[tsushima]

With a 180 gallon tank (6 x 2 x 2), I have decided to do a tropheus ikola tank.

I'm thinking I can do about 20-25 tropheus ikolas, but I would really like to keep other fish with them.

Some friends I have in mind are
4-6 julie regani
4-6 telmatochromis temporalis
8-10 eretmodus marksmithi.

As I believe they can all subsist on spirulina wafers and NLS 1 mm.

Would this combo work? Only the tropheus are must have, although the telmatochromis are second priority. This would mostly be a display tank although breeding will certainly be nice. Tropheus are definetely a priority and I'm a bit concerned the regani and temporalis may stress the trophs out or the trops may stress other fish out. I'm willing to strip fry from tropheus if the other fish get too good at fry killing

 

[sir_keith]

If you want to keep something in addition to the Ikola in this tank, why not another Tropheus species? This is contrary to conventional wisdom, but T. annectens and T. sp. Ikola occur sympatrically in the lake, and are only distantly related, so there is no issue with hybridization. I have been keeping a mixed colony of these for years, and it has been one of my favourite Tropheus tanks ever. Both species breed regularly, and their fry grow out in this tank without issue. There is no significant aggression between the Ikola and the annectens; if anything, they seem to have a calming effect on each other, because this tank is more mellow than either my Ikola-alone or annectens-alone colonies. Even T. brichardi, another distantly related species, and quite an aggressive one, tends to chill when kept with Ikola. Good luck!

 

[tsushima]

That is certainly an option! Great tank by the way. Just a random thought but the annectens kinda look like goby from this angle, probably because of the striping.