# Breeding Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos 'maingano'



## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

Hey guys i was wondering if i could get a few tips to get my mainganos to breed.

i want to know about where have other maingano owners fish have spawned and in what water peramiters and temperature and size of tank.

Just any ideas on how to help these fish breed and give them good chances would be muchly appreciated 

Thanks, Andrew


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I don't think you'll have any problem with them spawning as long as you have males and females. They were the first fish to spawn for me and haven't stopped :lol: . As for the water pm's and temp....I could only give sloppy estimates as to mine so the "norm" is fine. 
I do find that if I skip a water change then do a large one, with the water temp a teeny tad cooler than the tank, it usually brings on spawning. Also when refilling the water, pour it over your hand or a plate or something to make the water sprinkle like rain over the surface of the tank water. I had read to do it this way to simulate a drought and rainy season that happens in nature to induce spawning. Maybe coincidence but it does work for me usually. Time is the main thing. When they are old enough and ready, they will breed. Good luck. :wink:


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## kodyboy (Dec 9, 2007)

same with me, my cyaneohabdos breed all the time with no special treatment at all, besides keeping them in a large group (9) and having lots of hiding places for fry.


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## elgu3ro88 (Dec 16, 2008)

if ur having problems breeding raising the water temperature may help or try not feeding them for a day and see what happens.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

Tell us a bit more about your setup.
How big are they?
How long have they been in the tank?
How many males/females?

My male came of breeding age only about 2 months ago and now I have over 60 fry! Not doing anything out of the ordinary for them.


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

hey guys, iv only had this tank for about 4 weeks.. and i just put in a few rocks a few days ago and made lots of caves and it looks great. my tank is a 3 foot i know its a bit small but iv got lots of caves and the tank is wider than usuall standard 3 foot tanks.

my ph is around 8.6 id say and temperature is around 25-28.. 28 in the day and bout 27 ish at night.. i let it fluctuate a little.. i dont know it feels like what would happen in the wildd so i thought id do it to my tank,

i have 3 of them at the moment, i got one from my Lfs but it dies a few days ago because it was really skinny and wouldnt eat much. but getting them isnt a problem for me because i pretty much work at the store.. i just help out and i get free stuff :thumb: im planning to keep around 6 of them. 2 males and 4 females.

the problem is i cant really tell what sex they are  i have one that is 2.5' and the other two are around 2' maybe a little more.

other tank mates are 3 baby convicts, not even an inch big. and 4 yellow labs. all around the 1.5' mark.

yellow labs and mainganos have been in the tank for about 3 weeks.

Thanks, Andrew


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Was this tank cycled before you added the fish?

The convicts aren't going to work in this set up. Once they pair off, you won't have anything spawning in the tank other than them. They really don't belong with mbuna at all, especially in a 3 foot tank.

Mbuna are easy to breed, but as long as your stocking isn't right, you may not see any fry.

The yellow labs and maingano _might_ be okay in this size tank, although you may do better with only one species. Melanochromis are well known for aggression issues, and although I don't find the mainganos to be too bad, I've never tried to confine them to a smaller tank like this, so you may need to make some changes.


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## joker4466 (Oct 10, 2008)

i have a group of 7,2m/5f in a 65g.36''x18''x24''.there in there with 9 nkhata bay white labs and a yellow tail acie pair.i ran the tank for a week with old HOB and sponge filters and then added the fish groups in 2 day intervals.the day after putting the mainganos group in i had a female holding.if your ratio is good then you won't have a problem breeding them imo.

on a side question.why have the ph so high?and whats the ph of the lfs where you got the fish?that may be something that can kill the fish.i don't test my water very much at all.i use aragonite and holey rock as a buffer to keep it up and do regular water changes and i ve had no problems so far.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

I agree with Cichlidaholic. 3 foot tank might be a little too cramped for the maingano, but you can try it out and watch them closely for excess aggression.

If you do want to go ahead and try out the maingano in this tank, DO NOT plan on keeping 2 males - one or both will be killed.

