Tropheus Page
Introduction
I have been keeping and breeding tropheus for around 3 years and have been keeping fish in general for as long as I can remember. Ever since I saw the inquisitive little blunt nosed fish I knew I had to have some. Although keeping them is no easy task unless you know some information about them.
Care
I do not recomend that beginners try to keep tropheus but I do think that cichlid keepers must try them out at one point or another.
Feeding: Tropheus must be fed vegatable based foods throughout their life. Romaine Lettuce is always a good choice for a treat but use a staple of a algae based flake. ig Tetra Marin. Adults can be fed live or frozen brine shrimp once a week. Use caution not to over feed.
Aquascape: As with many other Tanganyikan cichlid, Tropheus like a rocky aquascape with caves and shelves for them to hide. I prefer to use lava rock as it is inexpensive and easy to work with. I also like to use sand as a substrate as it helps PH and many other fish (ig. furcifers) like to dig in it. I have also heard that when the Tropheus are breeding the eggs that are dropped on the bottom can be confused with the rocks and in turn the rocks are picked up with the eggs. While the female shuffles them inside her mouth the eggs can be damaged by the rocks.
PH: 7.5-8.5
Tank: The fish seems to get along better when the tank is larger than 6 ft. This allows the dominant fish a large enough area to control. This subject, however, is controversial. I have kept them in a 4 ft., 90 gal.tank just fine. I have heard of pairs in a tank of 30 gal. (I'd have to see that for myself).
Temperment: These fish are very aggresive towards one another and need to be kept in a group of 8 or more. This allows the dominant male to spread its aggression around instead of concentrating on a single fish. They do seem to leave other fish alone for the most part.
Breeding: These fish are mouth brooder. It can be hard to tell if the female is holding because the fish will continue to eat.
Compadibility: Tropheus should be kept with other mildly aggressive cichlids. Again, the fish are very aggressive with conspecific fish so USE LARGE GROUPS OR DO NOT ATTEMPT THESE FISH.
Tropheus Links
Special thanks to Ken Armke for the pictures
Click on his site for quality African cichlids
A wealth of pictures and information on tropheus provided by Jessica Miller
Another beautiful Tropheus site by Christian Alfredsson
