melanochromisauratus

Melanochromis
Auratus

Thank you Cichlid Press and Ad Konings for allowing me to use your pictures.

This is one of the few fish I have seen where the female looks better then the male. Both male and female are the color of the female when small. When they get to about 2.5" to 3" the male will change to this really bland black shade. (this color does get really dark when breeding) This fish is aggressive, but can be in a community tank with other aggressive fish. I had a breeding group of 6 females and 2 males in a 75 gallon community tank. I got these fish from a Online friend in VA. Thanks Tim. I just got a new group of these fish from a local store (Chris and Carol's living world pets, Kennewick, WA) on 08/07/2000, they got them from Wet Thumb Aquatics (see links page).

Tank size: 80 gallon long
Tank Temp: 78 to 82
Tank pH: 8.0
Adult size: 4.5" or 11.0 cm

Breeding information: This is another mouth brooding Cichlid. Average brooding is from 14 to 21 days, this seems to depend on the size of the female and or the number of fry in the batch. My females averaged about 20 fry per batch. The female will protect the fry for about a week after she has released them but then they are on there own and only the smart will survive. Females can have a batch of fry about every 2 to 3 months unless you strip them (see the breeding page for info on stripping) if you strip you can get a batch about every 6 weeks or so. Fry from mouth brooders grow quicker than those of the cave spawners. See the fry page for info on Fry care.

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