yellow Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 ive pondered this recently whilst looking through the tropheus photo thread.why is is with so many tropheus keepers out there that you never see fry for sale in the classifieds section.as im not a keeper id just like to know the reason behind it is it because thier hard to breed?theres a market elsewhere(ie stores) or is thier another reason.just curious is all.any help appreciated thankyou jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colfish Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 hi Jason from my own perspective. i start with minimun numbers of young fish, and wait for them to grow. then just add them back to the colonies and let natural selection take it's course. so a short answer, i'm still building numbers. but i know a lot of these fish seem to find new addresses privately cheers; C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropheusQueen Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I also build numbers first so that my numbers are around 40-60 per colony. Now we have the room and tanks, it is my plan to have split colonies of all the variants I keep So initially numbers go back into the colony, as do hopefully other bloodlines I can find - usually from interstate. As each mouthful ranges from only 5-20 fry it can be slow going for a while. From then on in the sales are private ones - I ship interstate predominantly - and with some variants have numbers booked on future mouthfuls - have had no need yet to advertise or to sell at auction HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoliroMan Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 it is easy to keep tropheus but it is damn hard to keep them productive! Those who do have constant mouthfuls that hold to term, they may get 20-50 fry per 6 weeks at a maximum! And these are people who strip there tropheus. As mentioned before, each female will have on average 10 fry per mouthful which isn't much. Very often the fry take almost 2 months to grow to 3cm for them to be sold. If u sell them on the forum, very often there isn't much interest due to people being a bit hesitant about forking out a few hundred dollars for a colony of tropheus that may all die from bloat! So to answer your question, u must luv them to keep them because there is not much in terms of monetary return on these little buggers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I think that it is because that anyone that is looking for tropheus usually finds someone that is selling them, and they get sold long before there is any need to advertise them.. as an example i have someone interested in some fry of mine that wont be ready for atleast 3 months... Also you will find that other tropheus breeders that know other tropheus breeders will do a lot of sales to each other. Also as mentioned the tropheus bug is only really starting to catch on i feel so not a lot of people producing good numbers of fry yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheebee77 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Hey Yelow ! Tropheus are a beautiful fish and i have found in my own travels that they are very very very hard to get a hold of ! i have been trying now for 6 months and still i can't get the fish that i want because the lfs are way over the top in prices and most of the breeders are building there colonies or don't have any fry available. I don't think i have every seen any fry on any classifieds in QLD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellow Posted March 2, 2006 Author Share Posted March 2, 2006 thanks for the response guys ive always wondered why it was youve put my mind at ease. also build numbers first so that my numbers are around 40-60 per colony aline why so many is it to level out aggression, becasuse of thier low production rate you need that many to be able to breed decent numbers or simply personal preference.aslo one more for you all how long does it take before they become sexually active is that a factor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
parrdog Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I would say atleast 2 years before they are active. It takes longer than that before they produce larger broods. A normal brood size at around 2 years is about 4 fish. Ofcourse there are exceptions to the rule according to sexual maturity and brood sizes. Those that have have fish that are about 5 years and older get brood sizes of 10 to 15 bubs. Remember that these numbers are approximations. Jamie. Ps I am also someone who is increasing their colony size before putting fry on the market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I tried for months to get rid of my Nkonde fry. Nobody seemed to want them, But sorry they are all sold now. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 But sorry they are all sold now. and lovin' their new surrounds Andrea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropheusQueen Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 aline why so many is it to level out aggression, becasuse of thier low production rate you need that many to be able to breed decent numbers or simply personal preference.aslo one more for you all how long does it take before they become sexually active is that a factor ← Firstly because they look spectacular when they are full grown with those numbers secondly the aggression is almost down to nil with that many and thirdly yes - to be able to have sufficient females holding to maintain fry numbers. IME I have found species black 12 - 15 months before they hold to term and moorii 18 months to two years Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr troph Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I must have been lucky my first moliro holding held to term but unfortunately only produced one fry. The second one holding a much lager female spat or swallowed the eggs on her first attempt however is again holding and looks ready to spit at any moment fingers cross. They are close to 2years old. So I geuss you have to be really patient. My original Duboisi colony sacame to the dreaded bloat shortly after being added to there Tank which hadn't been cycled very long. I don't like to talk about it but have learnt a hard lessen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Ok give you an idea i have some kachese fry, still only 7 weeks old( from spwan) they are about 1cm now, wont be ready for 3months yet, and are now on hold for someone.. .pheebee ...now i just have to keep em alive, but hey are enjoying the company of 30 lil dubosisi fry aswell, and 15 brevis, 19 magara,7 dolphins, 11 leptos blah blah On the topic of mouthfulls i find that ( no comments about my practices please ) if stripped the day after spawning my 2.5y/old, 10cm duboisi will have ~11 eggs, if i wait 2 weeks there are ~7.....of the 11 i strip there is maybe 8 that will survive to lil fishes. these guys spwan ~every 5 weeks, one one week and the other fem the next week. duboisi are my best colony, fry wise and i have 3, 1m, 2f whats left of 33.......damm that bloat My (21) kiriza are 2 years old ~8-9cm no spawns yet, My second hand Kachese colony (31 fish)could be ~4-5years old and i have after 2 yeras finally got one fem that spwans , she is about 11cm+ and holds to 3 weeks when i grab her and remove 10/12 lil fishes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.