Tropheus

[dthoffsett]

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

The reason tropheus are notoriously difficult to keep is that they are very susceptible to bloat. It's recommended that you have bloat medication on hand before buying your tropheus. Juveniles are more prone that adults to get bloat from stress, though it can hit at any age. They are prone to stress so you want to make sure their water is immaculate, try to do maintenance and feeding at the same time every time, and don't set the tank up in a high traffic area. Diet is really important with them as well, spirulina should be the biggest portion of their diet, supplementing with fresh veggies will also be appreciated, like all cichlids they will gorge theirselves when fed, so feeding them smaller amounts several times a day is preferable to feeding just once or twice/day.

It will be a lot of hard work, but a properly cared for tropheus tank is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[Colin_T]

Bloat in Tropheus is just about always caused by the wrong food. they are true vegetarians and have really long digestive tracts compared to meat eating fish. This means if they are fed meat food it starts to rot while it is still inside their gut. The rotting food causes massive bacterial infections and the fish bloats up and dies.

Spirulina flakes are fine and so are goldfish pellets and any vege pellet or flake. Fresh & frozen veges (as mentioned above) are also good foods. Having a light on the tank will encourage algae to grow on the glass and rocks and the fish will graze on that. You can also have a pond outside and fill it with small rocks. As the rocks get algae on them you can put them in the tank for the fish to feed off. When the rocks have been stripped of most of the algae the rock is returned to the pond to grow some more.

Avoid meat foods, in particular beef heart, & bloodworms. If you feed this to Tropheus they will be dead within a couple of days.