# Maingano keepers



## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

For those of us here who have kept or currently keep maingano, what has been your experiences with them? Temperment is what my main question is about. I have a male maingano that I got when when he was really young. I had bad mixes with him for a while, but he has always been pretty aggressive since a young age. I learned a bit, and stocked my tanks pretty much the way they should be. I left the maingano since he has a place in my heart and is amazing looking. He will chase any and all that are in the tank. Since I had him, he has never been too bad about it. He chased a little, but it was more of a quick chase anybody mentality... I recently added 4 albino socolofi to my tank and rearranged decor, etc. He acted like it was his personal mission in life to attack them at all times. It didnt stop after a few days, so I seperated him for a couple hours, then relased him. he behaved for about ten min before going back to the attacks. So back he went into the breeder net. I have left him there for a few days to see how the albinos would do without him. They have integrated fine, and have already spawned. So today, I moved my maingano to a cycled 10g until I decide what to do....

In the meantime, before I had this major blowup with him, I planned to get him some girls since I didnt have any for him. I ordered 6 maingano juvies from a reputable source. I had them in a 10g quarantine since they were an inch to barely over an inch
long. In the span of 3 hours, one bigger maingano had killed a smaller maingano. I have raised a few species from eggs on to full on fish and have never seen the amount of aggression at the size they were. The biggest one picked off another maingano, and finally one last maingano died. This left me with 3. 2 Larger ones and a smaller guy. They have been transferred into my 40g with bigger fish than them. It has been perfect. Up until the last few days. The 2 bigger maingano are at 2 inches and are starting to try and bully some tankmates. Even bigger ones. I am kinda at a loss here, and am considering moving completely away from maingano as a whole.

I am one of many that recommend maingano, but I dont know if I can anymore. I frequent other forums, and most of the time, the dom male is usually a maingano. They are causing nothing but headaches for me, and I had kenyi for a while, lol. It is recommended to get maingano as they are not heralded as too aggressive....I am going to declare that they are right up at the level of kenyi and auratus in my opinion... Am I the only one who feels this way? Please, all maingano keepers, let me on on your experiences, I think it will be interesting to hear


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

See my sig for my stock list. I'm wondering if you just did not have the right mix in your tank? Where did you get your maingano? Maybe they're not pure maingano and part something else (like johanni) that are more aggressive?

There has been a clear dominant maingano in my tank since day 1. I bought all my fish together when they were ~1". Actually, the 6 maingano were a smidge bigger than the rest of the fish when I bought them. I've only ever seen 1 time something I would call aggression. I've had no problems in the tank. No nipped fins or anything. The dominant maingano occasionally chases the other maingano in short bursts, but he gives up on the chase after a few inches. I've got 1 female maingano holding currently. The dominant male sometimes chases her and will do a couple laps in the tank before giving up, but doesn't seem to bother the female too much. The holding female is dominant over the rest of the mainganos and chases them away from her holding spots.

The 1 instance of aggression I will tell you about was between the holding female and what I think is a second smaller male. They were doing the dance like they were trying to spawn (which was odd because the female was already holding), and it was like the female realized no eggs were coming out or the male was eating eggs or something because after everytime they switched positions, they would go into a liplock for a few seconds, and then back to attempted spawning. This went on for 2 or 3 circles, and then one of the fish got really upset and one fish actually attacked the other and they disappeared down into a little cave they dug out in the sand between a couple rocks. I was worried one of the fish were going to be injured, but they both reappeared unscathed. The female is still holding today and is due to spit sometime around next tuesday.

