Lake Tanganyika Species • Adding Tropheus to an exhisting colony

[SuperD]

Hello. New here. I saw this question answered on this forum way back in 2010 and am sure its been asked before. Here it goes. I setup my 75 gallon tank a year ago with 12 tropheus, 6 duboisi and 6 moorii. Yes, I know that is not enough now. It was my first time with tropheus. Early on 4 of the duboisi died. The remaining 8 have been thriving for the last year. I have a simple setup with sand and lava rock. I will be setting up a new tank for them and thought this might be my best chance to add more tropheus to the existing colony. So my question is, can I add more? And if so, how can I make sure its as painless as possible?

Thanks ahead of time!

[sir_keith]

The simplest solution is to add juveniles to your existing colony. If the adults don't see them as threats to their position in the social hierarchy, they really won't fuss with them. Once the juvies grow up, their position in the hierarchy will have already been established, so there should be no more than the usual amount of intraspecific aggression.

You don't mention which particular Tropheus populations you are keeping. T. duboisi are generally pretty mellow, but T. moorii vary considerably from one population to another. Good luck!

[SuperD]

Thanks for the reply Keith! I am keeping 6 moorii and 2 duboisi. The funny thing is the alpha in the tank is the big duboisi. I am looking to add about a dozen more duboisi juvi's.