Tropheus 'bemba'

Cichlids - Rift Lake, lot number 191
Bred by this user

Tropheus fry about 3/4 inch long and ~2-3 months old from the tank shown in the video.  This lot will give you a great chance at being successful with these fish.

Why small fry and not 2" fish?  You'll get less aggression with smaller fish and they'll settle in to a pecking order in your tank.  If you introduce larger fish, they'll be more likely to kill each other.

I could make more by selling these in groups of 5 or 6, but more fish gives you a large enough group to spread out aggression.  Don't mix these with other fish, they deserve a tank by themselves.  (They'll cross with other tropheus and they don't get along with mbuna)

Put them in a large tank (75 gallons or bigger), feed them heavily with a spirulina-based flake food and they will start to breed in about 7-8 months.  Higher protein foods seem to result in larger batches of fry, so I supplement once or twice a week with other high-protein, low-fat foods.

I have never seen bloat with these fish.  Just make sure that most of their diet is green flake foods.  I feed Ken's tropheus lover's flake, but I've fed other stuff in the past and it's all about the same IMHO.

Pam Chin swears that the ratio of males to females doesn't matter, and this is probably true if you grow the group up together, but I made the mistake of splitting my colony a few years ago and they stopped breeding.  Once I vented mine (they're pretty easy) and set up a tank with ~3 males and ~15 females, they breed constantly.  I don't give my females a "rest" or "time out" from breeding, removing a fish from the colony removes it from the pecking order and it'll be killed if you reintroduce it.

These are a beautiful and very active cichlid that are very fun to watch, but then, these fish really need no introduction.  You know what they are and how amazing their behaviors are.  Their reputation as a difficult fish is undeserved -- just do the stuff described above and you'll have a happy colony in no time.

You will get at least 8 fish, probably a few more.  I'll get an exact count when I net them from the colony the day before the auction ends.


More information from youtube.com

Quantity:8
Seller:admin (All lots from admin)
Winner: $21 keltickoi
Ends:Oct. 23, 2025, 9:09 p.m.Ended
Location:VT: VFW Essex Junction
Views:39 views
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