Tropheus `The Good, the Bad and the Ugly`

Tropheus ‘The Good, the
Bad and the Ugly’
By Phil Maznyk KWAS
According to Peter Schupke the well
known author of the Aqualog
publication ‘African Cichlids II
Tanganyika 1 Tropheus’, the genus
Tropheus encompasses 6 currently
known species. T. annectens, T.
brichardi, T. duboisi, T. kasabae,
T.moorii and T. polli. They are all
endemic to Lake Tanganyika. All 6
Tropheus species have roughly the
same shape and are about 3.5 to 4.5
inches (9 to 12 centimetres) in length.
A few variants have a slightly
elongated body where the vast
majority are somewhat more round.
Before I took the plunge into keeping
Tropheus I had successfully kept and
bred several species of Mbuna from
Lake Malawi and had also successfully
kept Cyphotalapia Frontosa also from
Lake Tanganyika.
My research on Tropheus led me down
two completely different paths as I’m
sure many others have found out or
will find out. Some made these fish out
to be one of the most difficult and
demanding of all Cichlids to keep while
others said they were relatively quite
easy to keep given you follow a few
basic guidelines. Some people even
called keeping Tropheus was like
‘joining the dark side’. Fortunately a
few acquaintances of mine were
already keeping several different
species of Tropheus so naturally I felt
their input would be invaluable.
Why was I drawn to try Tropheus?
Perhaps the challenge of being
successful was a factor, but the real
reason was their incredible interaction
with both each other and their
keepers. Anyone who has ever
witnessed a large colony (over 25 of
the same species) will surely agree.
There really is nothing quite like it.
Tropheus of all species are so
incredibly active. They are on the go
all day long. From the moment the
tank light comes on until dark they are
constantly on the search for food,
moving substrate, chasing each other
around the tank and of course the
males are forever showing off for the
females in the hopes of spawning.
I knew I had the right sized tanks to
house a few large colonies, our local
water was very hard and quite high in
PH and my ability to mimic their
natural habitat in my aquarium was a
given as Aquascaping comes naturally
to me and is something I really enjoy.
I honestly feel like many others that
we should really try and mimic the
fishes natural habitat regardless of
whether they are wild caught or not.
Now the only difficult decisions were
what species would I try? And could I
find a large enough group without
breaking my budget. Everything I read
and even my friends said that I should
begin with the species Duboisi.
Why Duboisi? First for whatever
reason perhaps even genetic the
Duboisi species are reputed as being
the most docile of all the Tropheus
species. Second there just happened
to be a reputable breeder/importer
who had dealt with my friends and he
was willing to sell a colony of 32 first
generation Duboisi sp. ‘maswa’ for a
reasonable price. Watching the
transformation from juvenile to adult
is something to behold in this species.
Fry and young juveniles of the species
Duboisi have a dark black body that is
adorned with brilliant white dots from
the tip of their nose all the way to
their tail. They are truly a beautiful
fish to look at. Many a fish keeper has
said if only the fish could retain this
look they would keep nothing but
Duboisi. Knowing what the adult fish
looked like had me really looking
forward to watching the
transformation as my colony matured.
Juvenile Tropheus sp. duboisi ‘maswa’
showing brilliant black body with
pearlescent white dots – photo by Matt
Mannell
Sub adult Tropheus sp. duboisi ‘maswa’
showing the turquoise blue face and black
body with yellow band almost formed –
photo by Matt Mannell
large pieces of Dolomite rock which is
composed of Calcium and Limestone to
the tank. Using 3 of them to build a
larger central structure and another 2
were used as corner pieces. This rock
helped bring the PH up to 8.6 which is
perfect for species from Lake
Tanganyika. I then added two small
artificial silk plants strictly for my own
visual appeal. The water was brought
up to about 78 degrees Fahrenheit or
26c, Seachem Cichlid Lake salt and
minerals were added to more or less
duplicate the chemistry of Lake
Tanganyika. I have found that diluting
this 50/50 with fine sea salt works
excellent and helps keep the cost
reasonable.