Mainganos are pretty tough to sex without venting them, but I've gotten pretty good at it and can tell about 75% of the time. I have 5 of them and before venting I thought I had 2 male 3 female, but my "subdominant male" was actually an alpha female, so I have 1m 4f.

Males tend to have dark blue-black bellies, darker face, a dark blue-black outline on their pelvic and anal fins, and elongated pelvic fins. 
Females tend to have lighter blue bellies (often with a shade of darker blue but not as dark as males), lighter blue face, and less pronounced/lighter blue outlines on pelvic and anal fins.

But this will only give you an educated guess and help you pick out likely females at the store. Vent them to be sure.


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

im finding it really hard to tell what sex my mainganos are.

any tips? or any good explanations on how to vent my cichlids?

Andrew


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## Europa (Nov 12, 2008)

Hello,
I am new to cichlids here too, I set up my tank in Nov with 9>2.0 inch juvies not sexed. I have just had one female spit....so cute!!!! =D> I have another holding. My water is PH 7.8, water temp around 78F. I have not really had any problems sexing them, my males always turn really dark, with longer pelvic fins and my females are lighter until they are holding. I have turned 3 of my fish into the LFS because they were male easy to see with them being really dark and aggression was beginning to be a problem lol. But for now I am soooo happy :dancing: with having new ones at least 9, they are hiding in a fry rock pile in their own 29 gal. Since I am new, I have questions also but will not hijack this post. HTH.


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

oooo!! my mainganos keep doing the spawning action.. but then they stop like 5 seconds after.. i think they're gonna breed sometime soon! 










im getting a 5ftx1.5ft(i think)x1ft soon. i might set up this tank as a breeder as it has good surface area nd it will be alot easier to maintain because im not gona put much gravel it it. and im just gona divide it.. like take 1 foot to put fry in


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

I have two maingano, I beleive that they are male and female. One of them has a much lighter belly then the other. My question is when they spawn what do they do? I mean I noticed they were in a "lip lock" today, is this normal, also watching them now I see that he is keeping her chased a way, she is hiding behind the powerhead on the UGF. Should I seperate them or is this normal for them to act this way?

I have them in a 55 gal with five other fish. I do have other tanks I could move them to, but I would have to set one up. If I have to seperate them I have two 55's with cichlids in them. I could transfer one, if they need a tank of their own the best I could do right now is a 20 long.

Oh, I forgot to tell you they would be about three inches long.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

Andy000 said:


> im finding it really hard to tell what sex my mainganos are.
> 
> any tips? or any good explanations on how to vent my cichlids?
> 
> Andrew


I have a dark female maingano who I originally thought was a male. I vented her, took a picture of the underbelly, and posted it in this thread.. That's what a female's vent looks like at about 3 inches. I don't have a picture of a male maingano vent.

Also, I found this article to be helpful to learn how to vent mbuna.

Hope that helps!


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

PaulaM, I would suggest you get at least 2 more females for the male. She really sounds stressed right now and you might end up loosing her if you don't add more females or seperate them. A 20g. long tank will work for a little while but I wouldn't want it to be permanent.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

PaulaM said:


> I have two maingano, I beleive that they are male and female. One of them has a much lighter belly then the other. My question is when they spawn what do they do? I mean I noticed they were in a "lip lock" today, is this normal, also watching them now I see that he is keeping her chased a way, she is hiding behind the powerhead on the UGF. Should I seperate them or is this normal for them to act this way?


PaulaM,
Those are signs that things are _not_ normal. If they were in a lip-lock fight you might even have two males. The one that is hiding behind the powerhead is obviously stressed and if conditions aren't changed soon, you'll be increasing the risk for disease and/or death.

Agree with Dewdrop - At minimum keep 3 females with a male. I keep my male with 4 females - it spreads the aggression better.


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## co2+o2 (Mar 22, 2006)

> on a side question.why have the ph so high?


8.6 isn't super high for malawi...


