WTB Tropheus moorii

[zombieworm]

Hiya all.

I am on the lookout for two tropheus moorii (the dudes with the yellow stripe). I live in Hastings, so they will probably need to be shipped.

[smidey]

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

Edited July 10, 2016 by smidey

[zombieworm]

It gets very confusing after a while, as some say it is the duboisi that have the yellow stripe/band (but mine are white) while others say it is the bemba (but mine are orange). That's why I stipulated the stripe/band colour.

But yes, Ikola would be the variety of moorii I am after (I have the T. moorii moliro aka "firecracker").

Basically, I already have the white striped one, the orange striped one, and the red striped one, so now I want the one with the yellow stripe/band. 

[smidey]

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

 

[zombieworm]

I don't really know very much about the species name with African cichlid (obviously - lol), this is the first time I have had Africans.

I bought a moorii moliro, and was told by someone it was also called a Firecracker, so when a Firecracker came available from somewhere else I bought it, thinking it was a morilo. Going on what you have said, it appears I have one each of a different fish.

The duboisi are very definately duboisi, at least I have that right - lol. I have 2 of those.

I bought 2 pemba (red stripe?), and decided to buy another 2 as well as 2 bemba, but 1 of each was DOA, so I have 3 pemba and 1 bemba.

That's my Tropheus collection at the moment. I am wanting to add 2 yellow stripe/band ones to that.

The only other Tanganyika I have are 4 Julidochromis transcriptus. Everything else in the tank is Malawi - 4 damasoni (blue with vertical stripes), 4 electric blue johanni (blue with horizontal stripes), and 2 cobalt blues (blue with no stripes), as well as 3 cuckoos (not blue - lol).

[smidey]

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.

[zombieworm]

I feed  them JBL NovoRift and JBL NovoMalawi, and have recently purchased some Repashy Super Green which is specifically for Tropheus. Fortunately I was aware of the Malawi bloat thing before I set up, so have been really careful and picky about their food.

I was told they had to be kept in large groups, but that it didn't matter if they were all the same type or not. Possibly that is true for the Malawi types but not the Tropheus. Everyone I have gotten information from has had the Malawi types like electric yellows etc, but no one I know has ever had Tropheus, so they may have been just assuming it is the same with all Africans. 

If the only reason not to keep the different types together is because of cross breeding, though, then that isn't an issue for me - I have no interest in breeding any of them. Although I tend to keep pairs of each kind, they aren't male/female pairs. Just two of the same kind for visual effects. 

I have had the tank for about 6 months now, and so far so good. All the tropheus  (and other as well) are healthy and active, with a bit of chasing around, but no real viciousness. 

Feeding time is a riot - they are like a pack of piranhas of  a carcass! It is the only tank I have that does the feeding frenzy thing. 

I know they require a higher ph than other fish, so I have aragonite sand in the substrate, and got the nice knobbly calcium carbonate rocks for the tank. They love the rocks.

What surprised me the most was that they didn't destroy the plants. I was told you can't keep live plants with them because they will decimate them. I put plants in specifically for them to munch on, but they have left the plants alone.

All in all I have found them to be a very easy to keep fish so far, and I love sitting and watching them.

Ironic really, the four fish I have found the easiest to keep and have never had any problems with - Elephantnose, African Butterfly Fish, Bumblebee Gobies, and Tropheus - are the ones everyone says are hard to keep.  Lol. It is the discus I have no end of problems with.

Edited July 11, 2016 by zombieworm

[smidey]

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

[zombieworm]

They were all purchased as juveniles, and are just starting to get their adult colours now. I am hoping that the aggression levels don't increase with maturity, otherwise I will have to pick one type and rehome the rest. 

Yeah, I  got really confused over the whole pemba bemba thing. One shop said pemba are orange stripe and bemba are red striped, then a different place said it was the other way around. Now they might be the same thing. Guess I'll find out when they all get their colours - lol. 

I added a pic of my tank to the previous post. 

Edited July 11, 2016 by zombieworm

[smidey]

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.

[zombieworm]

Hmm... since pemba are what I have the most of, guess that will be the type I keep. 

[smidey]

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