Tropheus

[backtotropical]

Hi,

I am considering setting up a big Tropheus species tank and would like as much info as possible please.

I will probably start with Tropheus Duboisi, maybe Moori, and build from there.

Many thanks in advance.

BTT

 

[darrel69]

Aww.. im dead jealous, i love Tropheus and wanna set-up too.. few things holding me back at mo though..

Anyway, a read you may be interested in TROPHEUS CORNER.

Good Luck

 

[backtotropical]

Thanks Darrel

 

[darrel69]

No Worries

 

[Colin_T]

Keep them in a group of 10 or more. The males are highly territorial and if there are only a couple in the tank the dominant one will kill the other males.
Have lots of rocks and do regular water changes. Cycle the tank first before adding the fish otherwise the high PH will probably kill them.
Don't feed them any meat foods and only give them plant matter and vege flakes/pellets to eat. A small amount of daphnia can be offered but it is best to avoid any sort of meat food to prevent them developing bloat.
Only keep one species per tank to prevent inbreeding. Use a 6x2x2ft or larger tank for the colony.
You can keep catfish and other peaceful cichlids with them.

 

[backtotropical]

Thanks Colin.

I've just discovered these too..... Tropheus Sp. 'Moliro', Stunning!!

I will be fishless cycling the tank, but can you confirm what you mean about high pH killing them? I assume you mean that if I cycle with fish, the high pH will increase the toxicity of the ammonia. Is that what you are referring to?

The article linked to above seems to imply that it is ok to mix different species, but not variants of the same species. Anyone else have any thoughts on that?

Cheers

BTT

 

[Colin_T]

yep the higher PH increases the toxicity of the ammonia

 

[backtotropical]

Thanks again Colin.

One more question, does anyone have any thoughts or experience of keeping them with Frontosa? My first thought is that the dominant males might clash personalities, but just wondering if anyone knows one way or the other?

Cheers

BTT

 

[kj23502]

One more question, does anyone have any thoughts or experience of keeping them with Frontosa?
BTT

It wouldn't be a good idea as both have totally different dietary needs. Fronts are carnivores and tropheus are strickly herbivores. Feeding tropheus meaty type foods is one of the leading suspects/causes of Malawi bloat, which is almost always fatal.

 

[darrel69]

Kj's right. Although they can live together, Tropheus are highley susceptible to Bloat!! You need to be careful with what you feed them. If they manage to whip'up anything meaty you may need to feed Fronts, you'll soon have issues on your hands...

EDIT: btw, that fish in your sig is gorgeous. I aint to good with American's.. Green terror ??

 

[backtotropical]

Thanks again guys. Does that mean i can't keep Synodontis Multipunctatus with them either? I suppose it does?

btw, that fish in your sig is gorgeous. I aint to good with American's.. Green terror ??

Blue Acara (Aequidens Pulcher). I think they are stunning too!

I was speaking to my LFS today and he reckons he doesn't know many people who have any luck keeping Tropheus. He's not sure whether it is because of the strict diet they require or the struggle to re-create the mineral content of Lake Tanganyika in the home aquarium. Anyone care to comment on this?

Many thanks again. You guys are superb!

BTT

 

[Colin_T]

synodontis multipunctatus will be fine with them if you can feed them without feeding the tropheus. The best way to do this is to feed the tropheus really heavily before lights out. Then feed the multis after the lights have been off for an hour. Then hopefully the tropheus won't eat any of the food for the multis.

It's easy enough to recreate the water quality in Lake Tanganyika. Just use a rift lake conditioner, there's plenty of different ones around and they all do the same thing.

 

[backtotropical]

Thanks again Colin.

About these Rift Lake Conditioners, i thought they generally gave water the same composition as Lake Malawi, not Lake Tanganyika (i may be wrong), as the 2 lakes have quite different water.

To quote our fellow member, Neale Monks

Of particular interest to aquarists are Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika. While both contain hard water, the chemical compositions of the two lakes are very different. The water in Lake Malawi is richest in calcium carbonate, with smaller amounts of other salts. Lake Tanganyika, by contrast, contains hardly any calcium salts, and instead contains various magnesium, sodium and potassium salts, including carbonates, chlorides, and sulphates.

Source http/www.wetwebmedia.com/FWsubwebindex/fwh2oquality.htm

Is it really sufficient to have one type of conditioner for fish from both lakes? It seems unlikely to me.

Cheers

BTT

 

[Colin_T]

I suppose it depends on the actual rift lake conditioner. I use Aquasonic but I'm not sure if it's available in the UK. It is lots of calcium in it. But most have a similar mixture and you simply add enough conditioner to increase the hardness levels to what you want.
eg: I used it at about 1/2 strength for my rainbowfish and it increased the GH by about 200ppm. That would probably be fine to Malawis. Then you could use it at full strength for Tankganyikans to give you the harder water they require.
You can increase the magnesium level with Epsom salts if required.
Unless you are dealing with wild caught Malawis they won't really care too much if their GH comes from calcium or magnesium. We kept them in straight tap water at the shop and that had very little hardness in, less than 100ppm. We just put limestone rocks in the tanks and that kept the PH up. The fish were fine and never had any issues with the soft water. Both Malawis & Tanganyikans were kept this way but they were all captive bred, we’re not allowed to import most cichlids into the country.

There was also a link around here somewhere that gave formulas for making up your own rift lake conditioner using common ingredients available from most supermarkets. Sorry, can't remember where it was but I'm sure it's still around.

I thought Tanganyika had more calcium in it and Malawi had more magnesium. This is the opposite to the quote from Neale, not sure now

 

[darrel69]

... Rift Lake Buffer Recipe

EDIT: You may be interested in the chart at the bottom of THIS article also..