[CichlidAdmin]

Ten Tips To Keeping Healthy Tropheus
by John N. Davidson

1. Change the water frequently. Tropheus need good water conditions. We have found that a 30% weekly water change helps maintain good water conditions and does not adversely affect our biological filters.
   
2. Feed them a Spirulina heavy diet. We feed out fish six times a day; four times daily we feed them Spirulina. The other two times we feed them a form of a Cichlid Flake. Yes, you can feed them other things like bloodworms, but why risk it?
   
3. Feed them frequently in small amounts. Feed your fish at your normal time, but feed them a smaller amount. Go back about 15 minutes later and do it again. Tropheus will eat until they have had too much to eat. They are fun to watch eat. I am sure you have heard stories of fish being lost because someone else was feeding their fish for them. I would guess that the person feeding the fish overfed them.
   
4. Keep Tropheus in large groups. Twelve fish at a minimum. It is easier for the dominant fish to pick on lesser Tropheus tank mates if there are fewer fish. The aggression cant be spread around unless you have enough fish.
   
5. Keep your Tropheus in a tank at least 48 inches long, preferably a 75 gallon tank or larger. The bigger the fish get, the more territory the dominant fish will require. A smaller tank does not allow the chased fish to have room to relax. Eventually the dominant fish will do serious injury or kill the lesser tank mates.
   
6. Keep Tropheus only with very similar fish, if you must keep them with any other fish. Similar means diet and digestion. Eretmodus is a good example. Keeping Tropheus with Frontosa can be done, but their diet is very different. I wonder if keeping Tropheus with dissimilar types of fish contributes to the problem with Bloat.
   
7. Bore your fish. Dont create any stress on the fish. Change the water the same day of each week and in the same amount each time. Try to turn your light on and off at the same time each day. Feed them the same food sequence each time you feed them. Do the same thing all the time every time.
   
8. Watch your Tropheus every time you feed them. Treating non-eating fish is much easier if you catch it early.
   
9. Be careful when you introduce new Tropheus to your tank. You can add Tropheus to your tank. The best way we have found is to add them at night, last thing, turn off the lights, and cover that tank for24 hours.
   
10. If you have a hyper aggressive fish in the tank, put it in Time Out. We will put a hyper aggressive fish in a breeder net if the chasing is getting to be too much. Leave it there for a few days. Tropheus have a social order in their tank and this shakes it up. When you reintroduce the aggressive fish the order does not always go back to the way it was. You can sometimes create a calmer tank this way.