There is absolutely no aggression at all between the maingano and the other species in my tank. All my fish are no approaching the 2"+ mark, except for the smallest yellow lab that is just now around 1". I may have just started noticing some stress in one of my mainganos. The second male (I think its a male, anyways) I was telling you about now spends a lot of time hiding in the rock pile, even when I'm sitting right in front of the tank. (usually, when I'm in front of the tank, all the fish assume they're getting fed.) This second male is either suddenly shy, or being stressed by the dominant male. He still comes out to eat however, and when I do see him away from his hiding spot, I don't see any abnormal aggression between him and the dominant male. I also don't see any nipped fins at all. So, I'm not going to worry about it too much right now - maybe its just a stage the younger maingano is going through. Eventually, I'm probably going to have to remove all but 1 male, but I'm only going to be able to replace them with fry that I raise (probably) unless I get petsmart fish or similar, so i want to wait until my fish are a little more mature and hopefully have some fry grown out. I'm worried because with only 1 female holding, thats only 1 confirmed female in the tank.

So anyways, thats my maingano story. I got them in mid november, so its only been two months - not long term success by any means, but certainly not the sort of instant aggression you were witnessing.

Now I have a question for you. My maingano have been extremely pale in color since I got them. The dominant male is more blue, but is still paler than I expect from maingano. 4 of the maingano (including the dom male) are just now starting to look more like the adult coloring of maingano I expected to have when I bought them, but the holding female and the 1 other (which is ironically the largest maingano in the tank) are still ghostly in color with dark stripe, and even those dark stripes sometimes fade out... were your young mainganos like this as well? Or is this just a problem with the 6 mainganos I have? Is it possible that stress at the LFS could cause the coloring to take some time to develop? I ask because at the LFS when I bought my fish, I saw a small group of juvie dems (about 9 of them) that were also very pale in coloring similar to the mainganos.


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## DaveZ17 (Sep 14, 2009)

*** had several male maingano over the last 25 yrs, and all of them have been very aggressive. *** never had them in a tank smaller than 100g. I put a 4 in. male in my current tank, and it only took him a day to decide that he was in charge of the tank.


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## Liam_Doherty (Sep 8, 2009)

I have six maingano's with some hybrid yellow labs and some acei in my 55. I've had my setup since the beginning of Dec. so they're pretty young still. The only aggression I've seen with them is the occasional quick burst chase to another maingano from my dominant male. This chase is usually short and never lasts the length of my tank (48").

So far I'm extremely happy with my fish. As for the colour question in the second post, I think I have two dominant males which each have they're own side of the tank. Both have beautiful dark colours showing all the time. The remaining four maingano's very from faded to partially showing the dark blue. I figure it's a dominace thing. I also assume that some of them are female. I say assume because I don't know how to vent and I have seen "the dance" being done a couple of times, but couldn't tell if it was always the same female.

To Justinf67, how many maingano's do you have? I ask because both Rhinox and myself have six and we seem good so far. Maybe having one or two makes them more aggressive. I'm by no means an expert though and the above is just a guess. Hopefully you're able to figure this out though. Good luck.


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## eagl97 (Dec 26, 2006)

I thought my Maingano was just a chaser but I went shopping for a couple of hours Sunday came home and my best looking Acei was hiding in a corner using only 1 fin to swim and died the next day. I assumed the Acei was just chased and swam into a rock a freak accident, now I'm down to only 1 Acei well 2 if you count the one swimming upside down.

I watched my tank, a 6ft 135gal, and noticed all of my fish were staying on one side of the tank. The Maingano had be fine for 2 years, I mean I lost a couple of Yellow labs but I thought they just got in between the Acei while they were breeding. I don't know what happen to all of a sudden to make him take over the tank but I'm not going to be buying any more Maingano.

To the poster above I have 15 Maingano so I don't think the numbers matter.


