Tropheus Duboisi maswa

[Meredith]

Hey

Do i need to use salts or buffers to keep these little guys.

Meredith

[MoliroMan]

The short answer is "yes" if u want to keep them healthy!

U can either use homemade recipes or u can use Seachem products which i have been using for years and my tropheus r very happy for it!

The below recommendations r from talking to others who have kept tropheus successfully such as Nigel and Jim. U must decide whether u want to follow these or not. The most important thing is to adhere to the regular water changes and u should be fine.

Seachem Cichlid Lake Salt:

1 teaspoon per 20 L.

Seachem Tangyanika Buffer:

1 teaspoon per 10L.

This should keep your pH 8.5 - 9.0 and kH 16 - 18 depending on your tap water so the key is to check and adjust accordingly. It is also a lot more than what the manufacturer recommends. Note the buffer is the one that affects kH (carbonate hardness). The salt gH (general hardness). KH is more important than gH.

Also note that the above recommendations try to mimic the actual conditions of Lake Tangyanika which may be less important for F1 or tank bred tropheus but more so for wildcaught. They r also idea conditions for promoting breeding.

HTH

Dave

[Meredith]

Hey

Where can i get the seachem salt and tanganyika buffer from

Meredith

[MoliroMan]

U can buy it from most LFS in Sydney. I don't know about Newcastle though. Our sponser FISH4U sells it. If u can make a trip to Sydney, Trans aquarium in Canley vale sells it cheap. But i would recommend u buy it in bulk if u plan on keeping Tropheus long-term. They come in 1kg , 5kg and 20kg.

hth

Dave

Hey

Where can i get the seachem salt and tanganyika buffer from

Meredith

←

[Meredith]

Hey

How often do you add it.

Meredith

[TropheusQueen]

Hi Meredith,

Tried to reply to your last PM, on this matter, but your mail box is full.

Cheers

Aline

[MoliroMan]

I do weekly water changes of 50% water volume so for a 4 by 2 by 2 tank i will do 200L per week which equates to 20 tsp of buffer and 10 tsp of salt per week. This is the optimal situation but i am not suggesting u absolutely need to change that much water per week. I know people who have kept tropheus alive with much less water changes but would u risk doing that?

[Mazimbwe]

Totally agree with Dave about the amount of water % changed each week. There are plenty of other people who keep their Tropheus in different conditions and use a different regime...the question is would feel happy doing that?

Same applies to the buffer & Salt...there are plenty of peep's who don't use it and are happy and so are their fish. I am not one of those people but I am also not as regimented as others are, and as I should probably be. When I change 50% of the tank water I whack in a couple of heaped teaspoons of salt and the next day I add 1tsp-heaped of buffer(note the Seachem measurements are much different to other buffers & salts). Not scientific and I test the water for GH & KH every now and then whe I feel like it and keep it at a pretty stable rate despite my roughness. Not perfect but it works for me.

HTH