Care and Maintenence of Tropheus

[Apexpredator]

I'm sure many of you

have tried and given up on keeping Tropheus. Lord knows I have almost thrown in the towel myself.

Hopefully you will find this useful and, more importantly, it will keep your Tropheus alive.

Over the years I have learned a few things that work pretty well. By no means is this a

comprehensive list. It is meant to help you successfully prepare and care for your Tropheus once

they arrive. This has worked for me, others may have different thoughts.

1) ALWAYS

expect bloat when you get your fish in from whoever you buy them from. I repeat ALWAYS! In my

experience bloat hits juvi's much worse than adults. Adults seem to take travel much better.

You should consider this when making your intial purchase.

2) ALWAYS get some of the

food that the shipper is feeding them, this will help you to avoid giving them new food and causing

them to bloat. You should slowly wean them off of whatever they are eating and feed them spirulina

flakes/pellets only. HBH and OSI make a great flake.

3) ALWAYS have metro ready to

treat the tank for bloat. I have found that it works very well if you soak their food in some

dissolved metro the first few days after you get them and then feed them. Tropheus will eat like

pigs when you first get them so it is a good way to get the metro into their system. This should

nip bloat before it begins.

4) NEVER order Tropheus unless you have lots of metro on

hand. If you wait to order it when you see bloat appear, by the time your metro arrives, you fish

will be too far gone.

5) Overfiltration is best for Tropheus. They are pigs and need

clean water. If you over-filtrate you can do a water change every 2-3 weeks and it's no

problem.

If you feed metro right off the bat and you keep them on their same food

source you should be just fine. I made the mistake of not having metro on hand when I got my 16

Kazumbas and, of course, they bloated up. I managed to save 12. I wont make that mistake again.

Tropheus are actually very easy to take care of once you get them past the intital arrival

phase. Keep them on their spirulina based diet and all should be right with the world.

[bobrfish]

Hi Apex,

Keep

Tropheus long enough and they will break your heart. Metro or no metro.

Bob

[buntbarsch]

It is sad to hear comments

like Bob's and I sure feel bad for him. I keep and breed Tropheus since the early 1970's

and yes, it is a roller coaster ride. But I also have to say that these fish are one of the most

interesting and beautiful cichlids that come out of Lake Tanganyika. I did loose some fish too but

in all those years I never had to deal with bloat. The fish that I lost died because of me. When

the first Tropheus arrived in Germany (I still lived there at the time and was a member of the

German Cichlid Association) nobody really had the experience on how to keep them properly.

Especially when it comes to their dietary needs. Over the years, hobbyists have learned their

lessons and have their experiences with others. The fish that I lose today are through fighting.

I have breeding groups that get along for years and then one day they just pick one group member

(mostly a sub-dominant male) keep after him until they have finally ripped him (or her) to shreds.


I absolutely hate using any kind of chemical in my fish room and have never owned Metro. The

only medication I keep is Clout and Quick Cure but very rarely use them. If there are any wounds

or if I see that some fish behave in a suspicious manor, I add some sea salt to the water (1-2

table spoons per 10 gal). That usually takes care of the problem. I always add 1 table spoon per

10 gal to my wild groups as a pre-cautionary measure.
There is one thing though that makes

my skin crawl. Some hobbyists actually use a bleach solution to clean their tanks. Just the

thought of having bleach close to my fish room scares the living daylights out of me. Well,

everybody has to make their own experiences.
Anyway, I am getting carried away here. Please

don't give up on these beautiful cichlids.


Klaus
My Webpage (http://www.buntbarsch.ca)

[bobrfish]

My hat is off to the many

Tropheus keepers that have success keeping these wondeful fish. After losing eight to ten

different variants within a few months it was more than obvious this was my fault. Necropsy of

fish was a big waste of time. After five years of mourning, thought it would be OK to try a few.

However, lost those also. It is not only sad but embarassing to buy Tropheus from friends now.
Keep up the great work Klaus and the rest of you folks too.