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

> As for the colour question in the second post, I think I have two dominant males which each have they're own side of the tank. Both have beautiful dark colours showing all the time. The remaining four maingano's very from faded to partially showing the dark blue. I figure it's a dominace thing. I also assume that some of them are female. I say assume because I don't know how to vent and I have seen "the dance" being done a couple of times, but couldn't tell if it was always the same female.


hmm... good to know that its not just me. Part of the color thing right now might be dominance, but I think eventually they're all supposed to be that nice dark blue color with even darker blue to black stripes and beard. I saw a tank full (10-12 fish) of older mainganos at a local pet supermarket (at least thats what they were labeled as), and every one of them were the darker blue with darker black stripes and the black "bearded" face - and I highly doubt they were all male. But right now my holding female is extremely pale, and the largest maingano is very pale like the holding female. The dominant maingano stays dark blue all the time now and when he's relaxed, his beard and black stripes fade and blend in with the dark blue body. The other fish I think is a male displays full coloring almost all the time right now, and is the one hiding in the rock. The other 2 vary from darker to pale like you said. Usually, they're darkest when the tank lights are out, and when I turn the tank lights on, I can watch them change their colors almost instantly.

Back to the original topic, I agree that more fish should give better odds for success. I'm only guessing, but a single maingano male is going to be looking for fish of other species to spawn with, and would then view the other males as a threat to its reproducing potential. For that matter, a single male maingano might not be a maingano at all, but rather a johanni which would be much more aggressive. I've read that male mainganos don't actually claim a territory, so tank size should really not matter too much with them. Then again, who knows how accurate that statement really is, but I haven't witnessed any of my mainganos defending a territory.

But again, I only have 2 months of experience with juvie mainganos. For all I know, I might have world war 3 in a few more months when my fish get older. I'll keep you updated.


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

Rhinox said:


> Back to the original topic, I agree that more fish should give better odds for success. I'm only guessing, but a single maingano male is going to be looking for fish of other species to spawn with, and would then view the other males as a threat to its reproducing potential. For that matter, a single male maingano might not be a maingano at all, but rather a johanni which would be much more aggressive. I've read that male mainganos don't actually claim a territory, so tank size should really not matter too much with them. Then again, who knows how accurate that statement really is, but I haven't witnessed any of my mainganos defending a territory.
> 
> But again, I only have 2 months of experience with juvie mainganos. For all I know, I might have world war 3 in a few more months when my fish get older. I'll keep you updated.


Well thats the thing. My maingano has not claimed a territory to defend ever. He just likes to harass all others in the tank. There is only 3 other males in the tank. One male msobo, one male red zebra(still pretty small) and a male albino socolofi. He made it his mission to attack, not just chase the albinos... I would think it is just because i had him in without any others, but my juvies are showing the same bad aggression.... Like I said, I went from 6 to 3 within a few days. All from aggression of 2 mainganos. Eagl97 has 15, so I dont think its numbers at this point....By the way, my juvies are 2 inches or so and they have not colored up to the black and blue full coloration yet... So be a little patient on coloration. They are def stunning when they get older... Interesting stories so far... Keep them coming if you have any....this is my guy by the way....


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## scdeb424 (Apr 24, 2008)

I have a large group and they keep producing babies and they get along with other fish in the 125 but I swear that before the group got as large they wore out the albino p.socofli & he/she died. In the beginning albino p. socofli was one of the dominate fish--for about 18 months or so he/she ruled the roost. I wasn't sure if they were trying to mate or kill! 
Mine have an extensive cave system & they are all tucked in so that no other fish gets their spot--they redecorated extensively & have been known to dismantle artifical plants--dragging things like plants and decorations into their caves. 
I had Yellow labs possible hybrids that I had to remove because they were so mean to mainganos. 
Am I defending them? Maybe. They are neat fish--friendly, dog-like but they do tend to take over a tank.


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

I dont want people to get confused. I am wanting ANY and ALL experiences. Good or bad. I am just trying to get a general look at how people experiences have been.

*scdeb424* You have them in a 125g and still have some issues. Interesting. I just have recommended them based on the fact that they are not known to be that aggressive. I am finding this untrue. More so I want to see if this is singular or not. What works for these guys? What size is the happy medium? etc... I am leaning right now to a tank over 55g. Dont get me wrong, I have had him for about a year, and only mild chasing occurred. Only recently has he taken it up a notch. I am seeing the same with the juvies. I noticed my prob 2 inch maingano bowing up and chasing away a 3.5 inch female elongatus chewere in my growout tank.

