# Auratus success stories



## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

Hi all, I thought it would be nice if we took a break from the "Auratus Horror Stories" and talked about the successful ones  At, least, I like how they look!

Ill start off first.It may not be a "total" sucess, but no mass killings nontheless.

It was this LFS. They had a variety of fish, and nice anubias, where I would usually buy one whenever I went there   But there was this one tank. It was 3 feet long, and very narrow, the kind of tank sometimes used as a decoration, but not very practical when keeing most fish. Heck, it's not good for Malawians at all! Anyway, in that tank they had a variety of Malawians, I'm guessing around 20, including lots of auratus, both male and female. The tank's boss was of course the auratus(No crabo around here, and since they're rare, they actually command a fair price) but I was amazed that the fish were all quite healthy, and not much aggresion at all. The tank wasn't decorated much either, two dried sea fan branches "dividing" the tank into 3 and providing most of the hiding places. I noticed that several of the female auratus were there. And on closer observation, they were holding! A closer look told me that they were now fry! So I told the lady, and she said nice, but I don't know what to do. So I caught like 5 females, and stripped them, which made some 60+ fry, which were quite large. Although the store eventually closed down, the parents and the fry did well.

Whew! a bit long, but that's my experience. Actually, I was at first amazed that auratus bad such a feresome reputation; over here in Korea there are some truly crazy fish mixes(One being angels and buttikoferi , and altum angels and altolamprologus! Which doesn't mean I advocate them of course :lol: ) and there aren't many aggresion reports.

It would be nice to hear you experiences too  The auratus would be almost perfect if they weren't so aggresive!


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## RBeneveds (Dec 17, 2008)

Not sure if it is a success story or not but never the less my Auratus story... I have said before that I started my cichlid love with the usual LFS cichlids. So that means, I have pretty much have all " DEATH ROW INMATES " ( see sig below ) minus 1 or 2.. I have had most of them for right at a year in the same tank (55gl) and for the most part they get along and the tank stays calm. Sometime last February My wife came home with 2 Auratus (sweet of her i thought ) with their pretty stripes. After a few months they started to change to their darker adult colors, not long after I was down to just 1. I learned that having 1 Auratus was 1 thing but 2 in 55gl, not a good idea at all. He is now about 3 inches and can be quite mean at times and has spent a day or 2 or 3 or 4 in timeout or the "HOLE" as I like to call it:wink: . This is just a mesh fry cage that I put the troublesome ones in that stays in the main tank so I never need to be reintroduced them when they are return to "general population". For the most part though he gets along with the rest. I'm not sure if that is because some of the others can be just as mean or if it's the fact that I have lots of stacked stone so there are lots of places to hide.  I'm sure that someday I will need to find another home for some or bigger tank but for now they are just fine. Also I have a bumblebee (LFS inmate again) in the same tank. He is amazing to watch. I have seen him, in just seconds, change from light yellow, to dark black then to yellow with dark black stripes. He has his rock and tends to stay in that area and defend when needed. Please let me say by using all the prision terms I'm not saying that my tank is a rough place for them to live, it's not. Just that most of my fish are known to be on the more aggressive side though for now, mine aren't......... for now!


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

i love the look of the female aurutus as well...wish i had a success story out of the 5 or 6 times i tried to house them


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

steelers fan said:


> i love the look of the female aurutus as well...wish i had a success story out of the 5 or 6 times i tried to house them


Yes, me too. hHey do have a solid color combination, and the tank's dominant male and female are spectacular! A bit different from crabo I believe 

Sigh...I really do love them auratus....Anyone else with success?? :dancing:


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

I'd love to see this thread keep going with positive stories.

Especially unqualified short stories, like: I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems.

Fantastic looking fish, but I've never even considered stocking them.

kevin


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

well the first story seems like a species only, the bigger issue i think with these fish is that they need slightly larger tanks and many females, so a 125 and 7 females would be well within what i have seen suggested for these fish to increase success


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## lmhollist (Aug 7, 2009)

This is a great thread! It's nice to not have to read horror stories about auratus for once.

