[THEnelsonbruhs]

Fellow tropheus keepers, what foods have you fed your fish (I’m referring to brands)? Which foods do you think are best for fast growth and good coloration?

I have a pretty successful tropheus duboisi colony right now, (juveniles) but I’m new so I have a lot of questions. Right now I’m feeding Northfin pellets with some generic spirulina flakes. I’m not adding any vitamins or anything.

also, I can’t get my fish to eat romaine lettuce or spinach unless I chop it up really fine. Any advice to get them to eat it? They’re about 1.5” juveniles right now

 

[sir_keith]

I don't think brands are all that important: I've used Ken's, OSI, and AF spirulina flakes over the years, and not seen any difference as far as the fishes are concerned. I also feed them 1mm NLS AlgaeMax pellets periodically, but have not experimented with other brands.

I do believe that fresh greens are an important part of the Tropheus diet in captivity, and all my Tropheus colonies get large leaves of Romaine lettuce 1-2x per week. But you are correct- Tropheus have to learn to eat lettuce leaves. I tether 1-2 large Romaine leaves under the tank cover, stand back, and watch the feeding frenzy! It's quite impressive. The trick is to get one or two fishes to try the tender edges of the leaves, and the other fishes will soon get the hang of it. Interestingly, they even seem to learn from other Tropheus that are an an adjacent tank.

In the absence of other fishes to teach them how to eat lettuce leaves, the most effective strategy to get them to try the lettuce is tough love- just don't feed them for a few days, then offer them a lettuce leaf. Sooner or later, they'll figure it out.

Two caveats- (1) It is much more difficult to get Tropheus juveniles to eat lettuce than young adults; they just aren't strong enough to do all the tearing. (2) I don't keep T. duboisi, so this is just hearsay, but it seems that T. duboisi are much less interested in eating lettuce than other Tropheus species. Perhaps others who have first-hand experience with this will chime in.

Have fun with your Tropheus!


Tropheus annectens Mabilibili-

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[Florida Chester]

Not sure if it is the best, but Sera makes an African Cichlids pellet for veggie eaters called Granugreen Nature. Has a very good ingredient list. I don’t have any tanks setup currently for Tropheus so I don’t have first hand knowledge of it, but I would try it if I did.

 

[sir_keith]

Sera makes good products, but they are manufactured in Germany. Nothing wrong with that, but with supply chain issues being what they are these days, and with Tropheus not appreciating changes in their diets, I'd stick with something closer to home. New Life Spectrum is an established, premium brand made in FL.