Tropheus holding

[elise007]

Hi,

My colony of Maswas is just getting up to the breeding stage and at present i have about 4 or 5 females holding.

They seem to hold for ever, i actually stripped one the other week and the 3 babies were about 1.5cm long, they were the largest fry in a fishs mouth than i had ever seen, these were Frontosa fry size.

The females seem to actually be sucking in food at feeding time and must i guess be feedign the babies in their mouth. As this is their first spawnings and they are young fish should i just let them continue this way or should i strip them do you think?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Mark

[Luke]

I just put the females in fry savers in the tank and let them spit the fry in there, then just put them back in the colony . I have not had any probs doing it this way as the rest of the colony can still see the fish in the fry savers and don't attack them when you release them back into the the tank .

Luke

[phillip]

hello

recently in the last week i had my first batch of tropheus fry. I decided to strip them after long waits, previously my females have been holding but didn't seem to hold longer than 1week or 2 so i decided to strip them at 13 days. I have 7 tropheus bemba frys and i am happy since this is my first. The fry are not small they are actually double the size of my e.yellow fry which are 1 week older.

However i still do intend to let them hold but its just a couple of the females which never have the determination to keep holding. My tropheus are still young and have many years ahead of them

imho i would consider you to let the female hold after a couple of spawning and see how well she does. If she isn't successful in the next couple of spawning i think you should start to strip her at about 13 days or so.

[YeW]

I know a lot of Tropheus breeders allow their females simply to spit in the tank with the adults.

As long as their is plenty of rocks this seems to be very successful and keeps the stress down on the females.

HTH -

[Mazimbwe]

The Tropheus should eat with a mouthfull...they are not like mbuna.

Just make sure to add some smaller bits of food so she can eat easily, plus the fry in her mouth can feed when they are developed enough.

As YeW has said, some rocks. I have mine placed in a small pile where the food can drift over it and i have small rocks in the pile so the adults/sub-adults can't get in there. The idea is that the females will spit into the rocks and hang around...the fry should be accepted into the group.

HTH

[elise007]

Thanks for the info, yea think i might have to put in a few more rocks of smaller ones to creat piles.

My dominant male is starting to get quite aggressive and has half of a 4ft tank to himself almost at present.

Mark

[TropheusQueen]

G'day,

The ideal tank for Tropheus due to their natural habitat and to assist with their aggressive nature, is one filled from bottom to top with rock formation.

This makes it almost impossible to catch holding females without distressing the whole colony - not to mention the individual fish.

I allow my Tropheus females to spit their fry when ready, and yes they are already a decent size when this happens -largest brood so far 6. The rocks protect the fry and in a matter of days they are swimming and eating with the BIG fish.

The colony accepts them totally and it has been a delight to watch them grow.

Cheers

Aline

[Zam]

I have a colony of bemba and when they spawn I just let the females spit in the tank. So far haven't had any problems.

Last week one of the females spat and I now have 5 x 1cm tropheus fry happily swimming in between the rocks and eating well, in fact I have another mouthful which I watch spawn yesterday morning while having breakfast.

Anyway, I have mine is a standard 4ft, a little small I know, with rock piles at etiher end of the tank, the agression seems to be OK andthey are breeding so I am happy.

Cheers

Zam

[BengaBoy]

I find they hold about 28 days and they usually come out around 10mm. Sometimes they will then take them back into their mouth for up to a week if danger threatens.

Sometimes they might hold for upto a week longer. I have had them hold longer when they are new mums. Of course she might be releasing them when you are not around and then taking them back up when you approach. They also might hold them longer if there are not enough hiding spots ofr the fry.

99% of the time females eat quite well when holding. I have only had a few not eat at all when holding, and then that has been around days 3 – 12, they start eating a bit after that. It is usually the same females who don’t eat. I have one large Bulu Pt female who doesn’t eat most of the time she is holding and she only has 1, 2 or 3 fry – you cant even tell she has a mouthful until about day 24. She is very aggressive which is probably why she has small clutches - she cant concentrate on spawning without going off to biff someone. Most of the time she doesn’t hold full term because she is too busy fighting, but sometimes she does. I am hoping she will grow out of it – just a phase she is going through :D .

I soak the flake in a cup in some tank water because I find it sinks faster, and deeper, and this way holding females eat better – they are more reluctant to go the surface and they seem to prefer to eat on the horizontal. This way flake also gets down more readily to the free swimming fry, who will hide in the rocks for a week or so before being brave enough to hunt with the rat pack.

In my experince the fry are fully formed around day 21, so if you were to strip them earlier than that there would still be egg sac. At day 13 they would still be mostly egg, maybe just eyes and tail. If you do strip mulitple females don’t mix fry with egg sac with older fry because they will think egg sac is pretty yummy to nip on.

If you let the females release in the tank you need a lot of hiding places for fry. If you only ever have one or two females holding then not such a big deal. But make sure you have plenty of hiding places - the first thing a newly released fry wants to do is swim straight back into someone’s mouth, anyone’s mouth. Decide on how many hiding places you want to make and then triple that – that will give you some idea. Fry like to spread out once released – they are even territorial at that age. Putting holding females in a fry pen and letting them spit in there works fine, and you can just put the female back in with the colony when she has lost interest in protecting the fry. This works for me but I have large colonies. After a few weeks you can put the fry in with the colony or in their own grow out tank. If you have, for example, only 8 in your colony and you put 2 females in holding tanks for a week or two to release their fry, then adding 2 females back to the remaining 6 is problematic. In this case I would definitely be letting the females release in the tank. Chances are the 6 havent been getting on too well either.