This 90 gallon tank was filtered by 3
canister filters giving me a total of
about 600gals/per hour of filtration.
Tropheus love clean water and
absolutely thrive in it. Lighting was a
simple dual 36 inch fixture with 6700K
natural daylight bulbs. The shorter
light kept the centre of the tank
brightly lit while the ends were
somewhat subdued. I’d found this
setup to work very well on my
previous Frontosa tank. My goal was
to have the lighting produce some
natural algae for the Tropheus to
graze on during the day. Leaving the
lights on for about 8 hrs a day made
sure this would happen. Tropheus of
all species are natural grazers of
algae. Their mouths have evolved to
do an excellent job of this.
Adult Tropheus sp. Duboisi ‘maswa’
showing the dark turquoise face with spot
and the dark black body with yellow band –
photo by Phil Maznyk
Once I had made up my mind I wasted
little time in preparing their new home
for their arrival. The 90 gallon tank
measuring 48L x 18W x 24H tank had
a layer of white sand about 1 inch
deep for substrate. I then added 5
90 gallon tank Duboisi tank – photo by Phil
Maznyk
As soon as the fish arrived I placed the
thirty-two juvenile Duboisi into their
new home and from that very moment
these fish had such charm it was hard
to resist getting more. Feeding them a
very strict diet of high quality
vegetable flake and doing large forty
percent weekly water changes, these
fish were thriving. Then suddenly
without warning a few months after
they had been in their new tank I
noticed one of the fish was not eating
but swaying slowly from side to side.
Thankfully my previous research into
Tropheus told me I was dealing with
the Tropheus keeper’s worst
nightmare, Bloat.
It is vitally important to really pay
attention to your colony especially at
feeding time. A call to a good friend of
mine had him over to medicate the
water and their food while I waited for
my own supply of Metronidazole to
arrive. While I lost five fish over the
course of the next week the remaining
27 are with me today and I’m happy
to say doing extremely well. They no
longer are kept in a 90 gallon tank but
have been moved into a 6 foot long
110 gallon tank shown below.
My colony of 27 Tropheus sp. duboisi
‘maswa’ happy in their new 110 gallon long
tank. – photo by Phil Maznyk
Watching the Duboisi evolve and grow
into mature adults was such a treat I
decided to try another species. This
time it was a colony of 26 adult
Tropheus sp. moorii 'Bulu Point' more
commonly known as ‘Cherry Spots’.
Adult Tropheus sp. Bulu Point showing
their black body with 2 large cherry red
patches – photo by Matt Mannell
My research showed this species to be
much more aggressive than the
Duboisi however the breeder whom
had kept them for a few years found
them to be a fairly easy going group
and not to hard on each other. This
was enough of a teaser for me and so
the purchase was made. I spent a
week preparing their new tank this
time a 110 gallon long measuring 72L
x 18W x 18H. Once again fine sand
and several very large pieces of
Dolomite were added to bring the PH
up to 8.6 and the water was treated
with Seachem Cichlid salt diluted 50
percent with fine sea salt. This tank
was filtered by two very large canister
filters and a large HOB filter and two
400gal/per hour power heads were
used to move water around the much
longer tank.
These fish seemed to know though
when they had enough. The loser
would always retreat, rest up get
better without being harassed and life
would go on in the community. What
we must not forget is that these
battles or fights are totally normal and
a part of a happy colonies normal
lifestyle.