I'm still trying to get a group of auratus going (there are only unsexed juvies around here and only at the big box stores) but haven't had much luck getting enough females. So far, I've only managed to get one female out of the four auratus I have. *sigh*

Oh well, these positive stories keep me inspired to keep on looking! I'm thinking about ordering online because then I should be able to find large enough females that should survive the amours/terrorizing of my full-grown male.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

ridley25 said:


> I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems


Now people will mis-read this and think you did. :wink:

For me reading cichlidaholic's posts having kept them with quasi-success over the course of a number of years, and then Fogelhund's tank (stocked with auratus and other aggressive mbuna, only to remove them as more trouble than they were worth due to aggression)...enough for me. I can learn from others and don't need to experience things likely to end poorly. :lol:


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

DJRansome said:


> ridley25 said:
> 
> 
> > I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems
> ...


I know. But I blame the fact that Internet acronyms have degraded our language so much that regular sentence structures are misunderstood!

kevin


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

DJRansome said:


> ridley25 said:
> 
> 
> > I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems
> ...


I see. Really a shame, because there aren't saulosi here, and these are the closest possible substitudes there are  Still, the auratus have certain charm....I think the fact that they are hardy when they aren't killing each other! :lol: The colors too.....


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## rollin75 (Apr 4, 2009)

I have housed one from when it was 1" and now she is about 5" and perfect in my tank. I got 40 fish including one 6" bubblebee and some peacocks, acie, frontosas, yellow labs, red zebras, along with some others. I have housed most of these fish since they were all 1" babies. They all grew up together and I have no problem, all the fish are perfectly intacted no missing parts. They are housed in a 180 gallon fish tank with 450 pounds of rock on one side and open swimming area on the other side. So for the past three years it has been a success...


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

ridley25 said:


> DJRansome said:
> 
> 
> > ridley25 said:
> ...


i don't get it, this looks cut and dry to me that you did not have problems with them


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

cjacob316 said:


> ridley25 said:
> 
> 
> > DJRansome said:
> ...


DJRansome edited my original text:

I'd love to see this thread keep going with positive stories.

Especially unqualified short stories, *like*: I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems. 

"like" in my sentence equals "such as."
Meaning: I'd love to see this thread keep going with positive stories such as 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species with no problems.

I probably should have typed: "I'd love to see this thread keep going with positive stories. Especially unqualified short stories *from other members like*: I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems.

My fault for trying to be all fancy-like!

kevin


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## spraycaint123 (Dec 14, 2009)

I myself have had reasonable success, kind of. I've had my auratus for close to four years and in that time I have lost a female kenyi, a red zebra, a bumblebee, a lemon...(don't remember what it was) and a lake victorian species of some sort. But after a long time alone in a small tank along with a julie, they kind of formed a friendship. Now the auratus the julie along with 5 other fish live in harmony. The aurastus is still pretty territorial, but I built her a nice sized cave especially for her. All is well now. other then in the last few weeks her colors are borderline hideous, I posted in the health section, hopefully shes ok.

Sorry for the horrible grammer, I don't feel like thinking to hard.


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

That makes me wonder, because I don't know: is stocking only female auratus any better? Or does the toughest female start thinking she's a male and try to kill her own and other species?

kevin


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

sorry i'm still a little confused.

why do you consider that story unqualified? is it because it's well within suggested stocking? or because it's lacking detail?


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

Success story.

So before i found out about lakes and regions and all that hoopla i was a big mixer.

I fell in love with frontosa. My LFS had a group of ten one inchers so i picked up 4. had them in a little teeny 5 gallon tank for a week or so with 2 sinagal bichirs.. surprisingly no deaths so i purchased a 110 gallon of a site like craglist and re-homed them. My local fish guy had some babies so i bought a few. there was 4fronts, 3 sunshine peacocks, 2 strawberry peacocks, 4 red empress, 5 yellow labs,2 kenyis, 3red zebras and 1 red zebra(blue), 2 red top zebras, electric blue haps, 2 longners and 2 magainos. then the "dreaded" auratus, 2 males and 3 females

surprisingly the auratus were the best fish in there for aggression, aside from the fronts.

All in all i think auratus just have a bad name.


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## ridley25 (Jan 5, 2008)

cjacob316 said:


> sorry i'm still a little confused.
> 
> why do you consider that story unqualified? is it because it's well within suggested stocking? or because it's lacking detail?