Any and all feedback is appreciated. Good and bad


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## Ryans085 (Sep 11, 2009)

I have a maingano in my tank and i believe its the worst fish selection I could've made. It consistently chases its tank mates, which are yellow labs and red zebras. The only fish I have that keeps it in check in my Auratus. The Auratus primarily just picks on him, which brings a little bit of balance to the tank.

The Maingano cichlid in my opinion is a great looking fish but the temperament is horrible. The only reason I haven't got rid of him is because I've had him for a while now and *** grown a little partial.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I'm waiting for Dewdrop to post, she loves her maingano.


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

bringing this thread back up because I have more to add about my mainganos

Well, firstly, out of the 6 juvie mainganos I bought in november, I believe I got 4 males and 2 females. 1 of the males was killed already. Just last night, my second confirmed female spawned and is now holding :roll: . The other 3, 1 is clearly a dominant male, and another is clearly a subdominant male. The third I'm pretty sure is also a subdom male. All three of the assumed males have claimed a 3rd of the tank - 1 in each of the 3 distinct rock piles. The dominant one in the far right rock pile chases everyone out of his pile most of the time, so the remaining cichlids are forced to live in the other 2/3 of the tank. #2 male claimed the middle pile, and #3 the left pile.

The smallest female likes to hide behind the center rock pile, but recently, the 3 males have formed an alliance and voted her off the island so to speak. #2 chases her away from the rock, and then she gets chased by both of the other 2 males if she runs towards their territories. Last night, they nearly chased her right out the tank. She was hiding right at the surface behind my filter intake, poor thing. After a while, she'd make a break back down to her hiding spot behind the center rock pile, and that would last a few minutes until she was seen again, and then it was 3 on 1 all over again. I wanted badly to remove her from the tank, but I don't have another cycled tank to put her in, or even another tank with a filter I can cycle with her in it. At a minimum now, she's gotta last until friday evening before I get a chance to remove her and either take her back to the lfs, or put her temporarily in another tank I'm trying to get filtered. I don't think she has a good chance of holding back the hit squad for much longer though, so I'd be surpirsed if she makes it. Theres just nothing I can do though...

The other female is more fortunate. She is the largest maingano in the tank some how. She doesn't back down from the 2 subdom males, and because of that she has staked out a claim under the rock pile where the #3 maingano lives. She gives the dominant maingano a wide berth, but she doesn't seem afraid of him most times, and he doesn't seem to want to try to push her around either. For the past week, the dominant male has been a busy guy. He's removed nearly all the sand under his rock pile. It was fun to watch. Last night, I thought I was going to have trouble. The large female appeared to be trying to take over the dom male's cave. She went in and started moving sand around. The male was darting at her and pacing back and forth, but she held her ground and the male never really attacked. It wasn't until I saw that every time the female tried to leave the cave, the male would dart out and cut her off and do a little shimmy, that I knew it was baby making time. She went in and out for a bout an hour, and sure enough when I fed them before bed, she remained in her original rock pile rather than eating. She can't be holding many eggs though because her jaw is hardly protruded at all - I doubt you could tell just by looking at her that she was holding. What this means is that if I don't strip her now, I'm probably going to have the same problems with her in a month as I'm having with the small female now because she'll lose her size advantage over the males if she doesn't grow for the next month.

If I were going to do this right, I'd immediately remove 2 of the male mainganos - probably the most dominant, and #3. #2 I think was the male to color up first, and when he was dominant, he was sort of the quiet, confident leader rather than the pyschotic dictator. #3 is least dominant now, but he's also the smallest, so I'd be worried he still has the potential to turn into a little psycho like #1. Then I'd buy about 6 more younger juvies from my LFS. I'd pick out the faintest colored ones, because it seems those are most likely to be females when they're smaller. I wouldn't try to keep more than 1 male in a multi-species setting. Not because of aggression between the males - at least for now they seem content in their thirds - but because you can't get enough females to go around. Even in a species tank, the way the males treat the smallest female makes me think that males aren't very tolerant of any other mainganos in their territories, male or female, so I would still probably only keep few enough males so that there were unclaimed areas in the tank where the females could congregate.

