Tropheus ikola questions?

[A-town...]

Thinking about setting up a tank with some tropheus ikola I know the more the better with the tropheus to spread aggression but whats the best tank size for a small colony? could you do it in a 3foot or is that too small?

[smidey]

IMO a small colony of ikola will be very difficult to keep alive. I have not kept ikola specifically but everything i have read about them is they are the most aggro of all trophs.

3 foot is too small for adult fish but would work for fish up to 5 or 6cm, i had trophs is a 4 footer & i realised that was too small for them once i put them into their 2.0m tank. the more length the better, i know it is not always practical or possible to get big tanks but 4 to 5 foot should be the starting point & that will allow you to get more of them. they seem to be "travelling" fish in their nature. they basically do lengths, often in a school of my tank & that seems to keep them happy. when they were in my 4 footer they were always at each other as they were constantly near rivals.

[smidey]

what i do have in a four footer (1200x500x500) is a group of 17 (i think) pembas that range from 3cm to 7cm & they get along fine with plenty of rock work. that would be a better idea than a 3 footer but without going to 5 or 6. I doubt that they will be ok as adults in there but for now they are breeding plenty & there has been minimal damage to any fish so it is a short term solution to getting them out of their previous slightly smaller tank (1050x380x450).

[Navarre]

I had a colony of 12 in a 4 ft tank and they hammered each other

same colony in a 6 foot tank were much nicer toe ach other

HTh

[ryanjury]

I have 8 in a 170L 4fter so far so good, had 9 but one got smacked up and had to remove it (assume it was a boy) I will try and reintegrate it at some stage. They are only just maturing with the first 2 females starting to show signs of breeding over the weekend so time will tell if it will work out well in the future.

I think I might be lucky because I think started off with 3m 2f and then added another 4f, again these are just guesses based on behaviour and venting of young fish which is 50/50 but think I have a good number of females in there to break things up.

[smidey]

i have found trophs are quite calm fish until it comes time to compete for breeding rights then it is all on. Even after a weaker male has submitted & is no longer challenging he will continue to be chased & damaged by the dominant one which is why it often ends in death.

[A-town...]

hmm interesting.thanks for all the info. would one male two females in a 3foot be ok?

[smidey]

the idea is to get alot of fish in a group so the angry dominant male has a crowd to chase which spreads the aggression. with that many he has very few targets so killing the lot won't take long.

[ryanjury]

hmm interesting.thanks for all the info. would one male two females in a 3foot be ok?

Some people (internationally) do actually have some luck with breeding pairs/trios of tropheus, they are not very likely to succeed but can work if you are lucky. I met a breeder the other day whos male ikola killed all the other tropheus bar one female and they happily breed together with no issues, but I wouldn't recommend trying it.. Also good luck finding sexable fish.