Friends for Melanochromis Auratus

[Dale]

Hello --

Thanks to everyone for helping me id my Melanochromis Auratus and all the
advice. I've been working on getting a nice rock structure for the
agressive little buggers to play about in and the ph is finally perfecto.
There were 3, but the older male seems to have decided that one of the
younger fish (which I thought was female) was a male and put an end to him a
few nights ago :(

Anyway - now I've got a 29 US gal tank with just 2 cichlids in it and it
looks a little bare. I saw the general compatability chart
(http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidchart/flashchartd.html - thanks Kim)
but was wondering if anyone had experience or advice on what would work well
with the pair I've already got. Also, is there a way to differentiate the
male and female melanochromis auratus when they are younger? I'd like to
get another 1 or 2, but don't want to accidentally get males.

-Dale

[Roger Sleet]

In article >, -- (Dale) wrote:

> *From:* "Dale" <-->
> *Date:* Tue, 21 Jun 2005 21:42:36 -0400
>
> Hello --
>
> Thanks to everyone for helping me id my Melanochromis Auratus and all
> the advice. I've been working on getting a nice rock structure for the
> agressive little buggers to play about in and the ph is finally
> perfecto. There were 3, but the older male seems to have decided that
> one of the younger fish (which I thought was female) was a male and put
> an end to him a few nights ago :(
>
> Anyway - now I've got a 29 US gal tank with just 2 cichlids in it and
> it looks a little bare. I saw the general compatability chart
> (http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidchart/flashchartd.html - thanks
> Kim) but was wondering if anyone had experience or advice on what would
> work well with the pair I've already got. Also, is there a way to
> differentiate the male and female melanochromis auratus when they are
> younger? I'd like to get another 1 or 2, but don't want to
> accidentally get males.

Melanochromis don't have friends - their classify other fish as "victims"
and "enemies" :-)

You need to make sure the tank is crowded. Anything that will stand up to
the Melanochromis is likely to be just as aggressive. Crowding the tanks
tends to give the fish that is suffering most a chance to get away.

Roger Sleet
Roger's Aquatic Pages http://www.sleet.plus.com

[NetMax]

"Dale" <--> wrote in message ...
> Hello --
>
> Thanks to everyone for helping me id my Melanochromis Auratus and all the
> advice. I've been working on getting a nice rock structure for the
> agressive little buggers to play about in and the ph is finally perfecto.
> There were 3, but the older male seems to have decided that one of the
> younger fish (which I thought was female) was a male and put an end to him
> a few nights ago :(
>
> Anyway - now I've got a 29 US gal tank with just 2 cichlids in it and it
> looks a little bare. I saw the general compatability chart
> (http://www.cichlidrecipe.com/cichlidchart/flashchartd.html - thanks Kim)
> but was wondering if anyone had experience or advice on what would work
> well with the pair I've already got.

I don't think a 29g would hold anything but the two most compatable
M.auratus, and then you will have to deal with fry (which works ok for a
while). Assuming they are not a happy couple (or 2 males), then you'll
likely find yourself with one fish eventually. The trouble is that their
territorial range is not much smaller than the entire tank.

> Also, is there a way to differentiate the male and female melanochromis
> auratus when they are younger? I'd like to get another 1 or 2, but don't
> want to accidentally get males.

AFAIK, as juveniles, they are not distiquishable by external
characteristics. There is a chance that they have a different ray count,
but I've never seen ray counts, scale counts etc published for African
cichlids.
--
www.NetMax.tk

> -Dale