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Hi

I have 3 auratus in my fish tank but I observed that one of the fish's black stripes are more pale than the other 2. I have tried colour enhancing food as well as live daphnia but nothing seems to darken the black stripes. Any advice?

Myc

Mychael ~ Welcome to FP, hope to see more of you on the boards ~
Prolly he is the one that is not as dominant. Since colouring up is showing dominance he is saying "you da man" to the others.

I have an auratus that was really dark in colour. I added more stock to my setup (no other auratus tho') & he has gone pale. Has not gone into hiding in the rocks or anything just less showy in colouring. Showing he is no threat to the others.

You may find you have 2 males and 1 female.
Perhaps one male is paired with the female and second male doesn't want to muscle in on the lovers making goo goo eyes.

Having lots of females may not solve it and it is too difficult for my level to sex auratus... maybe you are more skilled.

What do others think?

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Sexing is easy once the fish become mature. The males will be black with white lines and the females stay yellow with black lines. You fish may be starting to mature into a male. Here is the link to the profile;
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/536.htm
The pic in the profile is of a female, and all fry are born colored up like the female. Only when they start becoming males do they start to change. If they stay yellow, then they are females. If you click on the "more photos" link, you will see a male and his colorings.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Thanks that makes sense.

While the link below is to a site in Lithuania (and unless you happen to speak the language, the text will therefore be indecipherable!) it DOES feature a photo of a male and female Melanochromis auratus next to each other for ewasy comparison.

Assorted Cichlids Photos Including melanochromis auratus

As stated above, all juvenile fishes begin life with the 'female' golden colouration, and males adopt the much darker colouration as they mature. There are other Melanochromis and Pseudotropheus species whose males are similar, one example I can think of immediately being Pseudotropheus fuscus. Therefore, mixing of these species with lookalike males should be avoided in all but the largest aquarium setups, and even then provision should be made to rehouse losers in any battles that break out should the attempt to house them together fail. Failure is more likely than success in these instances, even in a spacious aquarium, unless the water volume available (and the acreage of rockwork that the fishes have to colonise in the aquarium) is truly colossal. Unless you have access to a 1,000 gallon setup or larger, it's best to avoid mixing species with lookalike males altogether, and even in a setup as gigantic as that, with territory to spare for each of the fishes, internecine warfare could still break out.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002