Determining sex in breeding

[dakora]

hi all,
any advice on getting my mbuna to breed would be great, if thats even something i can influence. was thinking of trying with my melanochromis auratus, they're around 8cm each and in my rio 240. they keep doing these rapid circle swims together but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, one's really bright and the other's darker so i'm guessing thats my male and female. they seem interested but just can't seem to seal the deal, short of playing some romantic tunes all day i'm stumped.

[daxton]

Give Barry White a go.

On a more serious note, I'm currently waiting to sex some of my own fish before I can work on a more favorable stocking ratio. I really need to do some more research on the process. Good luck with your Melanochromis auratus, hope you manage to get them breeding soon.

[dakora]

Barry White might just do the trick, but I'm not sure I'm ready for a fish explosion just yet. Been trying to get my hands on some saulosi locally for months, no luck so far. Not really sure what you mean by favourable stocking, Steve, but I'm guessing it's about getting the right mix of males and females. My afra hara are still a bit dull, hoping they'll colour up soon but I'm not holding my breath, thanks for the reply though.

[rivelo]

If you can, post some pics of the auratus just to make sure you have a male and female. If you indeed have one male and one female, I would get a few more females to increase your chances. With my mbunas, I find not long after I do my weekly water changes there are usually females holding. I feed mine primarly veggie flakes and give them a couple of cubes of frozen spirulina brine shrimp.