Tropheus Tankmates

[jeff_burgess]

Hello,
I am looking at possibly populating my 150 gallon cube type tank with some fish. I have the opportunity to get some small Tropheus, and wondering what other type of fish I can keep with them.

I know people prefer to keep lakes with lakes, but has anyone had any luck with keeping other fish with a small colony of them by any chance?

Specifically Juli type, Afra's, or Frontosa?

What have other people had success with while keeping Tropheus.?

Thanks,Jeff
:animal0028:

 

[Charlutz]

They do much better kept by themselves. The big thing for them is diet, and then aggression. They need to be with veggie eaters. You could try a pair of gobies. They are too boisterous to do well with frontosa. Not sure the julies would get enough to eat. Both frontosa and julies prefer more protein in their diets than tropheus. Some people do keep them with cyps and feed a balanced food. There are a number of keepers on the board that can help, though I suspect they keep mainly species only tanks.

 

[longstocking]

Here is a list of fish that have worked for me with Tropheus:

Mbuna ( nothing too large or mean ) Some that worked for me Tropheops, C. afra, Cobalt blues
Gobies
Limnotilapia dardenni
Simochromis
Petrochromis
Julidochromis
C. horei

Hope that helps.. if youw ant further deatils just let me know

 

[phishphorphun]

Hey Jeff, I have a five foot 120g that holds 19 tropheus, 4 young adult cyps, 3 juvy cyps, 3 L. stappersii, 2 L. brevis, and one large wc goby. I currently have fry from all three breeding groups (trophs, cyps, and shellies).

Diet is New Life Spectrum pellets. The tropheus fry graze on the algae and also eat the pellet wastes (the small granules that are passed into the tank through their gills) from the rest of the fish during feeding times. All my fish are raised on NLS from the beginning. Except for some frozen baby brine shrimp fed in the groowout tanks occasionally, LFS diet exclusively.

Although the mixed 120g tank has only had this mix for about a year now, so far so good. As the trophs and cyps grow in size, things may change. Time will tell.

As for aggressive behavior, yeah the trophs are somewhat aggressive to the shellies. But not so much toward the cyps. Probably because the cyps spend most of the time in the middle and upper areas of the water column. Having two large rockpiles extending high in the tank at either end, helps control the aggression of the trophs too. Dominant males supervise each rockpile and another controls the group that hang out in the potted anubias/rock garden in the center.

Here is a link to another post on the CCA site that I started not too long ago. It shows the fish and layout.

http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forum/index...?showtopic=1939

 

[daniel4832]

Jeff,
I also feed my fish mostly NLS, though I have been adding Omega kelp pellets and their veggie flakes to the tanks with Tropheus. To correct Charlie, Julies do well in Tropheus tanks partly because, in their natural environment they eat less protein then most of the other substrait spawning Tangs, they eat a lot of veggie matter. The J. marlerie is one of the few fish in the lake that eats sponges! Since I feed NLS, I have had success raising both Julies and Tangs with Tropheus, I even have a trio of N. beuscheri raising fry in with my Tropheus "Ikola", which are also raising fry in the tank. My first success in raising different fish in the same tank, thanks Sarah!
What kind of Tropheus are you getting?
Thanks,
Daniel

 

[jeff_burgess]

Jeff,
I also feed my fish mostly NLS, though I have been adding Omega kelp pellets and their veggie flakes to the tanks with Tropheus. To correct Charlie, Julies do well in Tropheus tanks partly because, in their natural environment they eat less protein then most of the other substrait spawning Tangs, they eat a lot of veggie matter. The J. marlerie is one of the few fish in the lake that eats sponges! Since I feed NLS, I have had success raising both Julies and Tangs with Tropheus, I even have a trio of N. beuscheri raising fry in with my Tropheus "Ikola", which are also raising fry in the tank. My first success in raising different fish in the same tank, thanks Sarah!
What kind of Tropheus are you getting?
Thanks,
Daniel[/b]

Daniel,
Will probably get Tropheus sp. Red (Ndole) type.
Thanks for your help
Jeff

 

[jeff_burgess]

Hey Jeff, I have a five foot 120g that holds 19 tropheus, 4 young adult cyps, 3 juvy cyps, 3 L. stappersii, 2 L. brevis, and one large wc goby. I currently have fry from all three breeding groups (trophs, cyps, and shellies).

Diet is New Life Spectrum pellets. The tropheus fry graze on the algae and also eat the pellet wastes (the small granules that are passed into the tank through their gills) from the rest of the fish during feeding times. All my fish are raised on NLS from the beginning. Except for some frozen baby brine shrimp fed in the groowout tanks occasionally, LFS diet exclusively.

Although the mixed 120g tank has only had this mix for about a year now, so far so good. As the trophs and cyps grow in size, things may change. Time will tell.

As for aggressive behavior, yeah the trophs are somewhat aggressive to the shellies. But not so much toward the cyps. Probably because the cyps spend most of the time in the middle and upper areas of the water column. Having two large rockpiles extending high in the tank at either end, helps control the aggression of the trophs too. Dominant males supervise each rockpile and another controls the group that hang out in the potted anubias/rock garden in the center.

Here is a link to another post on the CCA site that I started not too long ago. It shows the fish and layout.

http://www.capitalcichlids.org/forum/index...?showtopic=1939[/b]

Thank you for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
I think I'll take your advice though. The person I am getting them from has this type of setup, and he has had success as well. I also feed NLS pellets. Bob Pilato turned me on to this when I got back into the hobby.
Thanks again, Jeff

 

[jeff_burgess]

Here is a list of fish that have worked for me with Tropheus:

Mbuna ( nothing too large or mean ) Some that worked for me Tropheops, C. afra, Cobalt blues
Gobies
Limnotilapia dardenni
Simochromis
Petrochromis
Julidochromis
C. horei

Hope that helps.. if youw ant further deatils just let me know [/b]

Thanks for your list. This is good news from me since I'm considering C. Afra, and Juli Transcriptis (yellow type)
I love the Tropheus so hopefully I have some good success. Thanks again, Jeff

 

[jeff_burgess]

They do much better kept by themselves. The big thing for them is diet, and then aggression. They need to be with veggie eaters. You could try a pair of gobies. They are too boisterous to do well with frontosa. Not sure the julies would get enough to eat. Both frontosa and julies prefer more protein in their diets than tropheus. Some people do keep them with cyps and feed a balanced food. There are a number of keepers on the board that can help, though I suspect they keep mainly species only tanks.[/b]

Thank you for your help. Jeff