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

Dewdrop,

I have been looking around for some more. I live in a small town and it is hard to find cichlids. Next time I make it to Eldora I will see what I can find. There is a store and he knows his cichlids. I am working on a fish room, when I get it going then I will get a 125 for my living room until then I am cramped for space with all the tanks I have in here.

Kanorin,

I will seperate them for now. I know that with the Jack Dempsie's the male will be agressive with the female, I did not know if it was the same with these. This is a temp. arrangement, like I said above I am working on another setup. Things are not moving as fast as I would like. Now I am waiting for the electrictions to get here so they can change my service to a 200amp, then I will start with setting things up. I do not want to have alot of stuff in their way. I have gotten just about everything I need....tankless hotwater heater, sink, wood, and some tanks already. But again I want to stay out of their way until they are finished.

Thank you for you insight. I would hate to loose any of my fish. If I do have two males I am going to have to rehome one of them.


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

alright, I am going to see if I can do this, I tired to vent them...after looking at the web site, I have never done this before. But it looked like the one that I thought was a male is a female, and vise versa.

I tried to take pics to post, but they were blury or they reflected the flash right where I wanted to get the pic of.

I was going to post pictures of the fish I am talking about, but do not understand how to do it. I do not know of any sites that I can upload the pics to.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Enroll in a free hosting site like www.photobucket.com. Upload your photo. Under the photo will be a bunch of links. Click on the one that says "img". You will see the word "Copied" flash by.

Position your cursor in the Cichlid-forum reply. Click Ctrl-V to paste in the img link. You will not see a pic but a link.

Scroll down under the Cichlid-forum reply and click on "Preview". If you see the pic then hit "Submit".


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

alright, lets try this 

















Alright, it worked...From the looks though the pics are HUGE :-? I am still learning


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

Thank you DJ


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

my mainganos still havnt spawned..  but on the upside my yellow labs did


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

Paula, did you get any pictures of their underbellies? Can't tell from these picture male or female.


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

I tried to, first they were really blurry, the next time they reflected the flash off of right where I was trying to get the pic.

I decided to get those, and give them a break, I figured I had them pretty stressed. I will try again when I have some help.


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

Andy000, after seeing the size of your maingano, they might be a little to young to breed yet. I don't think mine bred until they were at 3". Congrats on the yellow lab fry :thumb: You're doing something right :lol: Just keep feeding those mainganos and keep their water clean. You'll have fry from them too eventually, I bet.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

One of my yellow labs first held at about 2 inches, but my maingano didn't breed until about 3 inches - seems like Dewdrop experienced the same thing. Be patient. :wink:


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

yeah.. i did a 50% water change today, and i moved around the rocks in my tank and the fish seem to be getting along alot better then they used to.. and my mainganos appear more interested in eachother.

so im hoping for the best soon


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I have a batch of juvie maingano right now (some of my fry) that are a little over 2 inches. They sort of go through the motions of breeding but aren't actually doing it yet (no eggs involved). The first couple times they hold they might swallow the eggs too but eventually they get it right.


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

wooo  i found one of my mainganos holding finally!

eggs must be younger then 1 week old im guessing. so il keep an eye on her and see how she goes.

Andy


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

congrats!

Has she not been eating for a week? That's the easiest way to tell.


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## Andy000 (Mar 9, 2007)

yeah thats the thing i never really watched her to see if she was eating or not. because i have 6 mainganos in a 3 ft tank with a few other fish and i dint bother to see what was happening. but i did a water change and a bit of a clean and thats when i noticed it.

but i know for sure that she wasnt holding last week because i checked. the eggs may only be a couple days old.

Andy


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## PaulaM (Mar 3, 2009)

I had my first lemon holding, I got her out of the tank, since I have had a sp44 holding, and I let her spit. Now I have three more holding.

How do you check to see "how far along" she is?