It would be unqualified if it needed no more detail.

"I had 1m/7f in a 125 with four other species and there were no problems" would be an unqualified story if that was the whole story.

"I had auratus and they were happy because they bred a lot" would be qualified if the story also involved nine other fish getting killed while arriving at that point.

Let's get back to actual auratus, shall we? No one wants to come to this thread looking for real info and end up reading a dissemination of the English language. :thumb:

kevin


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Yes and I've yet to hear a true success story. Any out there?


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

DJRansome said:


> Yes and I've yet to hear a true success story. Any out there?


maybe that makes them even scarrier?


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## Afishionado (Jun 6, 2006)

I have a complete unqualified success story about auratus. I've had complete and unqualified success in refraining from the temptation to purchase any. :lol:

My, but they're good looking fish though. If money, time & space were no object I'd be real tempted to try a large high female ratio group in a large tank (6' min, preferably 8'). But those things (especially time & space) are in very limited supply so I spend them on less daunting setups & mixes. I don't doubt that they occasionally do work out for some people - the percentages just aren't there for me...


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

i think that is the key, just to have a high female to male ratio, when starting out i think this is smart for all mbuna


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

ridley25 said:


> That makes me wonder, because I don't know: is stocking only female auratus any better? Or does the toughest female start thinking she's a male and try to kill her own and other species?
> 
> kevin


I agree with the latter...The dominant females I've seen have this "dirty" color between male and female, a rusted yellow car? type of. Instead of that, normal males and females look much better


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

the_evil_dickfeldi said:


> Hi all, I thought it would be nice if we took a break from the "Auratus Horror Stories" and talked about the successful ones  At, least, I like how they look!


What would qualify as a success story?

the OP states 


> I thought it would be nice if we took a break from the "Auratus Horror Stories" and talked about the successful ones


I dont know about you but i would assume a successful story involving one of the "Meanest" Africain Cichlids out there would include something like keeping them with other fish with no casualties. A success story shouldn't be about breeding, **** a success story for a beginner could be, "I kept them alive", its still a success.


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## Aura (Oct 29, 2005)

I don't know if it's a success story, but I've kept auratus for over 5 years now. I must have gotten lucky, because there have been absolutely no deaths from keeping single males with other mbuna. If kept together (in my experience) they must be kept the same way that demasoni are recommended to be kept -- in large numbers of over a dozen. As they matured, I removed the excessively aggressive males and put them into other tanks where they were the only auratus and they did just fine. The rest of them were okay together. There was plenty of chasing at spawning times, but other than that they weren't killing each other like so many stories that I have heard.

My problems started after a filter failure caused the loss of some of them. At that point I had less than a dozen and they slowly started killing each other off. I once saw a male and female spawning and when I checked back later, that male had killed the female and was picking at her empty throat area where the eggs had been. 

A couple of months ago, my big old dominant male that I got as an adult who was turned in to a fish store passed away. I'm down to my last two males now.

As much as I love auratus, or because I love auratus, I would not recommend them unless you have a big tank and are willing to put up with the unexpected headaches involved.

A couple of my favorite auratus pictures.



















The old guy and father to the others.


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

i have about 60 auratus in my 75 gal. only 4 of them are adults and they keep breeding. im surprised that none of them get eaten because my tank is way overstocked.
15 demasoni, 15 yellow labs, 1 red zebra, 2 hongi, 4 auratus... all of those are about 4 inches + all my babies - 20 dems and 60 auratus. anybody want some????????/ pls =]


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

sangi1a said:


> i have about 60 auratus in my 75 gal. only 4 of them are adults and they keep breeding. im surprised that none of them get eaten because my tank is way overstocked.
> 15 demasoni, 15 yellow labs, 1 red zebra, 2 hongi, 4 auratus... all of those are about 4 inches + all my babies - 20 dems and 60 auratus. anybody want some????????/ pls =]


How many years?


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## sangi1a (Jan 11, 2009)

1 year


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

thats a whole lotta fish  
pics??? opcorn:


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

Cool! You have technically succeeded!! I'd like to see some pics too.

In some way, auratus could substitube dems for me here...As dems are expensive at $10 per i1inch fish!


