Tropheus Duboisi....

[rahim101]

Hi Neil,

Do you still have a group of the above???

If so, I need some advise.

I currently have a group 16 juvies as well as a small group of 6 Chimba's in a 90 Gallon.

question, should I get more duboisi (5 more) or will I be OK with the group that I have????

I also have 7 cyps in the same tank!!!!!

Thanks,

[RD.]

Hi Rahim,

No, I had to part with mine as I needed the tank space for another species.

I'm certainly no expert on Tropheus (understatement of the year) but from everything I've read, and seen, Tropheus tend to have individual personalities, and what may work well in one tank, may end in disaster in another. It usually boils down to the aggression level of the dom fish, as well as the m/f ratio. Too many males in a 4 ft 90 gallon, and you may end up with a few dead males down the road.

This type of aggression is usually what also leads to 'bloat', as the illness that triggers bloat is caused from stress (usually not an improper diet as most often believed). If it was my tank, I'd add the 5 duboisi, and remove the Chimba's & cyps. IMO that would give you the best odds for long term success. Even still, you may have to weed out a few extra males down the road if you find that your male to female ratio is too high.

Hope that helps.

[RD.]

BTW - if you decide that you really want to keep the Chimba's, that may work out fine as well, but I would still add the 5 duboisi, and remove the cyps.

Tropheus tend to work best in large numbers, to help spread the aggression around.

[African_Fever]

Or try to add more Chimba's to get the group sizes even. From what I've read and heard from others, they should be ok to keep and breed together. Neil's right on the large numbers, but when we were at Don's a couple weeks back he actually had equal males and females in a couple of his colonies, and I think even more males in others as well. It definitely shocked me!

If you're needing someone to 'look after' your Cyps for you, I know of a 120 that they could live in! Good luck keeping the Cyps with the Tropheus (if you decide to), I've never heard of it done before due to the boisterous behaviour of the Tropheus.

[rahim101]

I posted in cichlids-forum a while back and quite a ew people told me that cyps and tropheus make good tank mates, they seem fine now as the cyps are quite a bit bigger them the tropheus.

I think I'll add 5 more duboisi and see where I go from there. I'd like to add more chimba's, but these were hard enogh to find and at the right price (about $2.00 each average!!! ($13.00 for 6) But if you know anyone that has more, I am interested!!!!!

Thanks for the advise...

Cheers,

Rahim

[RD.]

Kyle - Keep in mind that Don also wasn't having as much success in breeding as he would like to have, and his larger tanks were 130 gallons, not a 90 like Rahim is using. It will be interesting to see what happens in his new experiment with the smaller tanks.

[RD.]

I posted in cichlids-forum a while back and quite a ew people told me that cyps and tropheus make good tank mates

... did these people have their cyps & tropheus mixed in a 4 ft 90 gallon tank?

[rahim101]

Some said they did!!!!

[RD.]

I'm not saying it's impossible, just saying that I wouldn't do it.

BTW - often when I read responses on C-F, I check the persons tank specs and/or ask them how long they've had this set up. Many times I see people stating that they have NO aggression problems in their 55 gallon mixed (with 6 species of Mbuna) and recoomend their recipe for disaster to anyone ignorant enough to listen, and when I look closer, their fish are all under 3 inches.

Everything works well when Africans are small juveniles, it's when they start to mature & breed that the sheet storms flare up.

[Speedy Magee]

I've found that duboisi are mostly agresive to each other...never had a problem with them and any other fish...I say add them! If it doesn't work out for you, then pull them.