Things I use for fry hide-outs in non-display tanks: I have a fish net full of coral pieces which I can drop into the tank and easily remove. Holey house bricks work ok-ish, but are more suited to juveniles than fry. I have a collection of limestone holey rock which is ideal. River stone/pebbles make lots of fry hide outs when stacked on each other, but troublesome to remove and clean – hence the fish net idea.

[anchar]

Hi,

I let my tropheus release into the tank and have never had probs with them being eaten. They get little nicks out of their finnage from time to time as they est. in the group, but nothing tragic. I also found that if your tank is top to bottom in rockwork (with the top allowing for shelves just below the lighting) the mothers release earlier. This is probably because the water is slightly warmer.

merjo

[Mbuna44]

Tropheus are Vegetarian. As long as there is only Tropheus in the tanks, let them spit in the tank.

[Mazimbwe]

hmmm...my tropheus didn't seem to vegetarian when they were eating the B/N fry that were spawned in their tank.

I think it is not true that T.'s are totally vegetarian...they are mostly vegetarian but they would eat any small crustacians and creatures that live in the divots, cracks and crevices that abound in a Tropheus paradise.

[BengaBoy]

Tropheus are Vegetarian.

Tropheus are opportunistic carnivores. They will eat pretty much anything you give them - of course it may kill them but they will eat it nonetheless. :o Officially I think they are classed as aufwuch feeders which means they graze the algal cover, picking up crustaceans along the way, as Maz pointed out.

if you have enough hiding places for fry then most T. colonies wont eat them, but sometimes Tropheus do become fry munchers. :

a mate has some Tropheus adults that will even jump into the fry pens for a feed. :rolleyes:

However most Tropheus wont eat Tropheus fry.

[oracle]

BengaBoy, I am currently trying to treat 3 of my bembas that appear to be suffering from bloat. I have tried the Metronidazole treatment listed on your website but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I am currently on the second treatment (3rd day) but have yet to see any improvement ie. 3 of them are still swaying around and refusing to eat. Is there something I am missing? :

[Gaz81]

Hi guys,

I am having a little trouble keeping the algae on the glass under control in my Tropheus tank. What do you guys do? Just keep cleaning it or can i keep cat fish in there to control it?

Thanx Gary

[raz7au]

bristlenose should cover that!

rey

[saudukar]

The Tropheus should munch on the algae all day long. Its good for them. Perhaps you just need to scrub the main viewing panel manually.

Adding another algae eating fish just might add food competition.

[BengaBoy]

Gaz: I have to clean my front glass at least once a week with a scrubber.

Oracle: Metro' is good but imho doesnt always work. Clout is better but only available overseas. Once I had Clout not work and Metro did and the disease was quite advanced by then. You can use Furan-2 with the Metro and I think this helps a lot. My understanding is the Metronidzle works on the parasite and the Furan on the secondary bacteria. You can buy Furan-2 here Aquaria Aust Warehouse

I think Nigel recommends Kanamycin and Metro' but I couldnt source any K in Aust.

good luck

[BengaBoy]

oh btw it is good to have some current in the hospital tank.

I know one bloke who makes em swim like crazy - not my idea tho'

[Jim]

Also like to add that metro added straight in the tank isnt very effective , metro is soluble in acetic / acid or in the acidity of the stomach...... most tropheus tanks are very alkaline.

Unless it is delivered to the fish in its food..... I have had good results soaking it in their flake with distiled water for 3-4 hours.

Dissolving metro in warm or hot water can lead to loss of antibiotic activity.

Like Steve has stated an antibiotic like furan or kanaplex is also needed for advanced stage of bloat to wipe out the secondary bacterial infection.

HTH

[oracle]

Jim and BengaBoy, thanks for the response. I didn't realise that the food has to be soaked for 3-4 hours as I have only been soaking them for about 15 minutes. I've got some Furan from before. I'll try that today when I get home. Thanks again.

[phillip]

goodluck with the treatment oracle.

It is best to find out what triggered the bloat before another outbreak like this occurs. You have any idea?

Also how many tropheus u keeping? with wat other fish? age? and wat food?

Its best to provide much info as possible and we will try to prevent this from happening again

[BengaBoy]

I didn't realise that the food has to be soaked for 3-4 hours as I have only been soaking them for about 15 minutes.

I have only personally used Metronidazole twice and the fish were not eating at all so it was no point soaking it in flake. One of the Tropheus recovered fully and it hadnt eaten for 4 weeks so I am assuming the Metro got into him somehow to some extent.

Are yours showing interest in the food Oracle?

ps: I think we have hijacked Mark's post :rolleyes:

[oracle]

philip I put in new bembas 2 weeks ago and changed the rocks around to reduce aggression (as suggested by Bengaboy's website). However a few days later, one of them refused to eat and the rest soon followed.. : I don't believe water parameter or food is an issue as I only feed them spirullina and religiously changed the water every week.

Bengaboy The 3 of them are sort of swaying around and not eating. The rest, as you know, are greedy as anything so I imagine they would be getting most of the medication. I'll do a 30% water change when I get home from work tonight and start the Furan-2 treatment. Hopefully it's not too late to save them.

Elise007 Sorry for hijacking your post. :D :

[Jim]

Oracle 15 min is not enough for the metro to absorb in the food , for their morning feeds i soak their food in it overnight.

I would defineatly start with the furan treatment , if u need any directions send me an email.

Good luck