So I haven't given up on them yet as a potential 'safe' species for a 55g -I don't have the proper ratio, so its not surprising that I'm starting to have troubles. But, I've already decided that once I upgrade to my 125g tank in a couple more months, I'm replacing the mainganos with giant demasoni as the "token blue barred species" in the tank (because my LFS breeds giant dems in store, but the mainganos come in on shipments from wherever and are clearly lesser quality than the self-bred species). So, I've been waiting it out as long as I could, but I think its time to get the mainganos out of my 55 and return them to my LFS before I get any of my labs or aceis killed or stressed. I'll probably do it on friday.

As of right now, I'm inclined to stop recommending mainganos to newbies. This aggression happened fast - I've only had the mainganos for 3 months, and they're only in the 2.5" range (including the tail). I was under the impression the ratios and compatability didn't really start to become a problem until the fish got close to maturity, and I'm still at least 6 months away from that I thought. So, keeping mainganos requires being ready almost immediately to remove and replace fish in order to keep the proper ratio very early on. They still don't seem to bother the other species too much, but just this week I've noticed that the labs and aceis have been getting chased more by all the mainganos all over the tank, and because they're all constrained to 2/3 of the tank, there is more aggression between the labs and aceis than I've seen up until now. So, an improper ratio of mainganos is really upsetting everybody and causing aggression all over.


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

very nice post. I also agree that these guys are not for the faint hearted. My one male just wouldnt quit attacking. I had to remove him. I have 3 maingano from a good source growing out and like I mentioned I started with 6 and they took it down to 3 within about two days as one.5 inchers. My growouts are growing at crazy fast rates. I think two of the 3 are about 2.75 inches while the other is about half an inch behind. These 2 bigger guys try to terrorize my guys in the 40g growout tank. I am considering taking them and getting store credit. I just dont want to deal with their aggression. I am still saying these guys shouldnt be recommended for newbs and that 55g may not be enough


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## grommeckdr (Jan 18, 2010)

Oh no... Now you guys have me worried. I have 11 of these guys in my new 125. Just waiting for chaos to unfold...


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

grommeckdr said:


> Oh no... Now you guys have me worried. I have 11 of these guys in my new 125. Just waiting for chaos to unfold...


Well, I wouldn't worry just yet. thats a big tank and you got a lot of them, so thats a good start. I think if you have at least 4 or 5 females in that group, you will be fine as long as you identify them and get rid of extra males before "judgement day". My problem started when I realized I only had 2 females to go with 4 males, and I wasn't properly prepared with spare tank(s) to remove fish and/or buy and quarantine new to get more females. Then I decided I wasn't going to keep the mainganos when I upgraded to my bigger tank, so I decided to let it play out as long as possible. I still think I could make it work in my tank IF I wanted to keep mainganos long term.


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## grommeckdr (Jan 18, 2010)

Rhinox said:


> I think if you have at least 4 or 5 females in that group, you will be fine as long as you identify them and get rid of extra males before "judgement day".


That's certainly what I'm hoping for. I definitely have two individuals that are larger, more active, and more colorful than the rest. I'll be keeping my eye on them...


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## CichlidsTank (Sep 27, 2009)

I bought 4 mainganos last October. 2 of them occasionally dart at other mainganos, but besides that they are mostly peaceful especially to other species that I have in the tank. The other 2 are another story.

