african cichlid tank mates Auratus Cichlid Care & Tank Set up Guide

Auratus cichlids are one of the most aggressive Mbuna cichlids. Information in the video will help understand how to care for these fish in an aquarium.
Firstly a little information about these fish. Auratus fish is native to Lake Malawi in Africa. They are referred as Mbuna by Tonga people who reside by the lake. Mbuna translates to rock fish or rock dwelling fish, its a name given to all rock dwelling fish from this area. The name Golden Mbuna, Malawi Golden cichlid and Auratus cichlid are few names this fish is known in fish keeping community. Experienced fish keepers of African cichlids would agree that this fish is the most aggressive Mbuna. So I would highly recommend to research, understand their behavior and only then get this fish. This fish is known to disrupt peace in African cichlid tanks. However, if you succeed to suppress their aggression they are as good as any other fish to keep in an aquarium.

Auratus basic information -
Scientific name - Melanochromis auratus
Lifespan - Can live up to 5 years
Size - They can grow around 4 inches
Male Auratus - Highly aggressive would not tolerate other males in the tank, at maturity they turn dark with dark blue and golden stripes.
Female and Juveniles - Both remain same color with golden color at the bottom and black and silver stripes.
Less dominant males also display colors of the female to avoid confrontation with dominant male, in case a adult male is absent in the tank female will also change colors to dark blue and golden stripes.
Natural habitat - Rocky area at the bottom of Lake Malawi, this fish are omnivores, however their diet includes mainly aufwuchs (type of algae) which grows on the rocks they inhabit. The groups usually consist of a male auratus and multiple females. These fish are mouth brooders.
Auratus Aquarium Care -
Tank size - For this fish tank size matters. If you want to keep adult Auratus the aquarium size should not be less than 75 gallon with only one male and several females, you can include few other tank mates as well. I have experienced more aggression even with female auratus in smaller tank. I have never seen or kept 2 fully grown male auratus in a same tank, if you do the dominant male is more likely to kill the weaker male.
Tank decoration - This is also a key factor in keeping any Mbuna cichlid; tank decoration is simple, you would need sand for the tank bottom and lot of rocks. The rocks needs to be placed in a way that it creates gaps and caves, this would be crucial for less dominant fish to escape.

Tank mates for Auratus - I have kept them as fully grown adults both male and female with Kenyi cichlid, Yellow lab cichlid, Socolofi cichlid, Demasoni cichlid, Obliquiden cichlid, Red Zebra cichlid etc. I give other African Mbuna cichlid size advantage over Auratus. When keeping Mbuna its really important to make sure each fish has their own personal space and territory. Overstocking with good filtration also works as there is so much chaos in an aquarium that none of the cichlids get to build their territory.

Water Parameters for Mbuna cichlids - They prefer hard water and some can withstand specific gravity of 1.004, I have not pushed it beyond this. This is another reason you see few brackish water fish like Scats, Mono Angelfish or Seabae sharing aquarium with African cichlids. Water movement should be medium, with
good filtration and nicely aerated
Temperature range - 75–82 °F (24 to 27 °C)
pH range - 7.5 to 8.5
Water hardness - moderately hard to hard

Food for Golden Mbuna -
Feed them spirulina based fish food, algae wafers, quality pellets and flakes preferably spirulina based, they also like to munch on cucumber & zucchini, I never fed them blanched spinach but it should work. Meaty food should be minimal in their diet. Even though these fish are Omnivores meaty food like live fish, frozen meat should be avoided, too much meaty food may cause digestive disorder in this fish, in their natural habitat they feed on aufwuchs which refers to the collection of small aquatic species like crustaceans and plants that adhere to open surfaces in aquatic environments.

If you have questions please leave a comment , I will try to answer them with best of my knowledge. Thank you.

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african cichlid tank mates Auratus Cichlid Care & Tank Set up Guide
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Pets & Animals	Upload TimePublished on 10 Jul 2018

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