Female Auratus going through "the change" (Informational Thread)
- Thread starter malawidave
- Start date
I thought you said it was an ALL female environment? So how could a female be holding? Something smells fishy here... lol
my adult female's male partner died and the female assumed his dominant coloration even though she was the only auratus left in the tank and nobody bothered her anymore. then I bought a new male and she quickly changed back. unluckily the new male died as well(my bad) and she once again turned dark. now recently I have aquired a dozen juveniles and she is not changing back! they are catching up fast to her so we'll see if there is a dominant male among the little bitties.
Dominant female in a Harem...
1M 6F... the main F may change too
HA ha ... Im actually texting you right now chris....
1M 6F... the main F may change tooHA ha ... Im actually texting you right now chris....
Yes, it's well known that female auratus can take on male coloration, or something very close to it.. It likely has something to do with dominance with in an aquarium, but it really is not so clear cut as to when and why this occurs. Here is a pic of my two KNOWN females. The larger on the bottom held once and the smaller on the top has held many times (got fry from her and witnessed the breeding act a number of times).
There was 4 auratus in the tank at this time. One KNOWN male, the 2 females just pictured and another with juvie/female coloration that i suspect was a male but I am not certain. All 4 had territories and fought quite frequently. Only the smaller female, I never did see her stand up to the known male, though she had many encounters with the other 2 auratus. The large female in particular often fought with the other 3 .....sometimes she would lose a scrap to the much smaller male and breifly return to a very, very drab female-like coloration, but with in a few days her color was back and defending a territory.
My intention was to raise the number of auratus by growing up the fry......but i never got there! I took chances, knowing that most would be used as feeders anyways, so most ended up in the belly of my jewels or salvini. The largest of the batch, as well as a few others, ended up growing to good size, but got killed, most likely by the male auratus.
The large female and the other with juvie/female coloration got killed.... again most likely by the male auratus. All of a suden, the smaller female became larger then the male....and he got killed. Can't say for sure she did it, as it could have been my male salvini, though I really doubt that. This leaves me only with her; now with full male coloration:
Makes me wonder whether or not lone males that I had in the past really where males rather then females!
There was 4 auratus in the tank at this time. One KNOWN male, the 2 females just pictured and another with juvie/female coloration that i suspect was a male but I am not certain. All 4 had territories and fought quite frequently. Only the smaller female, I never did see her stand up to the known male, though she had many encounters with the other 2 auratus. The large female in particular often fought with the other 3 .....sometimes she would lose a scrap to the much smaller male and breifly return to a very, very drab female-like coloration, but with in a few days her color was back and defending a territory.
My intention was to raise the number of auratus by growing up the fry......but i never got there! I took chances, knowing that most would be used as feeders anyways, so most ended up in the belly of my jewels or salvini. The largest of the batch, as well as a few others, ended up growing to good size, but got killed, most likely by the male auratus.
The large female and the other with juvie/female coloration got killed.... again most likely by the male auratus. All of a suden, the smaller female became larger then the male....and he got killed. Can't say for sure she did it, as it could have been my male salvini, though I really doubt that. This leaves me only with her; now with full male coloration:
Makes me wonder whether or not lone males that I had in the past really where males rather then females!