Reciently the two biggest ones of the 4 I have have both become more aggressive. I think they are fighting to become dom male of the tank. These two are always chaseing each other around. They have scares/no skin on their lips where they bite/kiss each other. They leave the other fish alone tho, just nip them if they are too close. But don't fight anywhere close to how they fight each other. Compared to my Acei/red zebras the 2 big mainganos are crazy. [/list]

I had a post earlier about how this fighting went down. I'll find it and post a link. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=207944&highlight=


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## idonotnow (Aug 28, 2009)

I have 8 mainganos in my 4' 90g all at 2".I have yet to see any dominant male aggression from any of them as of yet.
I do have one thats not colored yet maybe female that has clamed the top of a rock on the far left of the tank,but he only seen to hate the yellow saulosi and will chase them the lenth of the tank.yet he will let the dom male saulosi and the other mainganos swim right past him.anyone seen them hate yellow?
I know he's not a johannii as I got him at 1/2" maybe hybrid?

thanks for the posts now I have somewhat of a Idea what too look for.


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

2'' fish in a 90g u will not see as much aggression since there is more space. The fact that he will chase the length of the tank at such a small size is not a good sign of things to come. I had minor issues with my maingano, he did some chasing but nothing serious ever. Then, I added the albino socolofi and he went beserk. He full on attacked and would have killed them if I had not pulled him out. He was ruthless. Again, he was full size at this time. I have 3 maingano growing out at the moment and it seems the pattern is repeating itself. The larger one in my 40g is doing a bit of chasing. I ideally want to move them to another 55g, but like I said, I sont know if it will be worth it...

On a side note, I finally gave up on my male maingano. I have had him in a 10g while I pondered what to do with him. I have had him for over a year. Decided it wasnt worth the hassle that came with him and traded him in to my lfs for credit. I thinned a little stock as well and I walked out with 2 awesome looking labs.


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## Malawi Mac (Aug 20, 2004)

I don't have any right now, but I've kept them in the past. I've never had any agggression problems with them. I most recently kept them in a tank whose primary inhabitants were male haps. There were no aggression problems.

The other mbuna species in the tank were Pseudotropheus sp. "Manda blue dolphin." The Mandas were a bigger problem than the mainganos, although the Mandas were only a problem for the blue hap with vertical bars.


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## scdeb424 (Apr 24, 2008)

From my brief experience more is better with Mainganos in that the number of fish should be greater than 11 or even 15. I have about 25 in my 125 along with about 9 other fish & some babies that have escaped death so far. There has been far less aggression than before when I only had 7. Of the original 7 I lost 1 to aggression. The rest of them are the babies that somehow found a nook to hide in. The sizes range from full grown to tiny. 
I know I am over populated in the tank but for the past 6 or 7 months things have remained fairly calm for all. There are some half hearted chases among the bigger fish but no outright wars. 
Never thought I'd end up with so much blue but they are beautiful. If they would just stop having babies or maybe eat more of their young!


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

A group of five synodontis multipunctatus will almost completely solve your problem. :thumb:


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## scdeb424 (Apr 24, 2008)

Good point, DJRansome! :lol:


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## Geddonight (Aug 7, 2009)

Our 75 has the following:

1m, 4f Maingano
1m, 6f Hongi
1m, 6f Saulosi

It's been running for several months now without any issues. Everyone is breeding like mad.

Part of it is choosing the right species to mix with, I think.


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

> Part of it is choosing the right species to mix with, I think.


Possibly... I think ratio is more important tho. In my 55, the male maingano claimed a 3rd of the tank and chased anyone else away from his rock pile. The only real aggression, though, was only between the mainganos. 1 male was killed, and a female was all but chased right out of the tank. Of the 5 I still have, I believe I have 3 males and 2 females (the 2 females either have held or are holding eggs).

I just removed the mainganos from my 55 and the labs and aceis now have full run of the tank and seem to enoy it more. None of them have done any spawning yet, so I'm wondering if removing the mainganos will make them comfortable enough to give it a try. I know the aceis at least are big enough. One of the male labs did start shimmying in front of some other labs since the move, so you never know. The mainganos are in a 30g (48x12 footprint) now, and they are nervous of their new surroundings and of being alone. They have been schooling together (all 5 of them) since I put them in the tank. Ironic, considering that 4 of them were pretty much trying to exile the fifth a day before in the other tank. :fish: A holding female did survive the move still holding her eggs tho.

