Are Tropheus as hard to keep as I seem think they are?

[four_by_ken]

For some reason I have this in my head that Tropheus are very hard to keep.  I really dont know anything about them.

Truth to it?

My wife has a couple types in mind that we are thinking about trying a colony of one of them in a 40 or 50 gallon.  But... they arent cheap as you all know.

[linuxrulesusa]

Seems like most of the difficulty has to do with feeding.  They are more prone to bloat than some other species.  But if you get them a good veggie based food, I don't see why they should be a huge problem for you.

See this also: http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=287

[four_by_ken]

I had a single Red Tropheus (thats all I know about it) in my "Mixed Tank" and it is thriving, doing GREAT.  Hard to do anything special with the food because of all the other fish.  But, I feed veggie flakes and NLS, which it gobbles up like a madman.

[linuxrulesusa]

My wife has a couple types in mind that we are thinking about trying a colony of one of them in a 40 or 50 gallon.  But... they arent cheap as you all know.

I just noticed this...you may want to consider going with a bigger tank, e.g. 65/70/75, per the article I linked.  Wouldn't take up that much more floor space and I think they might have more room.  I've seen several Tropheus setups and once you get 10+ adult Tropheus in a 75g tank, it doesn't look any too big.

[four_by_ken]

My wife has a couple types in mind that we are thinking about trying a colony of one of them in a 40 or 50 gallon.  But... they arent cheap as you all know.

I just noticed this...you may want to consider going with a bigger tank, e.g. 65/70/75, per the article I linked.  Wouldn't take up that much more floor space and I think they might have more room.  I've seen several Tropheus setups and once you get 10+ adult Tropheus in a 75g tank, it doesn't look any too big.

Just finished reading that article... Dont have room in the 3 tier rack where the last open tank in the house is.  The 50 gallon is as big as will fit in there.

Thanks for the link by the way.

We really should keep it empty and use it as a grow out tank.

[linuxrulesusa]

We really should keep it empty and use it as a grow out tank.

Amazing how hard it is to see a nice big tank sitting there empty and not put something in it...even if you know you should leave it for fry or QT or a hospital tank. 

[four_by_ken]

So totally true.  Need our Albus to breed again real soon so that we put something in there.

[JeffroM]

Tropheus do not seem any more difficult than anything else.  I seem to be able to kill them off at pretty much the same rate as the rest of my fish.

[Nick]

I would say that there is more Hype to tropheus than anything. I only kept them for about a year but over that year I had 57 of them and had absolutely no issues. If anything feeding and aggression would be two areas to be cautious with. To simplifiy that and get rid of any headaches is to use quality veggie based food. Some people use NLS and Dainichi cichlid pellets too but I just used Spirulina flake and Dainichi Veggie FX and Veggie Deluxe. I also never fed more than they can eat in 30seconds. I think that 1-2 min. idea is outdated.
As far as aggression, just have a decent size group. Like with any fish though im sure not every situation is the same so you have to watch to see if they start beating on eachother.
All in all I find them no harder than any other fish.

[Ron]

I think keeping a single one isn't challenging.

I think keeping a group is like playing with fire. If you aren't careful, you can get burned. If you take proper precautions, it can be great fun! 

Adding to what Nick mentioned, aside from aggression and feeding, keeping up with water changes is a third challenge. But I can't think of a fourth. Keep proper numbers, in a proper environment, with good food that isn't overfed, while maintaining a religious water change routine and you should be fine.

I started with a sub-adult group of 7 a long time ago and they did well, even bred! So I got another 30 of two more kinds and the whole thing started to blow up! Aggression magnified their stress, leading to bloat, leading to dying fish, and when I was finally able to curb the havoc I had ~10 left. Really sucked because tropheus aren't necessarily cheap.

I took a couple years off, then got back on the horse and now I've got two groups currently doing really well. 

[djlamonica]

I have recently just got into tropheus as well I had been doing some research prior and it kind of scared me off, I got a good deal on some f1 maswa at the auction so I decided to take the plunge.  I haven't noticed any real issues as of yet except my power outage where they acted a bit funky.  I feed once a day like I do all my fix varied diets nls pellets a couple times a week but mostly veggie flakes and mixed veggie flakes.  I dont over feed and I do large water changes once a week.  No signs of bloat yet.  I managed to pick up a few more from the oyers and the group is growing quickly currently at 13 they are in a 45 and will probably be there for a while.  And I am really enjoying them very much.

[jamarini]

One thing in addition to all the other good advice would be to have lots of structure (rocks or large clay pots or PVC pipe sections) in the tank to allow any individual tropheus to find refuge if/when it needs to get away from the general level of aggression in the tropheus tank.  I've raised and bred various types of tropheus over many years and never had problems with them as long as I fed them good quality veggie foods and NLS, made 30% water changes weekly, had plenty of rocks/pots in the tank, and kept a large enough group of adults (a dozen minimum to start).  Sometimes there will be more aggression when there are either too many males all trying to be dominant or too few males who then take out their aggression on the females.  If any individual does show signs of stress, disease, etc. be sure to isolate it very soon to minimize exposure to the others in the colony.  Raising them in a species-only, tropheus-only or tropheus/petrochromis tank of sufficient size is a good approach but raising them with a bunch of carnivorous tankmates is definitely not.  Overall, successfully raising tropheus takes a little research on their needs and sticking with their requirements.  Their being overly sensitive and all is more myth than fact unless the key rules already mentioned are ignored.

[Nick]

One thing in addition to all the other good advice would be to have lots of structure (rocks or large clay pots or PVC pipe sections) in the tank to allow any individual tropheus to find refuge if/when it needs to get away from the general level of aggression in the tropheus tank.  I've raised and bred various types of tropheus over many years and never had problems with them as long as I fed them good quality veggie foods and NLS, made 30% water changes weekly, had plenty of rocks/pots in the tank, and kept a large enough group of adults (a dozen minimum to start).  Sometimes there will be more aggression when there are either too many males all trying to be dominant or too few males who then take out their aggression on the females.  If any individual does show signs of stress, disease, etc. be sure to isolate it very soon to minimize exposure to the others in the colony.  Raising them in a species-only, tropheus-only or tropheus/petrochromis tank of sufficient size is a good approach but raising them with a bunch of carnivorous tankmates is definitely not.  Overall, successfully raising tropheus takes a little research on their needs and sticking with their requirements.  Their being overly sensitive and all is more myth than fact unless the key rules already mentioned are ignored.

Several good points. I believe the rock work in my tank was a major factor in my success over the last year too. So many places for the dominants to protect and equally as many places for those being picked on to hide.

[four_by_ken]

Lots of great advice, thanks guys.

[Super Turtleman]

Good info for my newly purchased Tropheus. More rocks on the way...