Melanochromis auratus

by Jim Greenwald

Probably the most imported Malawi cichlid ever and still very popular with breeders. Some years ago it is possible that you bought them when they were named "Pseudotropheus auratus", but this is now an incorrect name and only some shops still use this name. They are found in Lake Malawi from habitats that stretch from Jalo Reef, along the West Coast, up to the rocky habitat of Nkhudzi. This genus is also found along every island in the lake. They are found in the rich sediment habitats, where they love to graze the algae that grow in mats.

Their Colors

The form of the body is rather long and pushed slightly together from both sides. The females have a gold-yellow color with three black stripes containing a white border running over the total length of the body. The lowest stripe runs over the middle of the side, the middle stripe just under the dorsal fin and the upper strip covers the dorsal fin. Mostly they have some black spots on the white-yellow caudal fin.

Males on the other hand have almost opposite colors, especially when they are defending their territory. Their color is dark blue and sometimes black and they have a blue-yellow stripe with white border running over the middle of the side. The second stripe is less noticeable and the third has totally disappeared. The dorsal fin is almost completely yellow and the caudal fin is yellow at the top and black below. Male fish contain only one egg spot and they grow to about 13 cm (5 inches) long. Beware, young animals always wear the female's coloration and only after a few months can the differences be seen. Older animals, especially females can sometimes wear the colors of the opposite sex to defend themselves.

Natural behavior

Compared to the typical Mbuna behavior, Melanochromis auratus is less territorial than most of the Mbuna are. Although, once they have the urge to breed they can become very aggressive towards males of their species and towards any other fish attempting to enter the spawning grounds. Once breeding is accomplished they leave their territories and search for new possibilities to gain any female's attention. This behavior is one of the reasons they look the same at any point in the lake where they are found. Because of this behavior they in effect have no geographic variation. In nature they feed themselves with "Aufwuchs" which is scrapped from the rocks and this activity takes up most of their time.

Tank behavior

Very aggressive!!!

As many holes and pass-throughs as possible should be constructed (in a natural way) so that fish attacked by auratus are able to hide and flee. Many rocks overgrown with green algae are necessary to maintain auratus because it is their favorite occupation to scrape off the algae and they will attempt to keep all the algae covered rocks for themselves. So give them more algae covered rocks than they can manage and give one male several females. In this way he won't be able to always harass the same female. Feeding them extra "green-food" and making them wonder what those females are for, you can easily spread the aggressiveness around. But don't forget to put some other species in the aquarium of you will end up with a single male auratus who killed all his girlfriends.

Once I put them to the test, although I must say accidentally. One Sunday afternoon someone from my local club called me and asked if I was interested in his Malawi cichlids because he wanted to change to a planted tank instead. I couldn't resist and drove over there without asking what he still had in his tank. What he still had was two males and four females of Melanochromis auratus. I already had some of them in my tank, but I decided to take them anyway and instead chose to put them in a separate tank and try to breed them. I thought there was enough females so what could be the problem?

I was rewarded! Exactly one week later, I had a spawning couple and I was even able to watch the entire ceremony. I caught out this female and kept her in a breeding tank to make her feel at ease. Three weeks later young were let out of her mouth and I could count nine of them, as healthy as a fish. Meanwhile problems had begun in the tank where the rest were left behind.

Everything went fine until the algae started to disappear from the rocks. Afraid of loosing this good meal the two males started chasing the females from the moment they came out of a hiding place. I tried giving them more shrimp mix but it didn't do the trick. All algae covered rocks were taken over by the males and I ended up with two dead females in one week. I decided to catch the only one left and to put her in my show tank.

The two males left in the tank did fine for a few weeks, but as we all know that law of nature, "The strongest will survive." Indeed, one day I came home from work and I only had one more living. So I added him to my show tank, where I now keep two males and four females (the same as I started with in the isolated tank), but in the company of other species and I must add, they are now without any problems. I even had young twice and each male did their job one time.

This tale is to show you how important it is to keep Mbuna in an overcrowded tank and mixing as many different species, each time keeping more females than males.

Food

As I already mentioned it's important to feed as much "green" as possible. This can be salad, spinach, slightly boiled peas, etc. and to put some variation in the diet you can use Mysis, Artemia (not to often), Cyclops, Daphnia and Krill. All of this can be mixed together and will lead to an excellent cichlid diet which I call shrimp mix.

One more thing. Don't feed too often! It is important for the well-being of your Mbuna's that they still eat from the algae that grows on the rocks. And one day of fasting a week is very good for the working of their stomachs. If you feed them shrimp mix, one feeding a day is enough!

Breeding

This is not the easiest Mbuna to breed. If you keep them in large tanks decorated with plenty of rocks, provide them with the best food and you do weekly partial (40%) water changes, you will get good results.

This is partly due to the food/territory balance they must have and sometimes the females will take on male coloration to keep others away from her place to dine. But on the other hand the male won't come to breed with her either.

Partial water changes are very important to keep these fishes healthy, but also the quality of the water must be good. A pH from 8.5 and a KH between 13 and 18 degrees DH (227-315 ppm) are good conditions for those fish and also for all Malawi cichlids. Beware using fresh tap water! Pinellas County uses chlorine to purify their water. Make sure this is vanquished before you use the water for changes. This can be accomplished by aerating the water first. In Hillsborough County they use chloromine to purify the water. This facilitates using a chloromine remover. Again make sure there is no trace of the chloromine, chlorine or ammonia before using the water for water changes.

I hope this article has helped you out in deciding whether to keep auratus or not. Or maybe is has given you another look at those colorful Mbuna fishes and you will spend just a little more time keeping them healthy.