# I have auratus babies!



## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

I started off with 2 auratuses about a year ago, they had 20 babies and both died, and now I have 19 adult auratus in the same tank. Two of them became pregnant about 3 weeks ago and so I put them both into a small 10 litre tank. But for over two weeks none of them spat. I removed one female and the following day the other spat! 15 fry, exact replicas of their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles. I then put the other female into the 10 litre tank with her sister's fry still present. She tried to mouth brood her sisters fry probably because she thought they were her own babies, but they all swam away. Eventually though they accepted as a foster mum and about 5 entered her mouth, the other 10 couldn't fit because her mouth was so full. Two days after she spat too, and I've put her back with her brothers and sisters. I'll send some pics in soon. Even though I've been breeding cichlids for so long, here is my question, and I'll be very impressed who ever answers it because it beats me. 
One of the fry looks like the shape of a bannana, almost as if it's whole spine has been bent. I thought mabye it got squashed in its aunts mouth because there were so many in there, or maybe it's a mutation or something. Also one of them only has one eye. I don't think it's an injury because I can't imagine what inflicted it. Can anyone have a guess as to how these abnormalities occured? Also I think I have another mutation, but for the better. One of them dosn't have a straight vertical line but an almost dapled evenly broken line, Very attactive, I hope that I can breed it when it becomes an adult and create a new strain. Finally I've been thinking about creating a hybrid. I've read it in books but does anyone know if it's possible to cross an M. autatus with an M. chipokke. C


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Keeping mbunas FROM hybridizing is the hard part. LOL! You shouldn't have much trouble getting the cross you want, although I'm not sure you'd like the outcome. 

Good luck on your dappled mutant strain.

A missing eye can be caused by a few things, ranging from a birth defect to having it stabbed out by a sibling's fin when stuffed in mummy's mouth. 

A bent spine is probably a birth defect, since it's unlikely that it could have been bent so much during brooding, unless the birth defect was soft bones.


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