110 gallon long tank housing 26 adult
Tropheus sp. Bulu Point - photo by
Phil Maznyk
To say these fish liked their new tank
was an understatement. Their color
was so intense at times it almost
looked like they were bleeding the red
was that pronounced. Several
successful spawns later I notice that
there was a single male who was
making a strong vie for dominance of
the tank. This male was relentless and
had staked his claim to the biggest
rock in the tank. I witnessed several
severe fights for this rock and this
single male would always come out on
top. If you ever look at a large colony
of Tropheus and see fish with very
white mouths sometimes even
showing shredded flesh in this area
you know there are dominance battles
taking place. Some of the battles in
my tank were so intense the 2
combatants would actually toss each
other up out of the water and land
several inches away. For some very
odd reason they really liked to do this
while I was changing their water.
Adult males Cherry Spots locked at the
mouth fighting at the top of the tank photos by Phil Maznyk
As I mentioned earlier there were
successful spawns in the tank and
there were about 20 fry living happily
amongst the adults. Not wanting to
setup another tank for them I decided
to trade all of them back to the
breeder where they came from and in
return I was going to try raising a
Tropheus who had captured my
interest a long time ago. This time it
would be Tropheus sp. ‘Pemba’. This
species had always caught my eye as
one of the most striking with its semi
elongated dark black body with a
brilliant wide diagonal orange band.
2 sub adults take a short break from
intense fighting. Note the white shredded
mouth on the fish in the left of the image.
– photo by Phil Maznyk
Tropheus sp. Pemba - photo by Matt
Mannell
A colony of 30 juveniles was moved
into the 110 gal long tank. From the
moment these fish were placed into
their new tank they were extremely
skittish. So much so that even
approaching the tank months later
they would scatter instantly amongst
the rock. Even when fed, where my
other Tropheus would literally knock
each other about for food, these guys
would be hiding amongst the rock and
only once I had left the immediate
area would they eat like normal
Tropheus do. I never really liked this
behaviour and would often try and
figure out what was so different about
this species that it would act like this.
Not only was this species the most
skittish I had ever kept but it was also
the most aggressive. As my colony
matured into beautiful sub-adults I
witnessed aggression so severe that
several fish had torn mouths, fins, gills
and even bruised bodies. As much as I
believe in the ‘Laws of Nature’ I had to
find a way to curb this kind of activity.
After several weeks of this intense
fighting a leader emerged. This new
‘Alpha’ male laid claim to the entire
tank and nobody was safe. Other
prospective males who thought they
could jostle with this fish were in for a
surprise. Unlike my other Tropheus
where once the battle was over life
went on somewhat peacefully, this fish
would purposely seek out and attack
his recovering victims. In a matter of 2
weeks I had lost 5 gorgeous subadults and I could see more losses on
the horizon. I knew something had to
be done and fast. First I tried a
complete new arrangement in the
tank. Often a new setup will upset the
balance of power as new territories
have to be formed within that tank.
Sometimes this throws off the balance
of power and things can return to
some form of peaceful co-existence.
In this case, it took this single Alpha
male about one day to assert his
dominance and for the terror to begin
all over again. Seeing this wasn’t
working I decided to remove every
rock in the tank. Not only did this look
terrible but the fish lost most of their
brilliant colours and were even more
skittish than before. I then looked into
purchasing more fish of the same size
and species in the hopes of crowding
the tank but my supplier was dealing
with an unknown health problem with
his own Pemba tank. It was at this
time that I decided, sadly the sp.
Pemba was not for me and they were
going back to the breeder. And so
today, I am left with only one colony
of Tropheus. My Tropheus sp. Duboisi
‘maswa’ who’s antics never seem to
grow dull. These fish love to play in
the tank, they great me each and
every single time I am near them.
Having kept only a few species of
Tropheus has taught me a lot. I am far
from an expert but I have learned an
awful lot. Are they the hardest and
most difficult fish to keep? In my
opinion no they are not. Challenging
yes, difficult at times absolutely, but
then again so are many other species.
I believe the pros far outweigh the
cons when it comes to keeping this
very special fish. Given the proper
care and patience the Tropheus of
Lake Tanganyika can give you many
years of enjoyment.
Special thanks to Matt Mannell for
his photography and to Brad
Hodkinson for his help obtaining
the stock.