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## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

> i have about 60 auratus in my 75 gal. only 4 of them are adults and they keep breeding. im surprised that none of them get eaten because my tank is way overstocked.
> 15 demasoni, 15 yellow labs, 1 red zebra, 2 hongi, 4 auratus... all of those are about 4 inches + all my babies - 20 dems and 60 auratus. anybody want some????????/ pls =]


i'll take all those dems...free???


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Come on evil, Demasoni have WAY higher odds for success than auratus. That's gotta be worth something! Buy 12 and in a year sell fry, you can retire!


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

Whoops. My problem with written words again 

I don't have anything against dems; in fact, I LOVE them!!!! But they are like, 10+times the cost of auratus, and the bloat problem...Well, they're not easily available to a student like me. But wait till I start working, when I go to college!! I'm gonna buy up the dems(Hoping their cost goes down a bit too  ) and breed them! In fact, it would really be perfect if I could breed saulosi, auratus and dems, but sau's aren't available here, and auratus....Well, that's the point of this thread!! HAha :lol:

Anyway, found another. Anyone heard of auratus living with altum angels? Amazingly, people here seem to pull it off, keeping angels(Species regardless) with Tangs, mbuna and(!!) buttikoferi!!

I guess only those "unusual" cases are the auratus success stories


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)




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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

Wow! BUt don't the fronts have nipped fins??


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

No they were fine together, i was told that I would run into problems and never did.


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## the_evil_dickfeldi (Feb 17, 2006)

Wow! True case of success then!! :thumb: Guess they breed well too?


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## GoofBoy (Jul 3, 2007)

Electrophyste said:


> No they were fine together, i was told that I would run into problems and never did.


That Front is still a lil' baby - come back when his biomass is about 300% bigger and tell us how the other fish in the tank are doing.

Good Luck.


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## Electrophyste (Aug 5, 2009)

they are no longer together and there are no more africains.
(DONT LET YOUR SPOUSE, NIEGHBOUR OR ANYONE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER CARE FOR YOU FISH, YOU MAY END UP WITH A TON OF DEAD FISH AND SOME RAUNCHY WATER)

the "female" auratus shown in the pic took its time to color up in his male colors.

My fishguy. 
he has in a 160gallon
6 fully mature brundi fronts, along with huge male and female auratus, 1 male 3 female Red Zebra, 1 male 2 female Red top hongi,2 male venestus, 1 big male and 2 female kenyhi, and a couple dahlhizi bichir and a couple ornate bichir. and a few singles in there like peacocks.

Keep in mind, none of these fish are under 6 inches. and have been in there a long time, sence before i was into fish. he has not had one issue. Fronts still have beautiful colours and fins, everything breeds niceley for him.

in not recommending this to anyone im just saying it could and has and still is being done.


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Well I hope to have a success story here. I bought 12 Auratus today. I vented. They are 2.5 inches and it looks like 3m, 9 females. None have started changing color yet. They are going in a 2 year old, 5 ft 120 gallon mbuna tank with 4 Met. sp. Dolphin, 7 Cyno Hara, 5 Red Zebra, 5 Saulosi, 5 Maingano and 5 yellow Labs. The Saulosi and Maingano will come out, as I catch them, and possibly the Yellow Labs. I have always loved Auratus coloration. I tried them a while back, when I first started with mbuna, with only 3. Horror story...but, all the fish in this tank are adults, and can hold their own until the Auratus get larger. By then, I hope they will all have found their territoies. I plan on leaving one or perhaps no males(don't care about breeding and have Syno Multies for fry patrol). I read something on Basmans tropical that Auratus can actually switch saexes if you hae all males, or all females. This was new to me. I know they change colors to mimic another sex, but change to another sex :-? Got me?!?


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

No, they can't actually change sex. sub dom males incorrectly identified as females, or true females that take on male coloration is probably what spread the myth, but the don't and can't actually change their sex.

Good luck with the auratus. Let us know how its still working in a year or so. If it works out, I might be inclined to try it myself in my 125 6' tank by then.


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## pom-in-nz (Mar 10, 2014)

I agree, older and more dominant females do take on male colours but mine still spawn and carry even though they look like malest


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## Mudkicker (Apr 2, 2003)

I would guess that they would work in a 6' species tank with a very large female to male ratio. And tons of hiding places.
In theory, it should work.


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