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## Sir Syklyd (Jun 19, 2004)

Well, I must admit that I am totally baffled . . . and surprised. Yesterday, June 15th, I exercised some compassion and removed the two persecuted male Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos from my main tank. This now leaves two Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos in the four foot main tank, and each fish has established its territory on opposite ends of the tank. Whenever the dominant male tries to invade the territory of the other, he is immediately shooed away.

Based on this aggressive behavior between these two fish, plus the fact that during the past few weeks, the second fish has been building a sand pit right outside of its lair beneath the rocks -- to attract a female, I imagine -- I had assumed that it was a male -- that is, until yesterday.

Well, surprise of surprises! After putting all of the rocks back into the aquarium -- taking about half of them out was necessary in order to remove the other two males -- I noticed something which left me dumbfounded -- the other "male" now appears to be incubating eggs in its mouth! Just like my other young female, its throat is bulging, and it is making the typical chewing motion as it rotates the eggs. In typical female fashion, it has withdrawn into its lair, and occasionally pokes its head out of one of the entrances.

Yesterday evening, after making my discovery, I wondered if perhaps the fish was just chewing on some sand, sifting out any food particles in it, and not really holding eggs; so, I dropped in an algae pellet to see how it would react. Well, this morning, the pellet is still there, uneaten, and it is still munching on something -- most likely eggs.

As I said, this development really caught me by surprise, and I am now wondering if the dominant male fertilized the eggs while I wasn't watching, or if the assumed "female" is trying to incubate unfertilized eggs. I suppose that I will find out soon enough.

If this is indeed a "female", then it would be another clear confirmation that these are indeed Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos, and not Melanochromis Johanni, as I had earlier assumed. At the first opportunity, I am going to closely compare the colors and body markings of these two fish in order to determine any significant differences between them. The one obvious difference is that this new-found "female" is a lighter blue than the dominant male.

The smaller female that is currently incubating its eggs in another tank is also a much lighter color than the dominant male. The fact that neither of these two fish is yellow, is also an indication that they are Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos, and not Melanochromis Johanni.

Speaking of the other female, today marks sixteen days since she spawned. She is getting awfully thin, and it really generates admiration to see a creature that is willing to go so long without eating for the sake of her young. I imagine that within a week, or less, I will get my first glimpse of her fry. I plan on removing her just as soon as she spits them out, as I hope to save as many of the little guys as possible.


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## Sir Syklyd (Jun 19, 2004)

Yesterday, June 17th, was a very interesting day here in "Malawi Cichlidland".

As I mentioned in a previous post, due to extreme aggression by the dominant male, I removed two other male Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos from the main tank. This left the dominant male, as well as the "surprise female" -- which has now been incubating her eggs for two days -- alone in the tank.

Well, yesterday afternoon, I discovered that the male was really bullying the female underneath the rocks in the tank. I mean this was continuous, serious sparring with locked jaws and all. I imagine that he wanted to mate again, but she didn't want to have anything to do with him.

I was fearful that the female might lose her eggs due to the stress and the mouth-to-mouth fighting; so, I set up another small tank next to my other female -- which has also been incubating her eggs for seventeen days now.

I wanted to get the "damsel in distress" out of the tank as quickly as possible, before she lost her eggs, and I got some unexpected help from the dominant male. I usually use two nets together in order to catch fish, but the female wasn't too eager to come out from under her rock -- but then the male came along and chased her out for me.

I made another happy discovery while I was setting up the second small tank for this badgered female. To my surprise, even though it was only day #17, the first female had already released at least one of her fry. I only saw one, and it was free-swimming already, and it looked rather large for a fry, at least to me. There may be other free-swimmers, but I didn't see them. The one that I did see quickly dashed into a small crack between a rock and the sand substrate. He seemed like a really spunky fellow.

So I decided to test the female to see if she was ready yet to release the rest of her fry, by putting an algae tablet in her brooding tank to tempt her. While she nibbled on it a bit, apparently she isn't ready yet to release the rest of her fry, as I can still see a bulge in her throat. Perhaps today she will release the rest of them. She is awfully thin and pale looking, and I want to nurse her back to health as soon as possible.

