Male Melanochromis Auratus/ Mbuna Compatibility

[Nygbrian9]

I've had freshwater community tanks (semi planted and heavily planted) for over a decade now, but recently decided to start my first Cichlid tank.
I have an established 60 gal African Mbuna tank and desperately need compatibility advice.
I started the tank off by buying a total of 17 juveniles. I figured it was a great deal from my LFS, they had them all in the same tank, and I thought I could avoid deaths by introducing them all at once (as opposed to adding new fish in an aggressive and territorially established tank).
My stock list is:
5 X Melanochromis Auratus
2 X Labidochromis Caeruleus (Electric Yellow)
2 X Melanochromis Johanni
4 X Pseudotropheus msobo "Magunga"
4 X Maylandia Lomardoi

The behavior of the tank has been very normal (aggressive, but not any more than expected), and all these species seem to be getting along just fine. They just chase around their own kind. And I have plenty of rocks and hiding places for them all.

My 2 questions and concerns are as follows:

1) One of my Melanochromis Auratus has grown enough to start changing to a darker color/indicate that he is a male. And since then has been VERY dominant over several hiding places in the middle of the tank. I looked into keeping Melanochromis Auratus male's and read that I should not keep them with other males. Does this mean if my remaining 4 Melanochromis Auratus are females then it would be ok to keep him? Or would he also pose a threat to the other Mbuna males in the tank?

2) Is my general compatibility ok? I felt like I had done enough research on the compatibility of the juveniles I bought (and the tank has been fine for nearly 2 months now), but this new problem with the male Melanochromis Auratus has got me second guessing and questioning myself.

Thanks for reading this through, and I REALLY would appreciate any and all advice. Thank you all in advance.

 

[snowman17]

You will find that a lot of people have trouble with the auratus lve kept several type of mbuna and they are the most aggressive I've kept. More than likely you may have another male if so he may never show male color due to the dominant male. I would just keep an eye on him and If he starts to cause damage or kill other fish I would rehome him but the thing with that is if u do indeed have another male he will rise and hopefully won't be as aggressive. What you want is a tank boss who is not overly aggressive but does his job by keeping everyone in check. I'm lucky to have one in a red zebra in a all male tank. Good luck

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[Nygbrian9]

That was so helpful. Thank you so much for your reply!