weeks only 2 females were left after his vicious attacks.

A quote from the same page you lifted that quote from...

 

[indigoj]

here's a suggestion - why don't you 1) cycle the tank, 2) RESEARCH (while the tank cycles) - do some reading - use google, yahoo etc and at least try to do some leg work yourself.

you are unlikely to make money breeding fish, if you are very very lucky you may just break even.

 

[Curiosity101]

Personally I'd go for something like galaxy rasbora if you want to breed something. I'd divide the 100l tank into two, keep the adults in one side of the tank and then move them across to the other side when they're ready to spawn.
Let them spawn, remove the adults back to the 'adult' side and then raise the fry.
These little fish will give you a reasonable return. BUT, I agree with Indigo that you still aren't likely to do more than break even.

 

[dthoffsett]

Peacock Cichlids
Yellow Labs
Jacobfreibergi
Steveni tigress
Venustus
Clown Afra
Fulleborni OB
Red Kangado
Socolofi
Electric Blue hap
Red empress
H.moori
Arautus
Zebra Albino
Zebra - OB cape maClear
Zebra - red top greshakei
Electric blue johanni
Parrot Cichlids £20
Severum green & gold £5 - red spot £14
Frontosa £12
Assorted African Cichlids .med. £10.50
Assorted Peacock Cichlids .lrg. £15

I can tell you for certain that all of the species above are NOT suitable for your tank. All of them require 55gal or larger, even kept individually. All of the African cichlids listed are harem breeders, this means 1 male breeds with as many females as possible, so if kept in pairs the male will eventually kill the female. I'm not sure of the breeding habits of the severums or parrots, however, I do know that both of them grow too large for a 26gal tank.

If your tank is at least 18" tall you could breed the Gold marble angelfish £4.

And I'm not sure but I think you could breed Ram - long finned blue £5 in your tank, I'd check w/the New World section first.

Regardless of what you choose to breed, you will need multiple grow out tanks to get the fry to a sellable size.

 

[doktor doris]

Iam saying nothing!

doris

 

[JohnRossDele]

right right right, i am settling on either kribs or dwarf flag fish!

all last night i stayed up and went over all the threads i made about cichlid breeding and i am now quiet clear that i know i should listen, so as indigoj said i will deffo research in future and also I am know starting to go over my threads at least twice so from now on no saying I dont listen to comments and that i should research because from this very moment i am now doing all of that!!

 

[indigoj]

I hope you mean it!

Have you started to cycle that tank yet? I'd strongly advise you don't buy any fish now until you have the tank ready.

 

[JohnRossDele]

I hope you mean it!

Have you started to cycle that tank yet? I'd strongly advise you don't buy any fish now until you have the tank ready.

yep, i do mean it, ok i wont buy any fish until the cycle is done

 

[The young one]

Ah ha he's gunna actually cycle the tank. Good start.

 

[JohnRossDele]

Ah ha he's gunna actually cycle the tank. Good start.

i never said i wasnt gonna start it

 

[The young one]

It's just you don't research much so i wondered if you knew about cycling. Didn't say you weren't gunna start it.

 

[JohnRossDele]

It's just you don't research much so i wondered if you knew about cycling. Didn't say you weren't gunna start it.

duh i kno how to cycle

 

[The young one]

That's good then. We don't want any dead fish do we. Doesn't your lfs sell kribs?