smidey

The only reason i've still got a tank is because I put the 2.0m tank in my office so i see it everyday which keeps the interest there, just

Pictures simply can't do the size of that tank justice, it's awesome. I've been through a similar thing over the last few years, sold off a breeding colony, shut down some tanks but still having one has been good so i recommend not shutting it down. Maybe because it's in a separate room like it is, do you think that kind of makes it less enticing?

Looks like a red zebra to me. A better side on pic will help though

I have literally made $1,000s over the years with Africans. It wasn't a business, I simply set up with the fish I liked at the time but that also had a high retail price due to their availability or desirability. I just gave them a good environment and feed and they took care of the rest. It was as much work as stripping a female, placing the fry in a fry tank and feeding them until they were a saleable size. Learnt how to ship and was as easy as watching them breed then grow. It took some coin to setup, when I bought tropheus they were about $50 a 2cm fry but a year or do down the track they easily paid for themselves plus plenty but I didn't buy tripwire to make money, they are by far the bossest fish to keep I think it just comes down to the species, species of fish do come into and go out of demand. I bred hundreds of red empress back in the day. They were a desirable fish initially but in the end I couldn't get $2 a fish. From memory I sent kiwiplymouth about 60 juvies for just the coat of the freight in the end.

actually never got around to doing that so it's still as it is pictured haha

nearly 6 years later it's still as strong as the day i built it.

you could keep them all if you wanted, ideally you just need to get a lot more fish and a much bigger tank to give yourself the best chance of it going well that's why they aren't that common, the setup cost of big tanks plus large numbers of expensive fish hinders a lot from doing it. I recently sold a colony of 18 duboisi for $860 so they aren't cheap

unfortunately the one thing i do know for sure is when they mature they will want to breed and that means they will fight for dominance, basic wild animal behaviour and no amount of separating and re-adding will change that. yeah i see that. long term it's about a third or half the size you need. think you need to starting thinking about the future of these fish before you have 1 of each left.

ok cool, sounds like your off to a good start. what size are they? it usually goes bad aggression wise once they mature so if they are small, under 6cm then it hasn't hit yet. You may be lucky and get away with only having pairs but it's likely you won't. The info about stocking many for spreading aggression is right for most malawi species, think of tropheus to be like demonsoni rather than e yellows. Oh i forgot above, pemba and bemba is the same thing. as i understand it the confusion comes because the locals call them that and the europeans can't tell the difference between "P" and "B" in their big dark african voices

that's ok, we all had to start somewhere i'm thinking this is going to be a very steep learning curve for you. Tropheus have very specific requirements for long term health but as long as you set up will you shouldn't have any issues. You need to have them in a good sized tank, minimum 5 foot for a single species, minimum 6 foot for two species. Tank footprint is the most important over outright litres. so a long skinny, short tank is better than a short tall deep tank of the same capacity. You'll need around 6 times the tank volume per hour of filtration. I recommend feeding NLS cichlid formula and or jbl novorift. Others have fed other foods but i have no experience with them & only ever fed those two types with great success. Food is critical for these guys as they are prone to getting bloat. It's best to google that, malawi bloat. As for stocking, they need to kept in larger groups of their own kind, not other species. they are con-specific aggressive which means they'll attack their own kind primarily so other species don't spread the aggression so having two or three usually ends up in the dominant fish killing the rest. they will chase other species but the worst aggression is on their own kind as they are fighting for dominance. I have kept groups as few as 7 or 8 but they were fry together so grew up with an established pecking order. If you need to add a fish to a colony it must be smaller or a massive fight will break out for the top spot. mixing tropheus species is not ideal. It can be done as long as it is duboisi and one other. all the species except for duboisi are similar in space and typically dark coloured with coloured bands so will readily cross breed. the duboisi are a completely different shape and colour to all the other species. these fish typically breed with other fish they recognise in shape and colour. I see a lot they are referred to as hard to keep but i have found them no harder than any malawi species which to me are very easy but that's only the case if you set up right in the first place.

ok, there's a bit for you to learn about the tropheus species. here are a few of what we have in NZ for your info. there are two types of duboisi, the yellow band which is most common and white band which it sounds like you have. Tropheus sp. Ikola is a black fish with a wide yellow band. Tropheus sp. Black Pemba is a black fish with wide orange band Tropheus sp Black Bulu Point is a black fish with two orange blotches Tropheus sp Red Moliro which are sort of a brown and red fish Tropheus Firecracker is a line bred hybrid out of Europe i think it was. You can look at them all except the firecracker here http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/results.php?genus=212

do you mean tropheus duboisi? they have a yellow stripe. Maybe ikola, they have a wide yellow band to.

I think you need to think about getting more tropheus, a lot more. Ideally they need to be kept in a group of at least a dozen or more but you could get away with 8 or 9 as long as they have grown up together from an age before breeding becomes an option. tropheus are very specific in their requirements of setup and particularly food. They are dead easy to keep as long as you setup correctly, if not the chances are you'll either end up with one dominant male that kills all the others or you'll lose the lot due to bloat, usually from feeding the wrong foods. Basically, filtration needs to be at least 5 times the tank volume per hour with 30% WC weekly. Feeding, i have had good success with NLS cichlid formula and JBL novorift although the novorift seems to foul the water more than other foods so feed sparingly. The group of each species of tropheus needs to be as I posted above. this is because they are conspecific aggressive which means they will bully their own kind primarily. They will chase other species but hammer their own kind. Adding more of other species does not spread the aggression enough to help the other tropheus.

haha all good. neither, but it makes no sense to me to compare how i'd feel about living in a tank as a human rather than how i'd feel about it as if I was a fish basically, as i understand it a fish temperature is determined by its environment which in turn effects how they behave. short term temp changes of 7 deg i don't believe to be an issue. some fish, in their natural habitats feed in deep parts of lakes where it may be around 5 deg C but then head to the surface to digest the food in 14 degC water. that speeds up digestion times by several times which means they absorb the nutrients faster & in turn grow faster, become stronger etc.

interesting, comparing a warm blooded mammal to an ectotherm. you've made little blankies, wooly hats and supplied a tiny hot water bottle for every fish at water change time haven't you?