I still think if I wanted to keep the mainganos, they would be fine as long as I removed 2 of the males and added more females in the 55 with the labs and aceis. I still think this is not an ideal species for beginners because you really have to be prepared early to remove aggressors with extra cycled tanks and/or preapproval from your LFS to return them (I haven't yet gotten approval from my lfs owner to be able to return the 5 mainganos :roll: ). I've been doing pretty much non stop research for 4-5 months now so I consider myself more prepared than the average beginner, and I still wasn't ready to deal with the problems in my 55 as soon as the problems started.


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

I have one in my tank (120g) and he has not been a real problem. The only fishes he ever shows aggression toward are my Johanni and Elongated Jewel Spot.

I have a majority all male tank. The only fishes that are not all male are my Demasoni, which are mixed.

Stock list:

1. Acei
2. Afra Yellow Blaze
3. Albino Red Top Zebra
4. Bumble Bee
5. Cobalt Blue Zebra
6 - 31. Demasoni
32 - 33. Yellow Labs
34. Elongated Jewel Spot
35. Mbamba
36. Joanjohnsonae
37. Maingano
38. Msobo
39. Johanni
40. Red Face Mac
41. Red Top Hongi
42. Red Top Ndumbi
43. Red Top Trewavasse
44. Red Top Zebra
45. Red Zebra
46. Rusty

All those fishes are full grown with the exception of the Demasoni. I had all full grown Dems and someone fed my fish about 2 months worth of food in one sitting without consulting me and killed them all. I just recently restocked them. I haven't had any problems with aggression deaths even though it is a fairly aggressive tank. Let's just say it's not a tank you want to put your hand into... :lol:


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## Jolly cichlids (Jun 19, 2009)

heres pics of my wildcaught colony 9m:9f i've always done mbuna in large numbers and had the best success.
















fruits off their labor


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

Today is the end of my maingano experience for now. I sold the 5 remaining I had (including 1 holding female) to someone who responded to an ad on the trading post here. The 5 of them never really adjusted to the move upstairs to the temp 30g 4' tank I was keeping them in, but at least they stopped killing each other long enough to get them to a new home. I may try them again sometime in the future, but for now its time to start getting ready for the upgrade.

Jolly those are some nice looking mainganos glad you're having better luck than me.


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## gatorsaver (Jan 3, 2010)

DJRansome
How does a group of five synodontis multipunctatus solve the problem?? I want to get some of each but really want to hold off on the maingano for tank mate problems and the S. Multi are so expesive that I was going to add them last when i can find them less the price of gold.


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## dg32 (Dec 24, 2009)

gatorsaver said:


> DJRansome
> How does a group of five synodontis multipunctatus solve the problem?? I want to get some of each but really want to hold off on the maingano for tank mate problems and the S. Multi are so expesive that I was going to add them last when i can find them less the price of gold.


You said this:



> If they would just stop having babies or maybe eat more of their young!


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/s ... ctatus.php



> The most interesting thing about this catfish is its unusual spawning behavior, which includes utilizing mouth-brooding Cichlids as foster parents for their fry. Unlike Cichlids, who spawn at very young ages, it takes about a year once S. multipunctatus have reached their adult size (3-5 years in all) before they will spawn. When 2 Cichlids begin to spawn, these catfish will come pouring out of their caves.
> 
> The unsuspecting Cichlids will continue to spawn, while the male Cichlid will attempt to drive the cats away. Notwithstanding, the catfish will snatch a Cichlid egg each time they are dropped, faster than the mother can pick them up. And, Ã¯Â¿Â½as they eat the Cichlid eggs, they drop their own. In her haste to pick up her eggs, the female Cichlid will pick up the eggs of the S. multis and incubate the catfish eggs along with whatever eggs of her own she was able to secure.


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