So, for now, I have two brooding females in two small tanks, two males in two twenty gallon tanks, and the dominant male alone in the forty gallon tank. It serves him right for being such a bully to everyone!


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## Sir Syklyd (Jun 19, 2004)

It's only been about eight hours since I made my last post, and as I expected, the inevitable has happened. I just woke up a short while ago; and as is my daily routine, the first thing that I did -- even before making my morning cup of hot Lipton's tea -- was to turn on all of the aquarium lights. As I did so, I noticed that female number one had released more fry. I am still not sure of the total number, but she was spitting out a few, and then scooping them back up in her mouth.

One thing I noticed is that it appears that their egg sacs are already gone, so these guys are ready for solid food.

I am debating how much longer to leave the mother in there with them. She seems like a good mother, and I don't think that she is interested in eating them.


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## Kanorin (Apr 8, 2008)

She might be a good mother, but she might also be pretty hungry after 3 weeks of no food.

If you can isolate her from her babies and catch her, I'd do that. There will be a point when she starts eating them.


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## Sir Syklyd (Jun 19, 2004)

Well, I just removed female number one from her brooding tank, and placed her back in the main tank with the dominant male. Of course, I feel sorry for her, because he is already chasing her around, and she hasn't had a chance to eat properly or regain her strength and vitality yet. She is panting heavily due to his unwanted advances. I am really worried for her, but I had no other place to put her.

After removing female number one, I carefully removed the rocks from the brooding tank. Upon doing so, I discovered five live fry, as well as three dead ones. I don't know why, but during the next half hour or so while I was taking some pics of female number one, two more of the fry died. So, realizing that something was wrong, I decided to leave them to their fate and placed them in the main tank. There is a lot of rock coverage there, so perhaps they will survive. We shall see.

At this point, considering my discovery a few days ago of a female which I supposed was a male -- female number two -- I am now wondering about the other two assumed sub-dominant males that I have in the two twenty-gallon tanks. In the few days that they have been in their tanks, they have dug sand pits under their rocks, but they rarely come out, and they haven't eaten much either.

I am beginning to form the opinion that in spite of the aggression by the dominant male, these five fish may just do better altogether in the main four-foot tank.

Female number two is still in her brooding tank, and is now on day three of her incubation period.


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## Sir Syklyd (Jun 19, 2004)

Well, I just wasn't happy with the way things were going. With only the dominant male in the four-foot main tank, and nothing going on, it was boring to say the least.

The other two assumed males in their twenty-gallon tanks were doing nothing but hiding in their sand pits under their rocks; so much so that I never even saw them come out to eat at any hour of the day.

As I explained in my last post, after she released her fry, I had no place to put female number one but back in the main tank, which was extremely stressful for her.

To top it off, this morning it looked like female number two was no longer holding any eggs, or at least very few, if at all. That may possibly confirm my theory that the eggs were never fertilized.

In short, by dividing up the fish into five different tanks in order to escape the aggression of the dominant male, I had broken their social structure, and ended up with nothing interesting to watch, and the fish just weren't acting naturally.

So, I just spent the first half of the day redesigning part of the main tank, adding even more tunnels and caves on top of the already-established base rocks. The base rocks themselves all sit on top of smaller support rocks, so that there is space along most of the length of the tank, between the sandy substrate and the base rocks.

But talk about a work in vanity! My dominant male, "Bully Boy", must have a special homing device, because that tyrant has already figured out the entire new tunnel and cave system, and is back to chasing the other four fish, and there is a lot of fleeing and panting going on...but at least it is interesting...and there are plenty more hiding places. 

I think female number one will be okay, because now Bully Boy's aggression is dispersed amongst four fish, and they all get an even dose of his wrath.

As far as the remaining three fry are concerned, I haven't caught sight of them. They could be hiding, but considering what happened to the other five, I am assuming that they either died, or were eaten by now.


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