unsure of tank mates. what do you think?

[techjoe]

all right I may have made a mistake but I think I will play it out and if necessary do some rearranging.  I have a 55gl. with 3  Pundamilia sp. "crimson tide", 3 Labidochromis caeruleus "yellow labs", 1 Synodontis eupterus "Featherfin Catfish", 2 Plecos.  Well I just added 3 trouphus morrii and was planing to add 3 more next week.  Spent up the hobby budget for the week.  I have heard you should keep lots of trouphus together and only trouphus.  Do you think the others in the tank will be alright?  do you think 6-9 trouphus would be too much or too little?  This is my first time with trouphus at all they were always tricky to find and a bit on the pricy side for the numbers needed any way.  I look forward to your opinions thank you.

[djlamonica]

The tropheus defiantly like to be in groups of 12 or more, that being said a google search will come up with plenty of people keeping tropheus in small numbers in a "community" like setting.  It would be very unlikely you would have any breeding occur between your tropheus also with that small of a number you could possibly see some very heavy aggression on each other.  With tropheus it seems more is always better.

(Not an expert but I was recently looking into staring a trophus dubosi colony so I have done some reasearch.)

[saji1986]

dj is right - you are better off to stick to a larger group of Tropheus. They can get quite aggressive- the larger the group, the more dispersed the aggression is.

Also, tropheus are mainly to be fed a low protein, high vegetable based diet, consisting of spirulina, veggie flakes etc. If you feed them too much protein they can develop "bloat" - your other fish I beliieve like higher protein diets (not sure - been a while since I've kept Malawi cichlids)
so there are dietary differences on the fish you are keeping together. You can see if your other fish will respond to a veggie based diet, also you can feed New Life Spectrum cichlid pellets - all the fish seem to like that, and I haven't had a problem with giving it to my colony of tropheus bemba.

Tropheus are great fish to keep, I hope it goes well for you!

[54zamboni]

although there's always exceptions to every "rule", tropheus in a 55g long term is not likely to end well. 

[hezekiah]

i agree with zamboni trophs need a bigger tank to be housed long term. and always try to put them in at the same time. they generally will go after new tankmates (other trophs) relentlessly. i have a few in a community tank right now 3 dubs 2 moori red lupotas and 4 blue rainbows all in a 300 gallonwith other tangs and malawians. i also have a 150 with ilangi and brichardi and blue ahlis. and a 110 just for ikolas 6 looking to add more in the next week or 3. now this is okay cause they are still fry and tank is basically empty.

[techjoe]

Thank you for the information.  I will think on this for a bit and try to find a bigger tank.  I got the ok to get a bigger tank from the wife if I get rid of some of the smaller ones.  so it would be a little bit of tank juggling.